Hacienda El Paraiso

Jorge Isaacs published Maria in 1867 and it became the defining romantic novel of Spanish America, read across the continent for a century; he set it on his family's estate here and the house survives as a museum furnished to the period, with rooms identified against scenes in the book. The estate itself was a working hacienda in a valley whose economy rested on sugar and, before abolition, on enslaved labour - a fact the novel handles in the manner of its time and which the site now addresses more directly than it once did. The gardens are laid out with the fountain and the walkways described in the text, looking out over the valley to the Central Cordillera.

What you actually see

• The house from Maria - furnished to the novel's period.
• Rooms matched to scenes - identified against the text.
• Gardens from the descriptions - fountain and walkways.
• A sugar hacienda - and the labour it rested on.

When to go

Year round. An hour and a half.

Honest expectations

It means considerably more if you have read the novel. Labelling is in Spanish. A car is needed - public transport is awkward. The estate is small and the visit brief.

Nearby

El Cerrito is west; the Hacienda Piedechinche sugar museum is close.