With all of Buenos Aires's chic shops and tango parlors and late-night steakhouses, a city visit is not enough to grasp this country, the size of the United States east of the Mississippi. For that, one must head to the pampas, the flat prairie of fertile topsoil 12 feet deep that stretches west without a hill to the base of the Andes, and to Patagonia, the windblown sheep country to the south. Fortunately, more than 500 estancias -- large traditional working ranches -- have opened their doors to tourists nationwide for this very purpose.
Most estancias convey some of Argentina's cultural essence -- rustic pioneer or gaucho (classic Argentine cowboy) history and food, with horseback riding, hiking, swimming, fishing, bird-watching and the chance to watch or help out in cattle or sheep-herding work (roundups, branding, shearing, calf-roping). Some make it easy to see why "rich as an Argentine" used to be a common phrase: They specialize in breeding polo ponies or Arabian horses for racing. Other estancias in Patagonia have become full-service ski resorts or base camps for mountaineers planning climbs of famous Andean peaks.
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