Missoula's flight connections have improved so much since I first flew to Ecuador that I arrived in Quito in just 13 hours versus the 20+ it used to take! Betty and Marcelo met me at the airport with big smiles and hugs. They just finished building their new home, I'm staying with them for the first time, rather than at a hotel. I've …

After a relaxing breakfast where Betty made sure to serve my favorite tropical fruit juice - maracuya - Marcelo and I load into his van and head out. We pick up Jascivan, our outfitter for the trek, and a couple guys to help along the way. Once we get out of Quito, the concrete buildings quickly drop out of site, and the high paramo stretches into …

We get up at the crack of dawn, eat a breakfast of toast, jam, scrambled eggs and juice and get on our way. An hour drive brings us to the trail head and we begin what is essentially Day 2 of our trek in the Ecaudor Adventure program. The landscape is from another world. We're at over 12,000 feet above sea level, and wispy clouds cover and …

Today we hike along the edge of the lake until meeting up with a couple of jeep tracks. As we follow the jeep tracks, we descend from the high altitude paramo toward the lush green cloudforest around Papallacta. The temperature warms each hour till we're all stripped down to t-shirts and sweating a bit. The last mile to the hotsprings we hike …