Saturday, December 30, 2006

Hiking in Patagonia



Happy almost New Year! Today was the first NICE day we had in three weeks – upper 70’s and SUN SUN SUN - oh yeah, and NO WIND!! So we decided to head to the mountains! We went to Cerro Cathedral where there was a 6-seater chairlift operating that whisked us straight to the top where we found a lovely little restaurant for lunch then we hiked around the ridge for a few hours, and then rode the chair back down. From the top we could see into Chile and a HUGE part of Argentina - the entire lake Lago Nahuel Huapi which is over 100 km long! It was a pretty amazing way to spend the day!

Friday, December 29, 2006

Chinese Trout


Yesterday we went fly-fishing in a river right next to a HUGE trout farm. The fishing was, needless to say, amazing! A fish on every cast. I actually caught one so big that it ran out my entinre line then jerked me off the rock I was precariously balanced on. Waders work really well to keep the water out, unless you go under. Then they work really well to keep the water in!

This is one of the only rivers you are allowed to actually keep fish! So we kept 4 (two each) and tooke them to a Chinese restaurant and had the cook do us up a special treat for dinner! Two trout were cooked up in an Oyster Sauce with Veggies, and the other two were prepared in a spicy sauce and slightly fried. VERY GOOD!!!

(By the way, the beer in the sink is one of those little 1 1/2 liter bottles!)

Fly-Fishing Rio Pichi Leufú



Today was an amazing day for fishing! We drove about 65km from Bariloche up a river called Rio Pichi Leufú and then down a terrible washed-out dirt road, to a beautiful little spot on the river near the Tren Patagonico bridge, and the fishing was incredible! There was one hole I got 10 fish in 10 casts! (They were little tiny 6" rainbow, but what the hell- still fun!) Upstream a bit was a better spot, yeilding 12-14 inch rainbows! I must say, fly fishing in Patagonia is AMAZING!

Monday, December 25, 2006

My new doggy

Well I've been missing my dog at home a bit, so I let this 'perro de bario' adopt me! He's got the freakiest eyes I've ever seen - just like Marilyn Manson! But he's really nice and diligently watches over our cabaña!

Merry Christmas!


Well, here it is, Christmas day. It's pretty strange here in South America. It's sunny, there's no snow, practically no one has ever heard of Santa, and the shops had NO decorations and hype like the USA. (There's also no mention of Bush, Iraq, or any of that other bullshit!) It's refreshing to see that there are more important things, like family and friends, than what the US media and Hallmark force feeds us all the time!

Anyway, this picture was from last nights dinner with our neighbors and our landlords. Dinner was served around 11:30pm and we didn't leave until nearly 2am! At midnight, the kids all opened their presents, and the adults toasted with some interesting NA FIZZ drink, along with copious amounts of fine Argentinian wine. What a treat!

Today is very windy, but still sunny. We're having a low-key day hanging out inside, enjoying the view.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas / Hanuka / Kwanzaa / Holiday!

Peace and love -

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Fly Fishing Christmas Eve

What a way to spend Christmas Eve! We headed out at 10:30 am this morning and drove about 50 miles to a great little lake called Lago Gutierrez and for the first time in my life fly-fished with wet flies in a lake! Anyway, I caught a great 15" Rainbow and my dad caught one too!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Top of the mountain!


Top of the mountain!
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
Today we drove partially to the top of the Cerro Otto ski resort (though we couldn't see any ski runs!) and then hiked all the way to the top where we found a great little place, called Refugio de la Cumbre, with wonderful cafè con lèche. The scenery is beautiful, and the restaurant is a rotating one, like the Space Needle in Seattle!

Dessert


Dessert
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
We had a very yummy trout dinner that came with a very fancy flan dessert!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

In our groovy rental house!

Here I am with the incredible view in the background, on Skype talking to

the USA! This house is simply AMAZING and the view over Lago Nahuel Huapi is

ASTOUNDING! (and NO ­ there wasn¹t ANY vino involved!!!)

Cooking dinner


Cooking dinner
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
We've been in Argentina for three weeks now, and because we finally have a house to stay in for more than 2 nights, we're cooking dinner! So what are we having, you might ask??? Nothing local! We're going to have an Arrabiatta pasta! YUMMY!

View from the new house in Bariloche

We drove from Junìn de los Andes to Bariloche today. It's absolutely beautiful, and this is the view from the house we rented for 2 weeks. We're above a HUGE lake called Lago Nahuel Huapi with 1200 foot depths and today in the 40+ mph winds, 6-8 foot breaking waves! (got that all you surfers?!?)



More to come soon...

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Lodge in Junìn de los Andes

Today we escaped the rain and left for a wonderful little fishing Lodge north of San Martin de los Andes in a town caled Junìn de los Andes. We can see the Lanin Volcano, a 12,000 foot volcano (a little one here) from our cabaña and the fishing was great! I got a 16" Brown trout, and my dad got one the same size! There were also a lot of little guys. The lodge is called Spring Creek Lodge (www.bigtroutfitters.com)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Flyfishing in Argentina... Again!

Here's a great little creek outside of Junin de los Andes (an hour north of San Martin de los Andes - where we've been staying) and it looks just like Sun Valley! We're going to try fishing it tomorrow, as we've been invited to be guests at the $900 dollar a night (no shit!) lodge for free for a night! Woohoo!

Back in Argentina


Back in Argentina
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
We came back to Argentina after two days in Chile! Here's the little cabaña we stayed in for two days in Angostura. Or at least, here's the sign!

Yan Kee Way Lodge


Yan Kee Way Lodge
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
We met some friends of my dad's from Seatle in Chile for dinner at an incredible lodge called the Yan Kee Way Lodge (on the edge of the Llanquehue Lake) - it's a very froufrou place ($400 US per person/night! Everything else is about $40 US per night) but the food was exceptional and so was the wine. The wood carvings were pretty cool, too!

Flyfishing in Chile


Flyfishing in Chile
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.
Here's the little river, Rio Pescador, we were flyfishing in Chile, near a town called Ensenada, which is on the edge of a giant lake between two enormous volcanoes!

Welcome to my new Blog!

Hello Everyone!

This is going to be the new home of my blogs, due to the old provider deciding to hold all of my images and writing hostage for an outrageous amount of money. So - a new blog for a new year, it seems! I'll be trying to move all of my old postings over during the next few days, so bear with me - as they say, please excuse the mess while we remodel!

Anyway, I'm still in Argentina, in a small town with roughly the same population of San Juan County, called San Martin de los Andes. We've been here a few days, and will be for a few more. We've been having a great time Fly Fishing in Patagonia! The sun finally came out after 5 days of rain, but with the sun came 35+ mph winds! Pretty tough to cast with that kind of wind! So today we are going to go for a hike in a National Park near a 12,000' volcano. It's beautiful, and I'll try to get some photos up ASAP!

Take care all, and as they say here - Cíao!