2 Days: Culture and Cloud forests

Day 1: Local people and their way of life

8-9 am  Leisurely breakfast, accompanied by hummingbirds and clucking hens, followed by a short walk through the woods to meet your first guide for the day, who will show you the dairy farm and help you to hand milk the cows and make cheeses. Photo opportunities abound!

11am  Meet your next guide, who will take you on horseback (or on foot if you prefer) to a nearby organic vegetable farm.  After an excellent lunch served at the farm, skillfully prepared by Marcela Torres using organic, home produced ingredients, you will enjoy a really first-class demonstration of the pleasures and perils of producing abundant, quality food to feed the whole family.  We are proud to place emphasis on ‘hands-on’ practice rather than just demonstration, and are confident that you will thoroughly enjoy your visit to this farm.

2pm  Brief but fun-packed visit to the community trout farm, where you will take part in the organized chaos of sport fishing, Ecuadorean style!

3pm  A fine conclusion to the day`s activities; you are treated to a guided tour of the trees, birds and wildlife in the beautiful cloud-forests adjoining the guest houses, before returning to a supper of trout, grilled over a wood fire.

Day 2: Birds-eye view of the Western Andes/Meet the Rodriguez family!

Day 2 begins with a fine horseback ride or walk, enjoying a series of wonderful views and stunning landscapes.  Our route takes us alongside streams of crystal clear water, and through tranquil, scented woodland.  We stop for an al fresco riverside lunch, and then continue to the entrancing setting of a deserted farm house (which, incidentally, is available for amazingly cheap rental as a holiday home), before a leisurely descent back to the guesthouses, with plenty of stops to enjoy and photograph the extraordinary views of volcanoes, highland, cloud forest and meadows..

Throughout the ride we offer free optional demonstrations on the Ecuadorean way of managing horses: catching, saddling, riding, use of the lassoo and the fascinating skill of using horses as pack animals.

Back at San Antonio, we say goodbye to our guides, and enjoy a short ramble to the farmhouse of the Rodriguez family.  We think you will be charmed both by the surroundings and by the eleven members of this traditional, typically self-reliant family.  Pet parrots, turkeys, guinea-pigs and hens of different shapes and nameless breeds are all part of the riotous fun at this homestead. Whatever the undoubted difficulties of this way of life, typical of the area, we think you will agree that it is a million miles from the comfortable, somewhat predictable. and perhaps slightly soulless realities of suburban life in Europe or North America. Unlike many tour operators, we are unashamed to share these differences with you: surely such intercultural experiences are one of the great benefits of travel!