The Salta Estancia

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Our second to last destination was an estancia (ranch) int he North Western region of Argentina called Salta. The estancia was founded in 1609 and has 60,000 hectares of land, most of it used for growing sugar cane and sorghum but about 5,000 hectares still left as forests with ponds.

The estancia has hundreds of horses and we went riding every day with a gaucho named Gallardo, who didn't speak any English so was great for practicing our Spanish. We rode all over the ranch on great horses that could really run and Alicja and Emma were often at a full gallop.

There were many beautiful sites during our rides, but our favorite might have been when we would ride out into the fields and be surrounded by the herds of horses running free. We also rode several times to an alligator and bird sanctuary on the farm where one alligator would swim right up to us every time.

We came home every night from long rides to the beautiful hacienda of the estancia where we would have delicious meals, including the best steak, pork and black pudding we've ever had.

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