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Friends, welcome to Estancia La Tomasa here in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. We recently spent a weekend at Estancia La Tomasa, located near Gachari, roughly 3 hours southwest of Buenos Aires. What drew us to this property is its history. We're talking about a working ranch with British roots that has been in the same family for seven generations. Thomas Gibson, a Scotsman, bought La Tomasa in 1885. The seller's only condition was that the Estancia's name remain unchanged to honor a daughter he lost too soon. A wish that has been respected to this day. Passed down through generations, it is now Luisa MacKern, Thomas Gibson's great-great-granddaughter, who runs the place. And since 2023, this former sheep farm turned cattle ranch
now also welcomes guests. We were beyond delighted to be invited into the family home, and that's exactly what we're going to share in this video. All righty, friends. So, we just finished having breakfast here at the Estancia. It was a wonderful spread of everything you could possibly want for breakfast. We had eggs and bacon, granola with yogurt and fresh honey right off the comb. There was bread with jam and cream cheese and butter and deli meats and fresh squeezed orange juice and tea and coffee. And it was just wonderful. And while we were having breakfast, came and made our room. Our bed is made super early in the day. So,
I'm going to take this moment to show you around before we destroy the place and it is chaos once more. So, let's have a look. All righty. So, first of all, we have carpet. Check this out. A large king-size bed. We slept so, so well last night. Two nightstands. They brought us a crib, which is so appreciated for our girl, for Roly. There you have it. There's this really cool mirror, full body-sized mirror. Hello. Lots of storage space as well, because we have the armoire here. But then, we also have two closets, one here, another one there. We have not actually
unpacked. We're just living out of a suitcase for now, but it is nice having the possibility to unpack, especially if you're doing a bit of a longer stay. So, that is our quick room tour. Now, you kind of get a better idea of what it looks like. There's also heating. We were at nice and toasty last night. I'll mention that. And yeah, there's like a little seating area, and that's what I'm going to show you for now, because we need to start getting ready. We've got a little outing this morning, and we're going to bring you along. So, now that I've shown you our room, let's talk about the accommodations. La Torcasa has five rooms, making it the most intimate estancia we've experienced, and the
beauty of this is that the property lends itself very well to personalized attention. For those curious about the layout, one double room has its own en suite, and the remaining four rooms, two in each wing of the house, have two shared bathrooms between them. However, our host pointed out that strangers will never have to share a bathroom. This is only for friends and family who stay together. It's getting a little snow. It's Leon. It is a bit of a windy day here in the Pampas, so I have borrowed a poncho, put it over my shoulders. The nice thing is that inside the Estancia, they have a big basket in the living room full of
blankets, ponchos. So, I didn't bring enough layers for the countryside, but we're going to make it work. We're going to go on a guided visit to see the property, a lot of the historic buildings. It's just a gorgeous day. I mean, we've got blue skies. So, this is going to be a lot of fun. The dogs are running around. They are so friendly. There are horses. So, you really feel like you're in the campo. Depending on the time of year you visit Estancia La Tomasa, there will be different activities happening. These can range from moving cattle and branding to delivering calves. And because this is a working farm, it's important to remember the jobs get done when they need to get done. Nature is on
her own schedule, and we're just here to witness it. Because we visited on a weekend, the Estancia was quieter than usual as the gauchos were enjoying their time off. However, this meant we got to tour the Estancia with its owner, Luisa MacKern, and learn about its history. We started with a walk through the historic buildings, some of which have been transformed into event spaces and house all sorts of unique antiques. We are in awe of this eucalyptus, guys. We have never seen one this big. We have so many on our property, but the trunk on this one, it is a behemoth.
I guess it's got all the space it needs, all the sunlight just for itself. It's It's thriving. Very much on its own. Ooh, it is a windy one. They were just telling us this is the sunset point. It's one of the few openings here on the estancia where you are not surrounded by trees. Hey, pup. Um so, you get a nice view of the west, so you can actually watch the sun come down, and you either need to bring a mate or fernet for the true Argentine experience. Well, this has been a very cool tour experience. We've gotten to explore a really big part of the property. We're now at the fruit orchard. We were also visiting some of the chickens. There's an organic vegetable garden. We walked
through a little lavender field, trails through the forest. So, it's been very, very nice. The perfect day to be doing this. And yeah, it just makes you like love and appreciate the countryside even more. And just the amount of love and dedication they have for this place. We also visited the Estancia's very own organic vegetable garden. With the autumn temperatures barely hovering above freezing, it was time for the basil to be harvested. Luisa invited me to join her for the task with a basket in hand and Deion trotting next to her. She picked bushels of basil plus a few ripe green peppers and then we marched over to the kitchen to begin processing the basil for a future dish.
I really enjoyed just getting to witness daily life at the Estancia unfold and that's the thing about La Tomasa. You're essentially invited to hang out at the family home with the family. Also, as you can see from the harvest, they try to go as local and seasonal as possible. Lunch was another wonderful meal with more family members dropping by to join us at the table. We had an egg and green bean salad for our starter and then handmade pasta with a tomato and meat sauce for our main.
You know, I never I've never made it and it's very easy. And then for dessert, it was a classic Argentine dish, a bowl of flan, which even our baby could not resist. And then that afternoon, it was time for a horseback ride through the Argentine Pampas. Okay, we're inside the saddle house. Want to tell us the plan? Yes. I'm so excited. I'm going to be hopping back on a horse. It's been almost a year. The last time I did this was riding through Banff National Park. And it's so flat over here, so it's going to be a nice and easy horse ride. I'm very excited. I think we're heading to a lagoon. Nice. And you may be joining us in the vehicle with baby later. So, yeah, we both can't go on. So, thanks for letting me go. Yes. And [clears throat]
I'm going to try to capture as much as I can with my camera here. La pata. Gypsy. Is this Gypsy? Gypsy. Okay. Te tocó Gypsy somewhere. Gypsy. With Gypsy. I'm with Gypsy. Ah, it's Yeah, it's been a It's been about a year since I've been on a horse, so I'm excited to be back on. Hopefully you haven't forgotten how to ride. Yeah, me too. Me neither. You're going to be singing some Fleetwood Mac with Gypsy. Yeah. I've got my Gypsy. Baby. He is a baby.
I really appreciated the Estancia's willingness to accommodate us as a young family. Our daughter, Aurelia, got to enjoy some playtime in the sunshine, and then before we knew it, it was time to drive out and rejoin the others. Once we arrived at the lagoon, a picnic-style merienda was set up with coffee, tea, mate, and chocolate milk for the kids. Loaves of cake were also brought out. It was a windy day, so we wore ponchos. However, the soft afternoon sun helped warm us. Sam set out to take some photos and hopefully catch a glimpse of the elusive capybaras that call the lagoon home.
He was unsuccessful, and I sat by the lagoon with our daughter reading storybooks. Here we are in the living room. Crackling fireplace. Yeah. What a wonderful place to be relaxing after a really, really nice horse ride. Beautiful, scenic. We went through the farms. We went through a eucalyptus avenue. It was nice and sunny, a little windy, too, which was a natural air conditioning. And the end point was a lagoon, and the perfect way after a really nice lunch to get out there and enjoy a little bit of adventure out here in the Estancia. So, I loved it.
We had a bit of free time before dinner, so we went out to enjoy the sunset. That soft golden light was just beautiful, so we fun snapping some family photos to remember this trip by. Well, friends, the sun is setting. We are losing the light of day. We've got two crazy horses running around here, galloping. Um it's been such a wonderful day, such an action-packed day here in the countryside. Like we've just had such a lovely time from the guided visit around the estancia this morning. I got to ride around in the truck and go to the lagoon. We've shared meals with the family, heard stories about how this place came to be, and it's just been so nice. All I can
say is if you're visiting Buenos Aires and you want to experience a family-run working estancia out here in the Pampas, La Tomasa is an excellent choice. It's just been amazing. Like Sam and I have visited a lot of estancias over the years. We've gone on day trips, we've done overnight stays, and this one is honestly one of our favorites so far. So, yeah, would highly recommend. And well, now we're going to go back into the house. We are going to have dinner. There is a crackling fireplace going on, so we're going to get nice and toasty and continue on with the day. We've got one more night here and then tomorrow morning before we depart. While dinner was being prepared, we sat down in the living room in front of a
crackling fire. The owner, Luisa, even brought some of her granddaughter's books for us to read to our daughter. Let's take our kitty, too. Meow. And then we ended the day with another delicious home-cooked meal. This time, an oven-roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots, plus a bottle of Malbec, and for dessert, this wonderful caramelized pear with walnuts and cream. The perfect way to end our stay. A huge thank you to Luisa Macarena for welcoming us into her home and making us feel like family. And thank you to all of you watching. We hope you enjoyed exploring Estancia La Tomasa with us.
