Profile information
Host rating
65 %
Last replied
25 Mar 2025
Reply rate
60.0 %
Usually responds within 2 days
Feedback
2
Email verified
Badges (2)
Details
Description
My son and I own a coffee farm and tourist lodge in the Intag Valley in Ecuador. We do a lot of farming, landscaping, cooking, hiking, cleaning, and troubleshooting! We meet people from all over the world and it is always an adventure living here in rural Ecuador.
I have lived in Ecuador five years and my son joined me here three years ago. My son's twin brother was here with us for 2 years . He is a reptile biologist but went back to work in the USA . We have learned a lot about coffee! Our organic coffee is very popular and sells out every year. The food we serve at our farm is also very popular. We do a lot of baking.
We volunteer a lot in our community. We are trying to do our best to be a part of this part of the world!
We employ one full-time worker and several part-time workers. Our kitchen is always a mix of Spanish and English! Our workers are like family to us
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Hospitality/Tourism
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
House sitting
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
I volunteer once a week at the school up the hill behind our farm. You would be welcome to come up and visit the school with me on Wednesdays. I could also introduce you to people in our village which is only 1 km away. My son and I speak English with each other but Spanish is more common everywhere else on our farm. Our workers all speak Spanish
People play volleyball in the middle of our village and you are welcome to go in every evening and watch people play volleyball. We also live close to a pickleball court and you could go down and play or teach children to play.
You might have another skill that you would like to teach in the community and we could make that happen.
Help
We need volunteers who would enjoy helping around our farm or helping with landscaping. We often need help with picking coffee and processing our coffee . It's actually a lot of fun . Our mornings are usually sunny and range between 60 and 75° fahrenheit. Afternoons can be cloudy or rainy. It's beautiful here and some of the work would be down next to our river. Sometimes we need help with cleaning, building fires in the fireplace for our guests, walking to town for groceries,
We often need painting done at various places around the farm. We also often need help with the development of trails. We have a lot of different species of birds and we keep a good list. We are interested in birders coming to help us.
We also have small mammals and frogs and we are often looking for biologist type volunteers who want to take people on night hikes to admire the creatures.
We are also in need of someone with knowledge of speech therapy in English and Spanish.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: IntermediateThis host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
You would have your own private bedroom which is a double bed on the bottom and a bunk bed on top and this would be in our tourist Lodge. You would also have your own bathroom which is located down one flight of stairs. 90% of the time that bathroom would be yours alone but if our lodge is completely full including our dormitory room, there may be others who would use that bathroom on occasion. But there are lots of other bathrooms in our lodge.
When we serve our Hotel clients dinner or breakfast, our staff often enjoy the leftovers of cinnamon rolls, tacos, homemade breads, cakes, or a variety of main dishes. We also have an outdoor kitchen where you can do your own cooking and we provide rice, beans, and many other good ingredients for you to cook your own meals. We keep the volunteer staff kitchen stocked with food. You will never go hungry!
What else ...
We are just publishing our volunteering opportunities here for the first time in September of 2024. We had an unofficial volunteer here a year ago. She stayed for 2 weeks and helped us with the decor and she did artwork. She would probably be our only reference for a volunteer but we could get her in contact with you. She loved it here and we loved having her.
I forgot to mention that we live about half an hour from the Nangulvi Hot Springs which is a very fun outing. We also have hiking all around us. We are 3 hours by bus from Otavalo which is the largest indigenous shopping area in South America.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have good internet about 95% of the time. We do lose Internet when the community loses electricity about once or twice a month for a few hours
Space for parking camper vans
We have a private parking lot behind a gate
Can possibly accept pets
We cannot accept people with pets unfortunately.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
