Zuleta

Zuleta is a village and a hacienda in a green trough of the Andes south-east of Ibarra, and the two are intertwined: Hacienda Zuleta, a seventeenth-century estate that belonged to former president Galo Plaza Lasso, still runs as a working dairy and horse farm and as one of the country's best-known hacienda stays, while the village around it is the home of Zuleta embroidery, bright floral needlework on blouses, napkins and cloths done by hand by local women, sold from workshops and a cooperative. The estate makes a named cheese, runs a condor rehabilitation project on its land, and the valley offers riding and walking. Day visitors can arrange lunch and tours; the full experience is a stay.

What you actually see

• Zuleta embroidery - floral needlework from the village workshops.
• The working hacienda - dairy, horses and the Plaza legacy.
• The condor project - rehabilitation aviaries on the estate.
• Riding in the valley - the estate's horses on its own trails.

When to go

Year round; the highland climate is even. A day with lunch arranged, or an overnight stay booked well ahead. Embroidery workshops keep normal hours.

Honest expectations

The hacienda stay is expensive and books out. Day access to the estate needs arrangement rather than turning up. The village is quiet and the visit is craft and landscape rather than sights.

Nearby

Ibarra is north-west; Cayambe lies south over the pass.