A history of hospitality: once the mainstay of a booming agrarian society, these restored estates are again contributing to economic growth in the Andean region known as the Avenue of the Volcanoes.

• Author: Wyels, Joyce Gregory

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Walking through the iron gates at Hacienda Cusin is like stepping into an impressionist painting. Bursts of sunlight alternate with fast-moving clouds to brighten gardens rampant with bougainvillea, fuchsia, jasmine, and orchids. Colonial antiques and handcrafted wooden furniture fill the museum-like Salon Bolivar, where Flemish tapestries mix amiably with Otavaleno weavings and paintings from the Quito school of art. Outside the snug cottage a resident llama munches blossoms, while inside, vivid fabrics and a kiva-style fireplace help to banish the chill of an Andean evening.

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Over a period of 400 years, Cusin evolved from a 100,000-acre property of the Spanish Crown to a thriving farm, then to a virtual ruin. Extensively restored in 1990 by the English-born Nicholas Millhouse, Cusin joined a handful of historic haciendas that have opened their doors to overnight guests.

Additional haciendas have restored old buildings or added new rooms for visitors. Each well-preserved country inn offers a glimpse of Ecuador's turbulent trajectory from pre-Inca times through the colony to independence and the republic. Travelers also Find a comfortable base for exploring the countryside, a variety of ecotourism activities, connections to indigenous communities, and an entree into a long tradition of hospitality.

Scattered across Andean valleys, in the provinces of Imbabura and Cotopaxi, and close to Quito in the valley of Los Chillos, lies a whole constellation of haciendas, most of them manor houses remaining from the great landed estates, or latifundios, that took root during the seventeenth century.

Failing to find significant quantities of gold, descendants of the Spanish conquerors calculated their wealth in land--often immense tracts, with intentionally ill-defined borders that extended farther than the eye could see. A combination of equatorial sun at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet,, together with rich volcanic soil and an exploitable pool of native labor, made these ranches and farms extraordinarily productive--so much so that they formed the economic backbone of an agrarian society. Land reforms of the mid-twentieth century, and sales of property, have pared down the extensive holdings of the haciendas.

Cusin is one of a cluster of haciendas in the province of Imbabura, about an hour and a half north of Quito and only a few miles north of the equator. It lies at the foot of a mountain named Cusin in honor of a local chieftain who resisted the Inca conquerors.

On the far side of Lago San Pablo, just north of Otavalo, is Hacienda Pinsaqui, which takes its name from a local tribe that predated the Inca. Built as a textile workshop, or obraje, in the late 1700s, Pinsaqui counted over 1,000 indigenous weavers laboring at its looms. Some of the fabrics produced here, known as bayetas, achieved a measure of fame when they appeared at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Contemporary travelers are not the first to avail themselves of the haciendas' hospitality. Collectively, the haciendas have hosted important figures in Ecuadorian history, with many playing a pivotal role in Ecuador's evolution from colony to republic. At Pinsaqui, "Simon Bolivar slept here" is no idle boast. South America's great liberator passed this way often as he traveled between Quito and Bogota on horseback. (Whether he also romanced the lovely Manuelita Saenz here or at her own Hacienda Catahuango is a matter of speculation.)

Bolivar also overnighted at Hacienda Cusin in 1822, while his army bivouacked in San Pablo del Lago before defeating the Spanish near Quito. The Treaty of Pinsaqui, which later established the border with Colombia, took its name from the hacienda where it was signed in 1863.

Extensively damaged by an earthquake in 1867, Hacienda Pinsaqui has been...