 3 Days: Culture, horses and sugar cane
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 home-produced, organic 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: Bird`s 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 nine children in 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 Intag zone, we think you will agree that it is a million miles from the comfortable, 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! Day 3. Sugar cane and the oldest water mill in Intag. Today we learn – and taste – the fascinating art of cane sugar production by water mill, the oldest in Intag. We cover the 5km to the mill on horseback, on foot, or by truck, according to your preferences. En route we stop at a deep river pool, a fine place to bathe in an idyllic setting. Those opting to travel by horseback will enjoy the memorable (and highly photogenic) experience of bathing the horses. After a traditional lunch at the mill farm house we set off for a tour of the farm, which includes a demonstration of the cultivation of semi-tropical crops such as yucca, coffee and banana. The production of traditional, unbleached sugar from the crushing of the cane, through the various stages of heating and evaporation to produce delicious organic sugar, is a fascinating and tasty experience, and you are expertly guided by the quietly-spoken mill owner, Ivan Ayala. The organic blocks of sugar which are the end result of the patient process of evaporation are far more nutritious and healthy than the bleached white sugar that normally appears on our supermarket shelves. Afterwards, there is time to see the milling of maize by water mill, and the traditional preparation of mouth-watering maize tortillas. |
