On Saturday, a couple of students from my program went to an estancia, or a ranch. These places used to owned by caudillos or the landed elite and demonstrate the rich history of Argentina. The estancia we visited is called La Porteña and is about an hour away from the city.

Currently in Buenos Aires, it’s fall and very uncharacteristically cold which I think made the scene a bit more beautiful. Being surrounded by nature and the rustic outdoors makes the cold weather comforting.

Estancia La Porteña

We arrived at 10 in the morning and were greeted by empanadas, a breaded perogie-shaped biscuit filled with meat or veggies. We then proceeded to watch a gaucho unsaddle his horse and teach us how gauchos would sleep in the fields in the 18th century.

We took a short walk in the forest and learned a bit about the history of the estancia. Many of the trees brought to it were from different countries like an old Lebanese tree and a huge ombu that happens to just be a humongous bush.

Ombu; bush not a tree

The group had turns riding on a horse carriage around the estancia and we also got to see the pig and piglets. Shortly after we got served asado, which many foreigners confuse with barbeque but it is not. It is not smothered by barbeque sauce it’s Argentine-cooked meat on a special grill fired by wood logs not charcoal. Juicy pieces of sausage, vacio, and lomo are served outside surrounded by your friends where you proceed to speak about futbol not soccer and politics.

At this particular asado we were served a buffet of food all the meat you could want, chorizo or sausage, chicken, salad, bread, and wine. In short it was wonderful.

Whilst we were eating dessert and drinking coffee later we were basically serenaded by the gauchos performing love ballads and typical gaucho songs. We were then met by another gaucho that performed horse yoga with his horse. This was the most different thing I have witnessed in Argentina, when ever I started to understand it it got weird again. Horse yoga is basically used to build a relationship with the horse and calm it down.

With that we ended the evening which was relaxing and all in all was wonderful. I absolutely love estancias, you can spend a day or a weekend there getting away from the chaos that is the city.

Gorgeous field on otherwise cold day.