Weekend in Papallacta

I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by the beauty of the country of Ecuador - living here in the mountains is probably my favorite place in the world.

Last weekend, we took some time to relax and hang out with some friends (Paul & Susan) and go to a town called Papallacta. We stayed at one of HCJB's guest houses up at their hydroelectric plant that "hangs" over the town. It's such a peaceful, restful place to go for a get-away!

We enjoyed the rain, the sunshine, the mountains, the flowers, scenery all around us, playing games, a fire in the fireplace, and great food and wonderful fellowship!

Here are some photos from the trip . . .

The view outside our window was spectacular!


Here's a little black bird who was enjoying these flowers right outside our door. . .


We decided to take a walk one morning and here's our group at the top of the hill over-looking the HCJB hydroelectric plant with the town of Papallacta in the background.


Here's a view of the plant from the bottom side with the penstocks coming down the hill.


Here's a shot of Nathan and Santi in front of the control panel inside the plant! We had to keep Nathan away from all the buttons!



And here are two photos of the two generators - can you guess which one is really old? Both of them run during the rainy season - the power produced by the generators is enough to keep HCJB's transmitter site in Pifo going, as well as provide some power for our hospital in Quito and to sell some power to the Ecuadorian electric company (providing funds to put back into HCJB's radio ministry).