Michelle Yates wrote this student report her senior year. Michelle now attends Colorado College.
Futaleafu, Chile
March 7, 2007
You can study by fire in Chile.
As light creeps into the cabins of each student at seven o’clock in the morning, someone calls loud and clear over the camp, “Time for morning workout!” Each student rolls out of their cocoon of a warm sleeping bag and pads out of their bamboo cabin to the meeting place on top of a grassy hill. The coaches, David Hughes and Scott Wootten wait there to start morning workout.
Shivering, everyone is quiet with a spell of sleep still caught in their half-open eyes as they start the strengthening workout. Everyone lays out their sleeping pads on the ground as they go through the ‘21-Gun Solute’. This involves completing twenty-one push-ups followed by twenty-one crunches, and this number decreases by two for each succeeding set, meaning that eighteen push-up follow with eighteen crunches, etc. After the 21-Gun Solute comes the ‘Kane Abs’ workout which involves multiple sets of crunches, obliques, and bicycles.
The workout is not over yet, the students complete sets of pull-ups and dips before finishing the workout with a short yoga routine led by Scott. Energized, the students bound down the hill again to the river below. Breakfast is being served in the large quincho, which is a large sheltered cooking and eating area with a fire pit nestled right outside. Daniela, the hired cook and new friend, serves out large spoonfuls of oatmeal, complete with banana and apples pieces, to the students and staff. As the school devours the breakfast, Mark Przybysz often starts or tends the fire while others huddle around for some extra warmth. Every student has donned some sort of Chilean woolen garb; Cael Jones is often seen sporting a wool poncho and gloves, while Sara Hunter wears her wool socks under Chaco sandals.
After school you can go kayaking in South America.
After breakfast, students hurry to their cabins once again for their books and materials for the school day and arrive back just in time for first period. Classes commence on picnic tables, benches or around the hot embers of the fire. A chatter of Spanish comes from the Spanish class taught by Claire Dibble while Mark explains exponents and trigonomic functions on the other side of the dining area. As first period comes to a close the morning sun crawls over the hill toward the camp. The photography and video classes take advantage of this light and choose to take a half an hour after first period for shooting, editing, and discussing photography and video. The high rocky faces and emerald green water of the Futaleafu create a breathtaking backdrop for these classes to take advantage of.
By the time twelve-thirty comes around and the sun is beating down high over head, Daniela has a large pot of steaming vegetable soup prepared for the group, complete with squash, peas, carrots, and other native Chilean vegetables. Students relax and eat their lunch while joking with each other and discussing the afternoon’s river run. After lunch students just have two more classes to complete until the bell rings (in a metaphorical sense) and school is out for the day.
Pulling a three dimensional sculpture of kayaks and paddling gear behind, a van pulls out of Cara del Indio campground’s driveway at approximately three o’clock. The shuttle brings all eleven students and two to three teachers to the put-in for the Puente a Puente section of the Futaleafu. The students laugh and wrestle as they quickly don their gear for the river. They put on the river at a large eddy directly below a bridge where locals peer down to watch as the students begin their warm-up process. No more than a quarter mile downstream is an extreme play feature called Pistola, a wave that is perfect for initiating blunts and other play boating moves. The students spend a considerable amount of time here throwing moves while others shoot photographs and video. The rest of the run consists of huge wave trains and eddy lines complete with whirlpools.
After completing the run, students and teachers change out of their wet paddling gear at the take-out where the shuttle vehicle waits to transport them back to Cara del Indio. It is about seven o’clock by the time everyone arrives back at camp. Ben Sutton and Mark have most likely started a fire for warm showers for when students return. The delicious odors of pasta sauce permeate throughout the camp. At seven-thirty Daniela announces in a small voice, “La cena está lista,” and the students run over like a pack of sheep to fill their bowls full of delicious pasta for dinner. Students and teachers spend the next forty-five minutes relaxing by the fire chattering amongst each other about the day or upcoming events.
The scratching of pens on paper and the natural hum of the wild are the only sounds to be heard as students work hard on completing homework during their study hall period. This hour-long period is provided for students to finish any assignments given by teachers during the day. Students are required to work for the entire period; if one completes all of their homework early they are expected to do an academically related activity for the duration of the time. For example, Sara is currently in the midst of Catch 22, which she reads whenever she finds some extra free time.
At nine fifteen, study hall ends and students are free to do as they please for the next forty-five minutes. Many choose to listen music, edit video, or simply relax. Morgan Tidd is often found writing in her journal or creating poetry at this time of the evening. By ten o’clock everyone is expected to be in their cabins, and the lights are required to be out by ten-thirty. Everyone falls asleep in their individual seven by three foot cabanas listening to the sounds of the river below, the wind through threes, and the rustle of animals in the night.
Learn how you can apply to New River Academy’s Chile and Mexico semesters.
