finca san antonio

what a wonderful week spent at finca san antonio in the intaq valley of northern ecuador.  we were volunteers for a week at a farm high in the cloud forest. it was a stunningly beautiful place.

finca san antonio is owned by eduardo (ned) from england and his ecuadorian wife patricia.   these two are the kindest gentlest souls ever and they have created a really special life for themselves (and patricia is pregnant so they will be adding to that life soon!).  eduardo has been farming here for about ten years and in contrast to his neighbors who are burning forest land to graze their cattle on, eduardo is buying land solely to keep it forested.  they now own about 160 acres of which more than half is forested.

they have a little cabin for guests which is where we stayed.  eduardo coordinates volunteers at farms and schools throughout the valley and arranges homestays as well.  you can check out his website here:
www.cloudforestadventure.com  
patricia cooked three wonderful meals a day for us. some of the best food we've had in ecuador! riley could be heard wallking along muttering to himself "man that was a good lunch!"

as volunteers we helped with various work on the farm.  they have several large gardens that produces year-round and feeds them and all their volunteer/guests.

ecuadorian backpacks

they also have some milking cows so we put our dairy farming skills to use and helped with the cows.

here they milk by hand which we tried as well....its harder than it looks!  patricia can hand-milk a cow in minutes...its pretty impressive!

we also hiked to the far border of the property and helped to repair a fence.

both kids (but especially lucy) loved the horse! 

our last day there was work free.  eduardo and patricia's nephews were visiting so eduardo took us on a waterfall hike which included scrambling up the creek.  it was actually a pretty hard hike but the kids loved the adventure and the waterfalls were beautiful!

we spent the afternoon after the hike with patricia learning how to make baskets.  she makes all the big backpack baskets and is apparently known in the area for her basket making skills.  we each made a little one that will always remind us of this special place.

we were so sad to leave, especially the kids who just thrived on the farm.  we could easily stay here a very long time and be perfectly happy.  both kids are determined to return one day and i sure hope they do!

we joked about buying some land and giving farming a go....and there may have been some truth and wishful thinking in that joke. we really really loved finca san antonio.

but alas we did leave the farm and now we are spending our last couple days in the town of otavalo before we head on to colombia.
hasta luego!