Las Lagunas Saraguro Homestay

We weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves after arriving in the small community of Las Lagunas outside Saraguro, Ecuador. Set in the verdant Southern highlands, the scenery was stunning and our accommodation was charming with its rough-hewn wood furniture and thick woolen blankets (and even enough outlets to charge all our devices.) But there is no itinerary or list of things to do, and host Rosa doesn’t have time for hand holding.

Option 1: Wander aimlessly around the village’s dirt roads and unmarked cow paths. There are streams, waterfalls, and views across valleys for miles, but not a single sign. This is what we did our first afternoon and every day thereafter becoming more confident in our lack of a destination.

Option 2: Help Rosa. She rarely asks for help, but always seemed to appreciate our offer.

Tasks we were good at: Dishes, picking hard-to-reach plums, carrying heavy sacks of grass to the guinea pigs, making mayonaise, eating.

Tasks we were slow at: Chopping potatoes, pounding quesillo, hulling squash seeds, cutting the grass to feed the guinea pigs.

Tasks we were bad at: Milking cows, making empanadas, husking mini coconuts, speaking Spanish.

Option 3: Huddle in room reading, watching tablet, or napping. Sometimes, we just wanted downtime – especially when it was raining.

Everyday we enjoyed fresh fruit from the trees, fresh milk (and cheese) from the cow, and fresh vegetarian meals from the garden. We relaxed a little and wandered through the hillsides. But mostly we’ll remember learning from Rosa and practicing our Spanish in conversations over dinner with her family while Alice fell asleep in our laps with a full belly of chocolate milk.

If you go:

• Book with Lauro at Saraurku who was very responsive and met us at the bus station. Or book directly with Inka Wasi.
• You really should know some Spanish.

Kid-friendly notes:

• There is a school playground directly across the road.
• Rosa’s kids are grown up, but she invited her 4 year old niece to spend a rainy afternoon and dinner with us.
• Lauro from Sarauko arranged a school visit for us coinciding with a field trip of kids from Cuenca to the local school.