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Fishing upside down, Part I

Fishing and hunting

It is summer here in Patagonia, Argentina, and a hot wind is blowing, yet there is no politician for miles.

Dottie and I, and Tom and Katherine Culligan, flew south last week to escape the cold, learn the tango, and catch some fish. Two out of three isn’t bad.

We escaped the cold. It’s hot down here. We caught some fish. But we didn’t learn the tango. And, most important, we didn’t fall off the globe.

After a few days in Buenos Aires, during which we visited every monument, old church, government building, and, of course, the tomb of Evita, Eva Peron, we flew south and west to a land that looks very much like Montana.

But before I mention the fishing, let me just say that some of the most expensive real estate in the Americas, north or south, is in the Recoleto necropolis, where Evita was laid to rest.

We’re talking six to seven figures for a modest tomb – perhaps small by early Egyptian standards, but elaborate and extravagant, in the minds of most of us who figure we’ll be planted under an old shrub in the back 40 some day.

I was also disappointed that Madonna was a no show at the Casa Rosada, so I cried for Sonoma. The truth is I left you – but only for a few weeks.

Now back to our wild days and mad existence in Patagonia. We fished the Collon Cura river (pronounced Coshun Cura by locals), with two extraordinary guides, Tuqui’s and Sancho (both muy guapo Dottie said) and caught muchas truchas (rainbow trout) planted here in the late 1800s from brood stock taken from California’s McCloud River.

Anyway, Katherine out-fished us all, catching the most fish and the biggest, 22 inches. Dottie caught trout using a dry-fly for the first time, and I hooked, and broke off, the biggest German brown trout I have ever seen. Tom also caught a lot of big trout.

The wind down here is constant and somewhere between blow-you-away and a free-trip-to-Oz. Never the less, we managed to catch fish and have fun. Our trip, arranged by Rachel Andras, is a great success so far. More next Friday.

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