The Mountain Village of Mestia
The village of Mestia is silence and rural calm, a stunning view of the glacier and surrounding mountains, and 160 kilometers of beautiful serpentine road from Zugdidi, the center of Svaneti.
This is a view of the Lekhziri Glacier. Climbers come to Mestia, leave their things in guesthouses, and then head from here into the mountains for several days with light packs.
We arrived in Zugdidi on a night train from Tbilisi. The seats in the sitting car did not let us get any sleep. We got off the train - pouring rain, dark and cold. A driver immediately caught us: "Mestia?" (His phone number, just in case: 557-66-44-75). Ahead of us was a four-hour road with mind-bending views of mountains covered in colorful autumn forest, deep valleys, and a turquoise mountain reservoir. Along the way we came across a road blockage being cleared by two tractors.
We did not book anything in Mestia in advance. It was already off-season, so there should not have been any problem finding a place to stay. We left our backpacks at the tourist center and went off lightly to look at options. Offers ranged from 15 to 35 GEL. Most were guesthouses - simply Georgian homes where they give you a room with a bed, a sideboard, a carpet, shelves with books and household items; and, for an extra fee, you eat whatever the hosts cook. But we wanted something closer to a hostel in everyday use (no sideboards, but with a kitchen where we could freely take care of ourselves). In the end, after walking around the whole village and looking at a dozen rooms, we found a wonderful place. Although it is called a guesthouse, it is closer to a three-star mini-hotel. I strongly recommend going there first. It is called GuestHouse Maria. Phone numbers: 599-79-13-02 and 591-14-17-00.
One floor below, in the same house, the owners bake bread (for the whole village, as I understand it). I asked for bread - they gave me a huge flatbread. I asked for a smaller one. They said: "There is no smaller one, but we will bake one for you now, wait a couple of minutes." In general I like Georgian flatbreads, but straight from the tandoor - that is incredibly delicious.
More accommodation contacts can be found on Wikitravel: http://wikitravel.org/en/Mestia.
And another business card from some Mestia guesthouse:
Mestia is at an altitude of one and a half kilometers above sea level. And although just a few days earlier we were swimming in the sea in Batumi, here the morning view from the window looked like this.
It rained the whole time. We decided to leave a day earlier than planned. We called the driver - he said there had been a landslide and the road was closed. Later it turned out that the airfield in Mestia was not being used; the planes were outdated, and nobody had taken care of getting new ones.
On the way back, the driver turned off the road and took us to the Enguri Dam to take photos. Part of the serpentine road runs along the reservoir of this hydroelectric plant.
The bright turquoise color of the water looks stunningly beautiful and mesmerizing against the rocky mountain gorge. I have not yet seen a more beautiful serpentine road.