HYLAND
The history of the Hotel Hacienda de Abajo
on the Canary island of San Miguel de la Palma reads like
a tale Bruce Chatwin might have written. 1492 hailed not
only Christopher Columbus' arrival in America, but that of
Castilian conquerors in Tazacorte, its Valley of Aridane a
place of fertile land, with the Tazacorte River and a stretch
of coast permitting easy communication with the outside
world. The Hacienda de Abajo was built in the early
sixteenth century as a sugar plantation, owned by don
Juan Fernandez de Lugo, nephew of the governor and
conqueror don Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, who in 1509
