Our trip today was an hour's drive out of Buenos Aires to the north west where we visited an estancia (ranch) which besides being a working farm, is also into agritourism. After negotiating the outskirts of BA - typical outer city scenery of billboards, motorways, light industry - we took the Pan American Highway west and were soon in the pampas. This covers a vast area of Argentina and is the land of beef, soya beans, pampas grass and gauchos. It looks very flat and dry and uninteresting, therefore it was a surprise when we turned into the gates of Estancia Santa Susanna - a lush, green oasis surrounding a pretty pink colonial farmhouse. Even more surprising was that the perimeter of the garden area which covers a couple of acres at least is planted with enormous gum trees. They have obviously been there since the early days of the estancia - in the 1800's. There are also large bottlebrush trees in the garden. Graham, the other Aussie on the tour, said the landscape reminded him of western NSW.
We were warmly welcomed by one of the gauchos and shown to an outbuilding, a kind of covered terrace where we were given drinks and empanadas - tasty, with beef filling. The complex here also has a gift shop, a barbecue room with a huge fireplace and grill and then an enormous dining hall all set up for lunch. We were not the only tour group today and there were visitors from other South American countries as well as Poland and Korea.
After our snack we were invited to go horse riding or carriage riding and I opted for the later. The carriage would certainly not get through the roadworthy test at home, but it held together and we had a bumpy ride through some paddocks close to the house. Many of the others took the 15 minute horse ride following the same route, while I took a stroll around the gardens and then visited the house and its attendant chapel. Although once lived in by the Irish/Argentinian owners (of course named Kelly) it is now a museum and contains furniture and many mementos of family life in the early days of the estancia. Quite an amazing collection, from toys and cooking utensils to books, family photos and clothing. It was as though the house was ready for the return of the family at any moment. I guess the Kellys, or whoever owns the ranch now live elsewhere.
A three course lunch was served in the dining hall and we were given many different kinds of salads, followed by barbecued steak, chicken and sausage, all washed down with seemingly endless bottles of red wine. Very tasty, except that I was not persuaded to try the blood sausage and those who did weren't exactly enthusiastic. Dessert was a little honey-coated pastry with a quince filling - extremely delicious. Following lunch we were treated to some folk music by two gauchos, one on guitar and one on accordion. Then a couple showed off some really tricky tango/gaucho dancing and twirling their boleadoras (two leather covered stone balls on the end of long ropes). The music was fast and frenetic and soon everybody was up and dancing. We all enjoyed the show and the meal enormously.
Our final treat for the afternoon was a horsemanship display by the four gauchos. They are very skilled horsemen and seemed to really enjoy showing off to and appreciative audience. They are able to control 6 - 10 horses each and have them all lined up in front of the seating area in a jiffy. The young girls were all smitten by the good looks and charm of the youngest gaucho and all clamoured to be taken for a ride on his horse with him - he was happy to oblige!
Of course today was all about tourism and a somewhat romanticised view of the gaucho and his life, nevertheless everyone had a really good time and learned a bit more about the traditions and history of Argentina. Yet another interesting and well presented experience for us to enjoy on our tour. We are certainly seeing a wide variety of people and places on this trip.
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