I found sun up there!

In my never ending fight with gravity, or at least being bound to the ground, I decided to conquer the San Juan Islands this afternoon. After a few touch & go's at Friday Harbor, I flew out to Stuart Island and did a go around and a full stop landing. Then over to Orcas for a landing, and then on to Lopez for a landing, before returning to FH and landing. And then realizing that if I took off one more time, I could get some night landings in! Lu, my trusty companion (you've seen the bumper sticker "Dog is my co-pilot"? well - he really is!) well Lu agreed, and off we went for a little more flying, and then flew the pattern for two more landings. D'oh - as I write this I just realized I didn't make one a full stop... Guess I only get to count one of them... Oh well - another excuse to go night flying again!

What the heck have I been up to?

Well, summer is OVER! You may have noticed that I have not posted much at all this summer... Well, I have been busy learning to fly! I got my pilot’s license on Sept. 12th (the day before my birthday!) and have been enjoying the skys ever since! This picture is of me and my airplane at Scappoose, Oregon, after my first long flight as a pilot!

Tough weekend!

Sailing aboard the 1934, 85 foot sailboat Destiny!

Well now I'm having fun!

So I must truly be bord. Or losing my mind. Or both. I don't know anymore. Oh wait - I'm in Cincinnati. That's the problem. My supposed flight from here to Seattle has been delayed a few hours and there *MIGHT* be room on it. If not they'll ship me through Salt Lake City. Oh goody. Might get from SLC to Seattle, might not. They even suggested going BACK to Atlanta to try again... Oh boy Buddy Passes are fun FUN FUCKING FUN!!!

Let me recap:

1.Bariloche to Buenos Aires
2. Buenos Aires to Santiago
3. Santiago to Miami
4. Miami to Atlanta
5. Atlanta to Cincinnati

And the journey continues!

Getting closer!

Now I am in Atlanta after a brief stop in Miami - next stop... Cincinnati! WTF am I doing going to Cincinnati?? I wish I knew! Once there I MAY or MAY NOT actually get to Seattle. Wanna take bets on where I'll end up, or when I'll actually get home? Hahaha...

Santiago, Chile - Waiting in the airport!

Well I am officially on my way home now. I left Buenos Aires at 6:15pm today, and arrived in Santiago, Chile a few minutes ago. Finally figured out how to get online after jumping through hoops for 30 minutes, and also managed to snap a picture of the airport, and my meal! The beer, Kuntzmann, is rather yummy, and the sandwich is called a Lomito - an Argentinian specialty. It's Fillet Mignon, prosciutto, melted cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado... What else could you want? All food groups are represented! I have a little over an hour left here, then off to Miami where I get to kill 6 lovely hours, then to Atlanta for 3 hours and finally home. LONG trip! But I'll tell you what... It was worth it! I can't believe I've been down here in South America for 6 weeks! But I am already planning my return...

Trying to leave Buenos Aires

Who’d a thunk?

So here I am – made it from Bariloche to Buenos Aires... And there are NO seats available on ANY flight to the USA. Not till the 24th. And they are filling up fast. Oh yeah, they are almost $3000 USD for a one way. (Round trip is only $2800!)

Never thought I’d be stuck here against my will. Yeah yeah yeah – I’d love to stay. But there would be some serious ramifications. I’d loose all my clients. My dog would probably forget who I am (if he hasn’t already!) And how to pay the bank to mortgage with no income, when in another country?

Well, here’s the Buenos Aires airport – thousands and thousands of people... All going to the USA – or so it would appear by the lack of seats for ME!

He's just as popular here...

Well, this photo pretty much sums up the attitude here about our dip-shit president!

Funky Art in El Bolsón

There is a great little plaza in El Bolsón that has some really neat-o artwork. There also an Artisans Fair every Wed, Fri, and Sunday there with stuff made all over the region by 42° South Latitude. Turns out El Bolsón is a great little town, with live music every night (of some sort or another) and great food everywhere. Also some pretty mountains bordering Chile, and great fishing in the lakes and rivers!

Breakfast Niche in El Bolsón

Here’s the little street-side café we have Café con Leche y Medialunas. If you are wondering what a medialuna is, it means Half Moon, but it is really a sweet crescent roll. Yummy! Each one has at least a half cup of sugar and half pound of butter! Mmmm.... Medialuna!

Fishing in El Bolsón Argentina

Today is my last day in El Bolsón - about 130 km south of Bariloche. We went out to fish a lake called Lago Puyel and ended up fishing the river upstream of it. What do you think of my fish? I caught about 20 like the little one, then found a good hole with the big fella - about 1 kilo!

My Biggest Fish EVER!

Finally back in the land of electricity, telephones, and internet - this is a belated post!

OK, so here I am, somewhere hundreds of miles south of Bariloche (I've been sworn to secrecy!) in a beautiful lake - and I caught the biggest rainbow trout of my life! It weighed nearly 7 lbs! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! We spent 3 days fishing on this glorious lake - from wading to belly-boating to renting a little zodiac. This is Paradise Lost. Too bad they are building a 4 lane super-highway here (it's a TERRIBLE dirt road for 3 hours from anywhere right now) it will absolutly destroy this place (Note to Rodger - NOT MY FAULT!!!)...

A new beer!

Just past the mountains, we came into a town called El Bolson. It's an old hippie town that still has wonderful color and personality! And some great cafés! We stopped for lunch and had hamburgers the size of a large plate - 10 inches across! Just what we needed with the killer hangovers we had. It's such a nice, laid back town that we decided to postpone the remainder of the drive and stay a while. Fortunately , there's a reggae concert tomorrow night! I think I might like this town!

A new town...

Today we left Bariloche and started heading south towards Rio Chico - a 6 hour drive. We made it about 2 hours and first saw these amazing mountains ...

Where NOT to eat, and where TO eat!

So today we decided to try a nice little road-side restaurant called Cheddar (the verb 'to chedd' haha!) Which had an amazing view and seemed quite nice... Until we saw the menu! ALL fondue! Fondue this and fondue that. Nothing but fondue. Can you imagine stuffing yourself with melted cheese for lunch? I think it was next to a cardiologist's office!

Anyway, we went to Cervezaria Blest - a wonderful little brew-pub with pizza for lunch. Here's pics of where not to go and where to go!

Too cold to fish!

January 1st here is the same as July 1st in the USA. We're at 41° South. It is supposed to be warm... No, it's supposed to be HOT. Somehow the weather got all screwed up down here, and today was rain and 40mph winds and occasional snow. What a lovely summer!

It's still beautiful, so my dad and I decided to go out anyway for a picnic. As you can see, we're a bit chilly!

What I do

¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!

Here I am recording flora and fauna in Argentina. It's what I do!

We headed out New Years Day to a lovely river called Rio de los Moscos for a picnic with a friend of a friend of my dad's from Sun Valley. The water in the river was the most amazing color of blue. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't capture the color at all. But this little picnic spot was lovey... Until the rain and wind came in!

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!

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!

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 -

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!!!

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!

In our groovy rental house!

In our groovy rental house!
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.

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

View from the new house in Bariloche
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.

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...

Lodge in Junìn de los Andes

Lodge in Junìn de los Andes
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.

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)

Flyfishing in Argentina... Again!

Flyfishing in Argentina... Again!
Originally uploaded by IslandWanderer.

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!