¿¿¿¿¿Ecuador or Oregon????

I am loving life here in Ecuador. There is so much hiking to be had - on the coast, in the mountains, in and around volcanoes, in forests etc. Ecuador as well as Oregon have so many outdoor adventures and I am truly soaking as much up as possible!
As I start my fifth month down here in South America, I have had several reminders of my home state. I am truly grateful for the reminders of what a great place I live in. I have met a few people from Oregon, in the book I just finished - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - the author and his son are on a motorcycle road trip across the states and they drive through Oregon. I loved being reminded of the beautiful parts of my home state - eastern Oregon, Bend, LaPine, Klamath, Crater Lake etc.
This past week out at Alto Choco, we continued to build some mud walls on the kitchen which led to a huge mud fight and then a dip in the river to wash off. We also planted over 100 plants at the local hot springs in exchange for some food and a soak. I am continuing to work with a boy who has Syndrom de Downs. It is really fun. He is 13 years old and we are working on his writing skills - he can now write 3 letters of his name together.
Over the weekend, I went on another group trip with students from the University in Quito. We went to Laguna Quilota - another caldera volcano. It was quite beautiful with the water a beautiful green color. We saw several rainbows. After the hike down to the water, it started to rain and it rained for the next 3 or 4 hours as we backpacked to our campsite. It was rain very similar to Oregon - steady and not too heavy. It cleared up just in time for us to set up camp thank gosh. We then took a trip into "town". About 25 - 30 of us went and it was hilarious!! The town ended up being a few buildings with one store which was closed. One of the guides knocked on the window and the owners ended up opening the store, provided refreshments and even wheeled out their entertainment center with a boom box for music. They had 2 boys ages 5 and 8 years old who were racing amongst all - wearing a mask from the movie Scream and trying to scare us. It was really quite funny. We had an hour or 2 of entertainment in the local convenient store. The next day we hiked 3 hours to the next town and took a bus back through these highlands. Gosh it was gorgeous!!! On the bus, we ended up having a dance party in the aisle and in the front of the bus - great fun! Some of us were doing flips using the handrails, others dancing in pairs and the rest all in the aisle boogeying down to some great Cumbia music and of course some Reggaeton - the popular music down here.
I forgot my camera so will add some more pictures later.