Our family had an incredible stay at Casa Ana in June! We stayed for one month and it far exceeded our expectations. The ranch is in a beautiful location, surrounded by mountains and green fields. It is very picturesque! The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there, with highs in the 70‘s (fahrenheit) each day. It is somewhat remote, so for our family, it was a wonderful time away from electronics and our normal crazy schedule. The owners were very attentive to any of our requests and could not have been any more helpful.
The house is gorgeous, with wonderful attention to detail in its beauty and functionality. It was very comfortable and we loved the beautiful painting on the walls, the three fireplaces and the nice, big kitchen with lots of light coming in from the outdoors. We loved the ranch and it came to feel like it was ours (without the responsibility of maintaining it). Our boys were outside for all waking hours, with the exception of meals and Spanish lessons. They enjoyed horseback riding lessons many days with the instructor the owners recommended. Our boys most enjoyed playing outside with the many farm animals. There seemed to be at least one of every kind! They would collect the eggs in the morning, ride the donkey, go on hikes, pick vegetables from the garden to eat, and sometimes milk the cows at night. We would buy the milk and pasteurize it to drink.
The employees are so helpful, kind, and friendly. We enjoyed interacting with them. They taught our family how to properly hoe the garden, chop firewood, milk cows, build a fire, make humitas and empanadas, and even helped us with our Spanish. They would light the fires in our fireplaces each morning and evening, definitely a service we loved! We were sad to say good-bye to them.
We used the driver recommended by the owners and were very happy with him. He was a wonderful guide and very flexible, driving us to various tourist sites, the grocery store and any where we wanted to go. We enjoyed excursions to Otavala, Laguna de Cuicocha, Quito, Cochasqui, Quitsato, Parque Condor, and Cascada de Peguche.
This ranch is the perfect place to get away, while still having access to many interesting places nearby and all the amenities we are used to in our own home (and maybe a few more). We made many sweet memories as a family and it was the perfect place to enjoy the outdoors and relax. We highly recommend and hope to return again!