After finishing up our southern
Patagonia adventures it was time to head north. We caught a flight
to Buenos Aires, where we met up with my aunt and uncle who joined us
for the next 10 days. We had a really long layover (7 hrs) and
figured they wouldn't be to the airport until a couple hrs before the
flight, were we surprised to see them checking their luggage right
ahead of us (5 hrs before the flight). It turns out that they had
more trouble traveling from Michigan to Buenos Aires then we have had
in our 7 months on the road. Luckily, they had planned to get in a
day early, so they didn't miss any of the fun stuff. Our flight to
Mendoza was delayed, so when we finally arrived at 10 PM we were all
ready to stumble into the hotel....none of us where prepared when the
driver informed us that it was a 1 hr and 40 minute drive to Posada
Salentein!! Luckily the long drive was worth it and we enjoyed our
first bottle of wine with a meat and cheese platter at midnight.
This late night adventure also resulted in the word of the trip
“Sabrosa!” being coined by Bry, which means tasty but can also
mean awesome, amazing or pretty much anything else we wished.
After a lazy morning the next day we
headed to the winery for a tour and tastings. This winery was HUGE,
they make over 16 million bottles a year. This was the first actual
winery tour we have gone on, so it was great to see all of the
equipment and storage casks being prepared for the harvest which was
just about to begin. The tasting was a little bit different then the
others we have done so far (only 3 wines), but all 3 wines were
outstanding. After the tasting we headed to the restaurant for a 3
course lunch which wouldn't have been complete without more wine! At
lunch we were each served approx half a cow (in steak form), some
delicious empanadas and a chocolate dulce deleche volcano thing. All
three were amazing (along with the 3 bottles of wine), after a couple
hours we all rolled out the door, quickly meandered through the art
museum and then headed back to the Posada for a relaxing evening.
Dinner that night was again HUGE and by midnight we were all in a
food/wine induced coma. I'm pretty sure I could have stopped eating
after this and been set for the next 10 days, but of course no one in
their right mind says no to amazing food and wine!
After breakfast the next morning
(because their croissants and fruit were amazing) we headed over to
another part of the vineyard to go horseback riding. The weather was
perfect and we spent an hour riding around walnut trees, grapevines,
and looking at the mountains rising around us. The saddles were
definitely different from any I had used before, and we had a lot
more freedom to ride then the typical USA trip (no waiver to sign
either). An hour on the horses was plenty and we soon headed off to
visit another vineyard. This vineyard grew organic grapes and the
wine was good, but nothing compared to what we had at Salentein the
previous day. We had lunch scheduled in a different restaurant,
where they gave us copious amounts of food and we finished off
another 5 bottles of wine! In Argentine tradition we didn't finish
eating that meal until almost 5 PM. After all of the excitement (and
food and wine) of the last few days I was beat, so I took a nice 3
hour nap and awoke just in time for dinner. Since it was Saturday
the chef had prepared a traditional grill. I was so full I could
only take a bite of each different kind of meat. The boys must have
bottomless pits for stomaches because they kept taking more meat,
round after round as the waiter brought out the tray. It was a great
end to our stay in the Mendoza region, the next morning we headed off
to Bariloche for fishing (we thought).
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