2011-11 Posada Salentein, BBQ Asado, and Our Last Day

On Saturday, we rented a car and drove about 1 hour and 45 minutes south of Mendoza to the Valle de Uco and the Bodega Salentein.  Mariah had found this place on the recommendation of one of her freinds, whose parents stayed here during their visit, so we decided to stay here one night.  It is absolutly georgeous setting, surrounded by vineyards, mountains and open space.  the air was clear and clean, and the stars were brilliant.  We stayed at the posada (lodging) and visited the bodega (winery) on the finca (farm).


 When we arrived, the parking lot was full and we found out that there was a birthday party going on for one of the top dogs of the winery.  Our room was not quite ready, but we were offered a glass of wine and sat at on the veranda and enjoyed the views and weather.  Once our room was ready, we were so plesently suprised to how nice the room was.  It was a two story room with two large bedrooms, a kitechenette and dining area.  Waiting for us on the kitchen table was a bottle of Malbec to greet us.


We walked through the vineyards and took a lot of photos while we were waiting to go on a horseback ride around 6:00.  We drove about 2 miles to the horse stable and met up with our guide.  The horses were all very mellow and always felt like walking rather than galloping or trotting, which was fine with us.  We took a trail out through and laong the edge of multiple vineyards, all seperated by very atall trees used as windbreaks.  We had a great view of the mountains on our left side the entire trip out.  As we were going through the trees, I tried to take some pictures, but it was a lot darker than it seemed and they all came out blurry.  Mariah was able to get some clear photos fortunately.

Coming back, we went through the heart of the vineyard on an access road with grapes, olives and walnuts on each side of us.  We rode for a little over an hour as the sun was setting and it was starting to cool off.  Once we got back to the posada, we changed clothes and went to the restaurant for dinner.  We had a nice 4 course dinner with 3 different wines matched to the various foods we were having.  As with all of the food we had while there, it did not disappoint.

We got up for breakfast on Sunday morning before heading the Bodega for a tour of the winery.  Besides the winery, they had a large art gallery and sculpture garden on the grounds.  Before the tour, we decided on what wines we wanted to buy to bring back home, along with a couple of other souvenirs.  

As we were heading between the welcome center and the winery, we happened to grab an umbrella because it looked like it could rain.  After the tour, we were glad we had the umbrellas because it was raining hard.  The winery at Salentein Bodega is very new and modern, it was built about 10 years ago.  The winery not only is a functional winery, but it is also set up as a show place that can host events in a very unique environemnt.  While we were there, a piano was set up in the middle of the floor surrounded by barrels of wine that were aging.  Waht a great place it would be for a fancy function.

Salentein has it own bottling machine and is one of the few wineries that has it own bottling machine and can take the wince from grape to bottle all in the same place.

Once we finished the tour, we headed back to Mendoza for an asado (a large barbeque party) that Mariah and Susy were having for us and their friends.  It was raining very hard for about the first 45 minutes of our drive back, which was all on 2 lane roads.  About the time the rain quit, was about the time we got back to the divided highway and the driving got easier.

We got back to our hotel and dropped off our bags before walking back to Mariah's for the asado.  One of Susy's friends was helping with the grilling (indoor on the stove since it had been raining).  We had about 5 different kinds of meat including blood sausage, a gland from the throat of a cow, some ribs, chirizo sausage, along with salad, olives and dessert.  The food was great and we also got to meet 6 of Mariah's friends who were part of the study abroad program with her.

After dinner we drove out to the southwest along mountains to enjoy the scenery in a different part of town.  Mariah had a test on Monday, so we headed back and skipped dinner so that she was able to study and put her presentation together (although later she would get a reprieve on that).

Monday we packed up and tried to fit all the extra items (mainly bottle of wine) into our luggage for the trip home.  We met Mariah to go get some gelato, which we had wanted to do all week but hadn't found the time.  there were over 20 flavors to choose from.

We stopped in a small market so Mariah could get some fruit for a snack, and were suprised to find a mini museum in the market.  In the back room was a display case loaded with stuffed (taxidermy) birds and animals.  I had noticed a few foreign currency bills under glass on the counter when I checked out, and then we noticed that all the walls above the shelves were filled with coins and currency from around the world.  Who would have thought that a small market in Mendoza could be a destination and learning center, that's what makes exploring new places so much fun.

We decided to walk with Mariah to class since we had not seen the school yet.  All the students gather outside the building until they are called in by the professor.  As we were waiting, the professor recognized that we must have been Mariah's parents (I guess we don't look like college students anymore), and came over to greet us.  When she found out we were going to the airport in about an hour, whe exceused Mariah from her presentation that day and told her she could do it on Wednesday instead so she could come to the airport with us.

We walked back to the hotel, got our bags and grabbed a taxi to the airport.  We checked in and tried to get our bags checked all the way to Minneapolis, but since we were on 2 different tickets, they were not able to.  We headed to the security line, had some long goodbyes, hugs and thanks with Mariah for all she had done for us while we were there and headed to the gate.  Our flight was listed as an hour late, but arrived just a few minutes late and we were on our way only about 20 minutes late and got one last look going over the Andes.  When we got to Santiago, a transfer agent was at the end of the Jetway, took our baggage tag numbers and assured us our bags would get re-tagged to MSP.  Our flight to Atlanta was going to be about an hours late due to flight crew rest requirements, so we had over 5 hours to kill in the airport.  We had some drinks, food and wondered through some shops.  we got boarded about 10:30 PM and I think I was asleep about 45 minutes later.  We got in about 7:00AM and were hoping our bags made it.  We got a little worried as more and more people got their bags and left the carousel.  Finally, our bags came off at the end of the last group of bags.  We cleared customs and immigration, rechecked the bags to MSP and had about 30 minutes before our flight left.  We got on the train to go out to the next to the last terminal and got to our gate as the flight was boarding.  We were back in the US, on our last flight, with all of our bags accounted for and no broken bottles.  The end of a great vacation to Mendoza!