What is it about estancias that I love so much? Forgotten feelings are revived as I creep up the gum-tree avenue of a driveway toward the House of Jasmines, 20kms from Salta, in the North of Argentina.
Estancias are places where criollo traditions are dappled with European culture at every turn. The management, coordination, design, architecture, gardens, furnishings. Yet they have a charm that cannot be described. Small clues lie around that demonstrate the presence of the equine world, from saddles on the wall to horsey coffee table books lain open on coffee tables, to the soft whinnying of a nearby horse in a nearby paddock.
Softly playing Latino tunes fill the air and quiet mutterings drift through from the busy kitchens on the back of delicious ‘lunch is nearly ready’ smells… I’m an untouchable princess… it takes me minutes to adapt to the rhythm of my new rural surroundings…what is it about ‘the estancia’?
