Ian visits Patagonia

Sorry for the lapse in communication. We have been out in the middle of nowhere camping and fishing for the last week and obviously didn't have internet connection. We also don't have a lot of pictures to show because we had a camera accident involving water during the trip, which thankfully did not result in the death of our camera but did require a couple of days of drying time before the camera functioned properly again. Ian had a camera with him, so we'll try to get him to guest blog in the next few days about our experience over the last week.

Our good friend and fishing buddy Ian came down for a visit to see and fly fish Patagonia. He arrived in Bariloche on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 21, after a LONG trip: he sat on the tarmac for 3 hours at RDU airport Wed. night, Feb. 18, because of a weather delay at JFK and ended up not getting to leave Durham until Thursday; connected through Dallas on Thursday; then on to Buenos Aires; then a 20+ hour bus ride across the Pampas of Argentina to Bariloche.

After that, we proceeded to drag him around northern Patagonia staying in a tent each night with no access to showers, electricity, etc., for a round trip of 1000 km and 4 different campsites in 5 nights. At least we did take him to a good Argentine parrilla (steakhouse) before we left for our camping/fishing adventure. Here is Ian with his Sirloin steak cooked to perfection. The steak was too big to include his salad and glass of wine in the picture. :-) Oh, and did he ever catch the fish. Let's just say that on his last full day in Patagonia (Thursday, Feb. 26), he caught 100 trout in ONE DAY, and one of them was a 21 inch brown trout (photo to come later if we can get Ian to guest blog). Thanks for coming to visit, Ian! We had a blast!

We camped and fished by this volcano (Volcán Lanín, which thankfully, unlike others in this part of the world, is currently inactive) on the Río Malleo on Ian's first night and full day in Patagonia. He caught his first Patagonian trout on Sunday morning (Feb. 22) after only about 5 minutes on the water.

More to come in the next few days...