We arrived at the Mendoza airport at 8 in the evening and rented a car. We had a few different maps, but still got lost on the city streets. After much time circling on different round-abouts ten times trying to figure out which branch to take, we finally got on the small local road that led to the small suburb of Mendoza. The trip to Chacras de Coria should have taken just over half an hour, but all in all, it took us about an hour and a half. If you’re driving in the dark, the key is to take route 40 south, and then exit Araoz or Castro Barrio, driving to San Martin to Pueyrredon.
After the confusing journey in, driving through the wooden gates of Casa Glebinias was a huge relief. Alberto, our host and the owner of the country lodge, helped carry our bags to our cottage and even helped us order take out food for dinner.
Casa Glebinias was the highlight of our trip to Argentina. The efforts that owner-hosts Alberto, Maria Gracia, and Florencia take to make you feel like part of the family are amazing. Every day they ask you how your stay is and want to hear about your travels. They are happy to act as travel advisors, helping to make reservations and answer every possible question a tourist can come up with. For our first few days there, they spent at least an hour every night answering questions about activities and transport. In the mornings, they would help us call different wineries to make reservations. We witnessed the care that the family has for all of its guests one night when we found Alberto pouring over a Spanish-English dictionary. Although his English is excellent, he explained to us that sometimes some words have nuances that he likes to understand before replying.
The cottage was beautiful, with custom woodwork and antique window frames. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchenette (no stove, but microwave and kitchen sink). The cottage was furnished and decorated in a Tuscan-country style, and was simple, elegant, and spotless. The property consists of the principal house surrounded by four cozy cottages. The garden is intimate and much begging for petting and attention by the family’s animals (three dogs and several cats) made us feel at home. Bountiful breakfasts were easily turned into two meals and included fresh squeezed OJ, pastries, breads, sandwiches and the best medialunas we had in Argentina.
We did many different things during our stay in Chacras de Coria, and there was enough to do that we wished we could have stayed for another week. We spent a day exploring Mendoza, which has the warm, sleepy feel of a wine town. We spent some time in Chacras de Coria, which is as charming as Casa Glebinias; we enjoyed wandering through the town square, perusing the antique market, and listening to the Sunday police band. We spent another day driving the Alta Montana, taking the roundtrip route that goes past Villavicencio. Most of the tourists go up and back on the highway, which takes a couple hours each way. The dirt road that we took past Villavicencio was twisty and slow going (20-30 km/hr max), but the views of the Andes were amazing. If you’re going to make the effort to do the drive, we recommend taking that route. We spent several more days exploring wineries in the area. See our post on wine tourism in Mendoza.






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