Baja	Other Courses: Denali | Spanish Immersion | Lake Clark

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Course Dates
Course 1: April 14-29, 2009
Course 2: April 30-May 15, 2009

Unable to attend the field course? Enroll in our curriculum only option.

Students enroll by fall, 2007.  They receive the coursework and begin independent study in the fall semester.  After studying at home during fall and spring of the 07/08 school year, they will be ready for the field course.

This field course is 16 days long. The first day is spent picking up students from the airport and getting everyone gathered at the meeting place in Anchorage. Late that night, we will fly to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico which is in the state of Baja California Sur.  From there, a private van shuttle service will bring us directly to our hotel in La Paz 2 hours away.

We will spend two nights in La Paz.  With our time there, we will relax from the red-eye flight, explore La Paz and get oriented for our kayaking field course.  We meet up with our guiding company who will provide all the kayaks, group camping gear, food, support boat, naturalist and crew.  This company, Mar Y Aventuras, is a well-established company out of La Paz co-owned by an American woman and a Mexican man.  You can read more about them at their website.  Classroom with a View will send a complete group of instructors, but we are fortunate to also have a crew from their company, including a naturalist who knows the local ecology very well.

On the morning of day three we will head out to the island.  At that point our 10 days on the island begin!  We will start with a safety orientation and kayak instruction.  Soon after that we will be anxious to go for a paddle, explore the desert on foot or put on our masks and fins and see firsthand all these critters we've read about at home.

Over the course of the 10 days on the island, we will kayak from bay to bay, moving our camp as we go.  We will stay at some camps for more than one night.  We will spend most of our time on the west side of the island.  However, if weather and seas permit, we will circumnavigate the island and spend a couple days on the east side where sheer cliffs drop into the sea and you can paddle through arches and caves.

Our days will be spent kayaking, hiking, snorkeling and taking advantage of every opportunity to learn while we have a great time.  As we go we will incorporate presentations given by students and lessons given by instructors and the naturalist.  For example, in the morning after breakfast, an instructor may lead a lesson about desert plants and their adaptations to survive with little water.  During a lunch break, a student may give a presentation on dolphin echolocation.  While on a hike we may do a team building activity.  Throughout the field course we will also take advantage of all the teachable moments that make this a dynamic, hands-on, real-life classroom like stopping to watch a fiddler crab, talking about phosphorescence when we see the waves light up at night or coaching the student-leader to facilitate a group decision.

There are also many lessons built into the structure of the course.  Each day, under the supervision of the instructors, two students are leaders responsible for our schedule, group decisions, group welfare, our route and more.  We believe in empowering students with the information and then giving them opportunities to master leadership skills, outdoor skills and naturalist skills by actually doing them.  Woven into the format of the course, we model and teach values such as teamwork, trust, honesty, integrity, respect, and friendship.

After 10 days on the island, we will return to La Paz and spend three nights there.  We will have 2 full days to rest and explore this small city as a group and go out to eat.  The next morning we will fly home.

“The organization of CWAV amazes me. The instructors work superbly with situations as they occur.”
- Parent, Baja '06

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