Huilloc, Peru: Quechua Homestay

Meet Janet.

The car bounced along the endlessly steep, bumpy road high above Huilloc before stopping outside my final destination for the night. There, I met the Lanos family, with whom I would spend the afternoon and night at their beautiful property located at 12,500 ft. It instantly felt like I had stepped back in time. Huilloc is a small Quechuan weaving community full of tight-knit families spread across the remote mountainside.

Of the three kids, the youngest (nine), Janet, returned from school first. Each day, they run down the mountain to class and then make the 1,000-ft climb back up in the afternoon, which can take about an hour—all in well-worn sandals!

With Spanish as our second language (Quechua is the primary language in this area), Janet showed me around her pueblo. This mountainside is all she really knows, but she was so excited to lead me through the various trails, viewpoints, and family pastures, pointing out her community’s way of life. I could barely keep up; I tried to hide my complete exhaustion from the thin air as Janet effortlessly floated up the mountain. She would stop to show me different plants and explain their uses. “Mira! Estos se usan para pigmento,” she said, showing me the wild berries commonly used to dye alpaca fiber.

With cheeks weathered by the high-altitude sun and elements, fingernails full of dirt, and feet blackened from a simple life spent outdoors, Janet’s smile even outshone her vibrant native clothes. It was infectious. No phone. No social media. No salons or grocery stores. I truly admired the lifestyle here.

After wrangling the family sheep, alpacas, and donkey, we finished the evening playing games with her brother and enjoying a nice family dinner (lomo saltado!) before I settled into my tent overlooking the distant moonlit peaks towering above Huilloc.