26 Apr Mendoza, Argentina

We arrived very early morning which thankfully our lovely host Emmanual accommodated. He was there to welcome us to his lovely home in the village of Chacras de Coria, which is in the wine region of Lujan de Cuyo, approximately 40 minutes South of the centre of Mendoza city. It is surely the most beautiful and charming village in the region. We loved the restaurants – the food, the wine, the people, all just marvellous.

Emma’s home is really something and I hope the photos do it justice. We loved being able to cook up meals and just relax in such beautiful surroundings.

While the centre of Mendoza was nothing special, Chacras de Coria and the surrounding regions were spectacular.

We did 2 day trips from our base and both were incredible.

First up was a privately chauffered wine tour organised by our new friend Santiago, who owned a very nice wine shop in Chacras de Coria. We toured around truly beautiful countryside with the Andes as a backdrop, and visited 2 vineyards for wine tasting, and a third for a degustation lunch. The wine and the food was truly enjoyable and we came back so mellow that we took ourselves off to bed at around 5 pm. It was a good day!

Our second trip was a very long bus tour to Canon del Atuel (Atuel Canyon). The trip itself was rather tedious and long (over 15 hours altogether) and at the end it was very stressful trying to get a taxi back to Chacras de Coria (no Uber) but the canyon was utterly worth it. This truly vast area was once ferociously volcanic, and the sheer variety of geological structures and colour was gobsmacking.