Standing on the same bed and breakfast patio on Day 21 that we started at on Day 1, a surreal feeling was vocalized amongst the group. We would be heading back to the States in less than 24 hours after what seemed like years in Ecuador, and the mood of the group was mixed with thoughts of being excited to go home and sad to leave the beautiful country we had all bonded with in different ways.

We started our journey as tourists, visiting El Mitad del Mundo (the Middle of the World) where we stood straddling the line between the northern and southern hemispheres, and following in the footsteps of the Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern  to Fiambras, a restaurant whose sweet meat specialty, Cuy (Guinea Pig), and even of  a little of the furry animal's brain, were enjoyed by a few of the students.

The tourist life was short-lived. On Day 2, we traveled to 7,000 feet to the town of Yunguilla, a small 52-family eco-tourism community huddled into the mountain-side. Host families housed and fed us for four days as we worked in orchid gardens, assisted in the process of making creamy fresh cheese and sweet marmalade, and took part in the back-breaking work of tilling a field using only simple tools.

The first week ended with a day of rest after a six-hour hike through the Andes cloud forest to our next destination, Santa Lucia. The muddy and slippery ups and downs of the curvy mountain trail were made worthwhile by the beautiful plants and trees of the primary growth forest, as well as a number of exotic wildlife, including toucans, snakes, and a giant earthworm the size of a adult human arm.

The spacious and airy lodge of Santa Lucia, sitting at the pinnacle of a cloud-forested mountain, was the most environmentally conscious of all the facilities visited because of their utilization of composting toilets, solar power, and plans to harness energy of the nearby waterfalls using turbines. Cameras are also set up to track animals and catch poachers in the surrounding forest. The volunteer work in Santa Lucia, another eco-tourism community made up of only 12 families at 9,000 feet above sea level, was the hardest yet, made difficult not by the tasks themselves, but by the steep long hike back up to the lodge from the coffee and sugar plantations on which we worked.

We again became tourists in Ecuador as we headed toward our lowest elevation of 4,000 feet to Puerto Quito where we made our own chocolate from fresh cocoa beans, and toured and ate fresh fruit from the plantation of a man whose first words to us were that he does not use chemicals on his plants.

After leaving Puerto Quito and traveling through miles of endless volcanic desert, where nothing was seen but short grassy shrubs and a few herds of high-elevation llamas, we arrived at Salinas, population about 5000, nestled neatly in the mountains at 12,000 feet above sea level. The community of Salinas is organized around  134 micro-enterprises that grosses approximately $1 million a year. Their enterprises include cured cheeses, chocolate, pottery, candles, herbal medicines and salt, as well as what were clearly bootleg soccer balls. It was here that, finally above the cloud line, we were able to watch the sun set into a bed of fluffy clouds below us. We also caught our first glimpse of Chimborazo, a volcanic mountain with the point farther from the center of the Earth than anywhere else on the planet because of the Ecuadorian bulge that protrudes it further into space than Mount Everest, the highest elevation above sea level. We visited Chimborazo and climbed slowly and laboriously at around 14,000 feet to the snow line, a trek only three-quarter of a mile, but took 45-minutes to traverse due to the high elevation and sharp incline. However, to throw a snowball only 200 miles from the equator made the laborious hike worth it.

After a visit and hike to Quilotoa, a Crater Lake, we headed to the city of Otavalo famous for its world-famous indigenous market where we haggled with some of the thousands of vendors for an entire morning of shopping for handicrafts and gifts. Finally on Day 20, we were back in Villa Nancy in Quito where the whole trip began. A few of the students were able to experience the Super Bowl-like excitement of watching a soccer game at a nearby restaurant, and everybody convened for dinner at the fanciest location visited the entire trip. Humorously, after three weeks of hard work with only hand-wash laundry facilities, some had to wear dirty clothes and even pajamas to the classy restaurant.

The trip was long and the work was hard. Imagining that what we experienced on the trip is life for Ecuadorians is not easy. We left Ecuador with new knowledge of how hard life can be, and greater appreciation for the material items we often take for granted. Ecuador is a beautiful country worth preserving, and therefore, returning is something many of the students on this trip will consider.