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TIMELINE
1602 – Luna family of Spain purchases 100,000 acres which is to become Cusin
1735 – 43 – Charles Marie de La Condamine explores and establishes equatorial line
1802 – Alexander Von Humboldt explores Ecuador as recorded in Voyage of the Cosmos
1832 – Charles Darwin visits the Galapagos Islands which confirms his theory of evolution
1853 - 55 – Frederick Church* rides horseback sketching the Ecuadorian Sierra
1857 – Church returns to Ecuador (see pictures in the library)
1941 – Peru invades Ecuador
1942 – The Rio Protocol signed declaring peace between Ecuador and Peru
1945 & ‘64 – National Land Reforms enacted; 90% of Cusin’s property redistributed
1966 – Cusin owner Eugene Metz converts grain storehouses into main house
1970 – Hosteria Cusin sold to the Creighton family; Pan American Highway built
1990 – Cusin purchased by Nicholas Millhouse, renamed Hacienda, restoration commences
1991 – Stables converted into Garden Cottages #22, 23, 24
1993 – Suite #18 and Garden Cottages #10 and 25 (Frederick’s Church) constructed
1995 – El Monasterio built
1998 – Stables and Reception constructed;
Ecuador and Peru sign peace accord ending boarder dispute
2001 November – Constitución de Ecuador signed at Cusin
December – Las Palmeras Inn, Cusin’s sister hotel opened. www.laspalmerasinn.com
2002 – Main House transformed by the construction of front and side patios
2003 – construction of El Monasterio’s water garden completes 13 year restoration.
*Frederick Church, pre-eminent 19th century U.S. artist and member of Hudson River School, is inspired to visit Ecuador after reading Von Humboldt’s Voyage of the Cosmos. His paintings reflect the divinity of nature; prints can be seen in the Sala de Lectura.
Hacienda Cusin, 1602 - 2005
Hacienda Cusin was purchased in Spain in1602 by the prominent Luna family at an auction from Philip II, King of Spain. The estate was comprised of the two valleys of Gualavi 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 Gualavi 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.
Joshua Davis of New York, a graduate of Cornell School of Architecture and student of Aldo Rossi, designed El Monasterio. Construction of thirteen guestrooms, a bar and reception tower began in an empty field in early 1995, and was completed for a New Year’s Eve wedding. The conference room, Salon Cotacachi, the dining room, kitchen and rooms 39 and 40 (constructed by Manuel Sanchez) were completed for Christmas occupancy in 1996. Secundo Chumañia and a team of 34 constructed the buildings while Marcia Simon, General Manager 1990-1997, oversaw the changes. Mañuel Ayora painted the murals and colored walls seen throughout the property. Leonardo Chumañia hand made antique reproduction beds, and the Andrango family of Agato wove the beautiful bedspreads. Mr. Millhouse worked together with Cusin’s gardeners; Manuel Calle and his crew, to landscape the gardens. Most of the plants originated in Cusin’s garden.
El Monasterio has 18 Andean craft furnished guestrooms, all with beamed ceilings and private bathrooms, and 15 with kiva-style log-burning fireplaces. El Monasterio features a dining room, salon, library, television with satellite reception and VCR, bar, main conference room (used also for celebration dances), five seminar rooms, three courtyards, four separate gardens, public restrooms and a water garden. Its two towers (one with a ‘secret passage’) give panoramic views of the surrounding land dominated by 15,000’ Imbabura mountain and Imbacocha (Lago San Pablo).
In 1998, Pamela Janssen became General Manager for 18 months. Pamela worked tirelessly and established a strong management foundation for a growing business.
Cesar Arcos Maldanado, the present General Manager, followed Pamela. Cesar attended management training courses, including Cornell’s Hotel School of Administration and soon established his own presence.
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