A stone-crafted, architectural masterpiece overlooking the Trocoman River, Casa Grande is the hub of activity at Ranquilco. The gathering place for meals and good company, it is home to the beautiful ranch kitchen where our chefs can take in the enormous view through the windowed outer wall while cooking, a large dining room with a vaulted cathedral ceiling and magnificent handcrafted stone fireplace, and a spacious patio overlooking the river valley on which we eat most of our meals.  Guests are welcome anytime to relax on the patio with a glass of wine to soak up the view and savor the delicious aromas wafting out from the kitchen or up from the asado fire.

Construction on the lodge started the year we bought the ranch, in 1978. The stones were quarried on the ranch and brought in by tractor - requiring two trips a day throughout the summer months. Each stone was hand-shaped with mallet and chisel by a master Argentine stonemason and his assistants. The project took three years to complete, all by hand without modern power tools and equipment. Everything in the house - antique furniture, waterford china, piano - was brought in over the mountains and across the river by tractor.