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OUR SISTER HOTELS
Las Palmeras Inn nr. Otavalo |
 
Hacienda Cusin, 1602 - 2005 Hacienda Cusin was purchased in Spain in 1602 by the prominent Luna family at an auction from Philip II, King of Spain. The estate was comprised of the two valleys of Gualaví and La Rinconada, and all the land between the valleys and the lake. The property amounted to approximately 100,000 acres, held until its division in 1945 and 1964.
The Hacienda was named for the mountain at the head of the valley of La Rinconada. The source of the mountain’s name is difficult to ascertain, although two possibilities are likely. First, tradition has it that Cusin was the name of an indigenous chief who fought against the Incas in the first decades of the sixteenth century, just before the Spaniards’ arrival. The second and more likely possibility pertains to a type of white beetle that appears for two days every November. Considered a delicacy, the insect is most prominent in this immediate area, lending it some fame. In Quechua the beetle is called cuso (cut-so), and it is possible that it has given its name to the area. Cusin’s coat of arms, found on all dishware and stationary, has been modeled after the cuso. Over the past 400 years, Hacienda Cusin has remained, for the most part, in the hands of two different Spanish families. Cusin had been operated as a farm until converted into a hotel by Eugene Metz; a North American who married into the Chiriboga family that held ownership of Cusin. The Pan American Highway had not yet been built, and the Quito to Otavalo journey took several hours. During this period, the market opened for only a few hours early Saturday morning, and house-guests were apt to stay for long periods; these over-stays inspired the need for a hotel. In 1966 Metz began building the main house on the spot where the grain storage shed had been (see photographs of Cusin as a dilapidated one-story building, on the right of Cusin’s bar fireplace). Guests were then charged 35 Sucres (approximately $4) per night with dinner. All 14 guestrooms were furnished with antiques. Black tie was obligatory eveningwear, and pre-dinner entertainment included a piano rendition of a Broadway musical, followed by a procession of servants leading wild animals into the dining room. The animals were kept in the barred cages in the lower part of today’s library patio. In 1970, when tourists were rare, Metz sold the hotel, ending three centuries of ownership by the Chiriboga family. The Creightons, the new owners and Cusin’s former managers, attempted to begin a rose-plantation, sold all of the surrounding land, and allowed Cusin to fall into disrepair. By 1990, the rutted and frequently flooded road to Cusin was lined by collapsing adobe walls. Cusin, an ambient trash-heap with 14 odious rooms, and several with jerry-built bathrooms in the corners, was a challenge to behold. Sheep and aged and diseased horses trampled the gardens. Most of the paths, if not of cracked cement, were earthen and poorly drained. The sparsely equipped kitchen, a third of the size of that today, was a maze of small rooms with ceilings on the verge of collapsing. The electric lights fused daily. Within a year, the new owners of the almost defunct neighboring rose plantation understandably cut off Cusin’s open sewers. Rainfall fused the lights. A late 19th century wind-up telephone (see left of the bar entrance) was connected to the ‘outside world’ by an autocratic San Pablo operator, straight out of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.
The staff of ten were demoralized and poorly clothed. The dining room, lit by two large bulbs, had only one (far-end) window, and its small folkloric chairs fell over when guests stood up. Salon Bolivar was barely furnished and sun shone through tattered curtains nailed to the ceiling. Exhausted bagpipes dominated the plywood bar. The Creightons sold Cusin in 1990 to the present owner, Nicholas Millhouse, who began the ambitious project of refurbishing the buildings, restoring the landscape, and constructing beautiful additions. With an eye on international tourism, the Hosteria’s original name, Hacienda was restored. The 1993 New York Times Travel & Leisure reviews of Cusin, followed by those of guidebooks, newspapers and international magazines dramatically increased occupancy. As a result, the additional income provided capital for necessary construction and for additional staff. Purchase of land in Gualaví valley gave space for Cusin’s horses and crops for the kitchen. The construction of El Monasterio in December1995, only a garden walk from Cusin, provided additional space for guests, conferences, weddings and seasonal festivities. EL MONASTERIO de CUSIN
El Monasterio is a self-contained, reflective site characterized by colorful gardens and mysterious cobblestone courtyards. Constructed for the purpose of conference and discussion of contemporary ideas instrumental in changing tomorrow’s world, El Monasterio is also a place for the celebration of life’s triumphs. The monastery, the ‘computer’ of the Middle Ages, was a meeting-ground for great minds and a place of inspiration for fervent creativity. The irony of building a monastery in the actual computer age was appealing, as was constructing an historic building in the ancient landscape of Imbabura appropriate. |
1602 – Luna family of Spain purchases 100,000 acres which is to become Cusin. 
