Estancias in Uruguayguest ranches / dude ranches , estancias de turismo |
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Gäste Estancias – deutsch 
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Dear visitor, I prepared this site, a. to advertise my real estate business, sale of farmland uruguay and b. to support a bit those guest ranches we happened to be able to enjoy on our trips thru Uruguay's Interior (no commercial motive involved). Peer Voss
Uruguay is a a bit of a special place.It used to belong to the world’s wealthiest countries until the 1950s. Decades of relative stagnation and isolation followed, in that way conserving a certain slightly old fashioned european charm of that era, together with quite a lot of Turn of the Century and Art Deco architecture in Montevideo. The famous vintage cars of 1920s and 30s that made the entire country look like a movie set, have disappeared since a couple of years though.Uruguay is big sky Pampa country, 3,5 mio people share it with 4 mio cattle and 500.000 horses. The Uruguayans are an extremely polite people.
For the agricultural investorUruguay holds a temperate climate with its 1200-1300mm of rainfall (at least statistically) evenly distributed over the year, having reverse seasons and being comparable to the climate of SouthEast Australia.Over 90% of the country is used for farming and lifestock, no less then one third of the soils have cropping potential, being to a varying degree black earth prairie soils. Land prices were very attractive up to 2003 but have multipied 4-fold since then. If you look for a specific combination of gaucho- and mediterranian culture and decent farming potential, you might however still find what you look for.
Tourist Estancias, guest ranches in UruguayAs I am writing this, July 2009, I guess there are about 50 rural establishments catering to tourists in Uruguay. About ten might be estancias, ranches in a stricter sence, being working cattle ranches that generate a significant part of their income with livestock and/or agriculture.Estancia tourism as a business started in the late 1980s when agriculture and livestock passed thru a difficult time in Uruguay and establishments were eager to explore additional sources of income. Farm income started to improve from the mid 1990s and with that process some estancias discontinued their guest services, perceiving that tourist income didn’t justify the effort required and the privacy sacrified. Most of the recent start ups seem to be establishments on smaller properties, that did not start as working ranches, but as rural tourist ventures from the beginning.
While local tourists appreciate more comfort and facilities, european and north american travellers value authenticity most, or so it appears to me.
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