In 2007, Ronda and I enrolled in an Immersion Spanish course through Mendocino College. In general, we had classroom lessons each weekday morning with afternoons and evenings free or optional group outings. The first week was spent in the highlands, where we lived in the home of a host family in the capital, Quito. We ate meals with them, conversed (in Spanish, of course) and just participated in their lives. The second week we flew over the Andes into the Amazon Basin and took an open boat down Rio Napo, a major Amazon tributary, to a camp in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in crude cabins and followed the same regime of AM classes and PM rainforest outings. The final week we flew to the Galapagos Islands – a mind blowing experience. Choose a destination to see photos from each phase.