Zuleta: 30 May - 2 June

"When god was making Ecuador, He gave her beautiful snow-capped peaks, a rich piece of Amazonian jungle, incredible bio-diversity, and gorgeous beaches. And Peter said to Him, "Why are you putting so many beautiful things in one place?" "Well," God replied, "you haven't seen the people yet." "

Fernando threw his head back and chuckled at his politically incorrect joke. As the grandson of Ecuador's former president, there is little doubt of Fernando's patriotism. Indeed, he bristles with pride when telling us how the late Gallo Plaza pioneered land reform right here on his very own ranch.

In the 1940s, Gallo Plaza divided up his hacienda in Zuleta parcelling out the land to the local Indian population. He also provided training and some capital to help them move beyond subsistence farming. Although the move was deeply unpopular amongst Palaza's wealthy landowning peers, it later became the model for land reform in Ecuador and inspired later laws.

But Fernando 's joke points to a deeper insecurity: despite the tiny country's incredible biodiversity and natural resource wealth, Ecuador remains poor. In 2006 it ranked 83 on the UN's Human Development Index behind Columbia and Peru. Oil, bananas, shrimp and roses are all exported from Ecuador to rich consumers in the US and Europe, yet each brings it's own environmental cost and limited benefit for local communities. Corruption and decades of mismanagement have left Ecuador struggling.

But back in Zuleta, the Plaza family are once again putting progressive ideas into action. They've slowly opened their family home to guest to give outsiders a glimpse of life on a working farm. We stayed three days and ate fresh produce from the kitchen's garden and ate at the big family dining table. We rode the farm's Zuleta thoroughbreds through the verdant valley, following the old mule trails to visit the Condor Sanctury (just two dozen of these magnificent birds remain in the wild). The wet grass soaked the flanks of my horse as we cantered through alpine meadows full of colourful little flowers. The dramatic landscape of the parámo, its steep hills, dense vegetation and snow capped volcanoes surprised me. This is not what life on the equator should look like!

But Fernando's efforts are not just about eco-tourism. There is a cheese factory producing organic cheddars for export to Dean and Deluca delis in New York. He has a trout farm providing sustainable fish for local hotels, and a programme to save the endangered Andean condor. His vision is compelling and his charismatic enthusiasm infectious. But can it be replicated? Planning is not the Ecuadorian's forte. "Planning is not the Latin way," he admits.