Pamuri Andes Lodge

Wood smoke drifts from stoves set into every room, the fires lit each evening against the cold of the highlands. Pamuri Andes Lodge sits in a valley near Pampas, in the Huancavelica region of central Peru, on land the Bazo family has farmed since 1937. The property began as a stable for the old Hacienda San Juan de Pillo, and it was not until around 1980 that the family divided the estate and began producing manjar blanco, fresh cheese, and butter here, a trade the kitchen still draws on today. Guests eat from a garden on site, with fruit and vegetables grown a short walk from the dining room. It is a working valley, not a museum piece. Rooms are simple and warm, heated by wood rather than electricity, and set apart in cabins around a main lodge building with a lounge, a bar, and a games room. Trails run through the lodge's own patch of forest, laid out for walking and for mountain biking, with routes of varying difficulty threading the hillside above the valley floor. Solar power and composting run alongside the wood heat, and most of the staff come from the valley itself. Evenings end at the fireplace. The lodge sits about ten minutes from the town of Pampas, close enough for a day trip, far enough to feel like open country.