The minute we crossed the border I just knew Argentina was
going to be incredible!
Derek and I had been so looking forward to arriving in
Argentina, dedicating a good month to tour this amazing country.
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| San Francisco Church at night |
Well, we found a lovely sidewalk café and sat back, relaxed
in the warm temperature, opened up a Salta beer and started getting excited
about our future days. The city had such a lovely feel about it, so relaxed and
easy-going. It just felt so similar to being back home, hell they even had
balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the restaurant tables!
Next morning we woke up and although it was about 9am it was
already really hot. Baking sun! A great start to that morning....corn flakes as
our hostel breakfast!! Wahoo!
It being
so warm, we took the opportunity to keep in doors and plan the next couple days…
One of the things we were keen to do is to visit and stay at
an Estancia – an Argentinian farm homestead and ride horses. We read about an Estancia called Sayta on the
net, it had a great write up and last minute decided to head there the
following day.
That evening though, we went to a restaurant serving typical
local foods - that night we tried a few
things including tamales and empanada’s which are like meat pasties – and a bit
different to the other South American versions we’d tried earlier in our trip.
We then wandered around the main square and a little before 1am we walked home.
Going out for dinner so late is quite something.
The next morning, along with a Scottish guy from our hostel,
we got collected and taken about an hour or so out of Salta, to the ranch
called Sayta. Although not an actual working farm, it is surrounded by tobacco
and wheat fields. The estancia is
situated in a valley- where green and lush hills surround the farm – really
pretty.
We were immediately welcomed by two volunteers and the
owner’s daughter, as well as a couple of the gaucho’s that work at Sayta.
Throughout our stay we learnt quite a bit about gaucho’s and gaucho culture.
Gaucho’s really are horsemen, having grown up from a very early age riding, they
pretty much live their life with their horse i.e. you wouldn’t see a true
gaucho in his car on his way to the shop – you’d see his horse tied outside the
shop instead. They have incredible horse
skills and usually wear traditional clothing including these riding pants
called bambacho’s.
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| The saddle room on the estancia |
Shortly after arriving we got seated at this big dining
table in an outside area and got stuck into breakfast, which included dulce de
leche, which is basically caramel that they use as a spread – I couldn’t quite
stop myself from spooning mouthfuls into my mouth instead, all whilst Derek’s
skin crawled by how sickly sweet this stuff is! We then got introduced to
Diego, our gaucho for the upcoming ride. Got handed some chaps and met our
horses. One of the volunteers called Cheska ( English-French) came along for
the ride - mostly just walking, but we
explored parts of the farm and were treated to our gaucho showing off - him standing on his horse whilst walking!
After the morning ride, we got ushered to the big table where
everyone from the Estancia sits down to enjoy an “asado” – a lovely long
braai!! The table was laden with salads, pickles, roasted veggies, chips and
loads of chimichuri – which is a delicious spicy paste you add to the meat.
Talking of meat... this is where we learned how Argentinians do it... Starting
off sausages and chorizo and then moving on to various cuts of the most
delicious steaks… your plate was never short of meat for more than 2 seconds,
when Gustav our braaier encouragingly placed more on your plate whether you
needed it or not. It was the most delicious steak ever! Now besides the
non-stop intake of beef, our glasses were never less than half full - which is
a real problem when you know you have to get back onto a horse and not fall
off! The easy drinking red, made by monks is in endless supply on the Estancia!
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| Gustav our chief braaier |
That afternoon we got back into the saddle and enjoyed the
afternoon and also managed to get some cantering and galloping done too, which
was great fun! Again, after the ride, we settled into “tea” – lots of tea,
bread with spreads, as well as a type of sweet bread butter pudding type desert
called budin. Yummy!
That evening, after a lovely shower (in an even lovelier
cottage on the Estancia) we settled into another glass of red wine with the 2
volunteers Amelie, Cheska and owner’s daughter Laura. The owner Enrique was
unfortunately away but we heard hilarious stories – clearly quite a character.
After a drink, it was time to eat again! Dinner for the five of us around the
kitchen table in the Estancia’s main house.
We were all pretty exhausted and although only starting dinner at about
11, we were not long out of bed!
We slept in and awoke for another spread on the breakfast
table. One day in and it felt like we hadn’t stopped eating! That morning a
group arrived from the city for a morning of riding. Slightly annoying,
obnoxious group of Israeli’s that although never having ridden seemed to test
both Pablo and Felix our gauchos as well as Amelie one of the volunteers with
their constant spurring the horses, trying to go faster and generally not
listening to what the gaucho’s had to say! The other addition to the group was
James, an English guy who was to stay for the day and night.
Our ride was a similar route to the first day, but a slightly
faster pace which was fun. Derek and I both loved our horses this day – they
seemed a little less docile to the previous days’ and they actually seemed to
like each other, which made riding alongside each other possible! Again, after
our morning ride, we settled into a couple glasses of vino and a HUGE asado! So
much, perfectly cooked steak! Yum!
That afternoon only James remained from the new comers and
oh my word, what an amazing ride we had. Felix, a lovely guy and really
experienced gaucho lead our ride towards the mountains. We walked and trotted
through some great scenery. We got fairly high into the mountains, where there
was a paddock of cows, instead of lassoing them, Felix practiced his skills
trying to lasso us instead. We got a great chance to test out our horses – so
much fun! From there, we honestly made
our horses descend through this extremely narrow ravine. This was scary and fun
at the same time – at one stage I was leaning as far back as I could as my
horse literally nose-dived down this mountain side! Crazy stuff! It was the
perfect riding end – we had amazing scenery, great company, amazing horses and
opportunities to gallop, canter and trot a lot! Perfect!
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| Last afternoon riding with our Gaucho Felix (next to me) |
We only intended on staying one night (budget permitting)
but after such an amazing time and the fact that taxi transfers back to the
city are difficult on a Sunday, we agreed to spend another night on the Sayta
Estancia.
Again the food routine of afternoon tea (served at 7pm)
continued. Quick shower and soon the three staff (Cheska, Amelia and Laura)
together with James, Derek and I were sitting down to a lovely home cooked
dinner in their farmhouse kitchen. We proceeded to continue our little
gathering outside with an un-countable number of bottles of wine… The six of us
proceeded to drink, laugh and tell stories until late into the next morning.
Well Derek and I excused ourselves at about 2am but the rest continued until
6am!!
Nevertheless we were all feeling a little worse for wear the
next morning! After a lovely breakfast, we sadly said our goodbyes! It was so
lovely to spend time with such great people and it honestly felt like we had
stayed at a friend’s house – something so different to the last few weeks of
travelling and saying goodbye was not easy! Wow, for us, this was a huge
highlight and in hindsight could have definitely stayed a bit longer. A great
experience all round!
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| Felix, Derek, Tess, Amelie, Laura, James |
After making our way back to the city of Salta, we managed
to buy a last minute bus ticket leaving that afternoon and promptly proceeded
to the bus station for a very long bus ride…
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