The trip begins with your morning arrival in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, February 23. You’ll have the afternoon and early evening for exploring this exotic city, home to the tango, excellent shopping and fine restaurants. Everyone will stay at the Buenos Aires Sofitel Hotel, located in the heart of the city.

On Wednesday you will fly from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, a two-hour jet flight, arriving by mid-afternoon. Hosts from Carrileufu Valley Lodge will meet you at the airport and take you to the lodge – driving time is two and a half hours. It’s a scenic drive south along the base of the Andes, past several spectacular lakes. You will stop in the charming little town of El Bolson for a break and an ice cream cone.

Carrileufu Valley Lodge has been in operation since 1999 although it had a different name, Arroyo Claro Lodge, until 2007. Pancho Panzer, who was Arroyo Claro’s head guide for six years, now has his own business and is managing the lodge under its new name. Liza and I have stayed at this lodge several times over the years and have taken many clients to it. We stayed here in February and were impressed by all the changes Pancho has made: new furnishings, new boats, and a new chef.

We’ve always considered the setting, in the pastoral Carrileufu River valley, to be the best of any we’ve seen in Argentina and Chile. In addition to float and wade trips on the Carrileufu, the lodge’s home river, you will also fish on the Rivadavia in Los Alerces National Park, considered by many to be Argentina’s most beautiful trout stream. Driving time to the put-in on the Rivadavia is only twenty-five minutes. Spring creek fishing is available on the nearby Rivadavia spring creek or on Arroyo Pescado, Argentina’s most famous spring creek.

Our Carrileufu Valley Lodge stay includes five full days of guided fishing. Three of those days and two nights will be floating, fishing and camping on the Chubut River, assuming the weather is good and that there’s enough water in the river.

We will leave Carrileufu Valley Lodge on March 2 and drive back north along the base of the Andes, stopping in El Bolson for lunch. Our hosts from Rio Manso Lodge will meet us in El Bolson and take us to their lodge in Nahuel Huapi National Park. Total driving time between the two lodges is about three hours. We should be at Rio Manso in time for an early evening fishing session on a side channel of the lake, Lago Hess, which is immediately in front of the lodge.

Rio Manso is a relatively new lodge and 2010 will be its sixth season of operation. Liza and I stayed there in 2005, the inaugural season, and have been back each year since. The setting on a hill overlooking the lake, with the glacier-domed Mount Tronodor looming in the distance, is spectacular. The lodge served for many years as a small national park hotel. Two Argentine brothers, Roberto and Jose Pandolfi, purchased the lodge in 2003 and did a complete make-over. The bedrooms are spacious, each with private bath and stunning views of the lake and Mount Tronodor. The main floor includes the living and dining rooms, bar and gift shop. There’s a huge fireplace that is used both mornings and evenings on cool days. A well-designed area for changing into waders and storing fishing gear makes it easy to get ready for each fishing day. The meals, complemented by fine Argentine wines at lunch and dinner, are excellent.

There are two full days of guided float and wade fishing on the Manso River and power boat trips on nearby lakes. If anyone wants to take a day off from fishing, Lorenzo Sympson will be available for a guided nature walk and birding. Lorenzo lives in Bariloche and is South America’s foremost expert on the Andean Condor. Everyone who has spent a day with him has thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

You will depart Rio Manso Lodge after breakfast on Friday morning, March 5th, and drive to the Bariloche airport. You’ll fly back to Buenos Aires, landing at the domestic airport. An English-speaking transfer guide will meet your plane and take you to Ezeiza, the international airport, to connect with an overnight flight back to the States.

COSTS AND TERMS
The package cost is $5100 per person, based on double occupancy. It includes three ground transfers in BA, each with English-speaking guide, van and driver; one night’s hotel stay in BA; nine nights’ lodging in Patagonia; all meals, liquor, wine, beer, bottled water and soft drinks; seven full days of guided fishing and other guided activities like birding, riding or hiking.

The package does not include arrival day lunch or dinner in BA; guide gratuities; lodge staff gratuities; fishing licenses; airfare for flights from the US to BA and return; airfare for flights from BA to Bariloche and return.

A deposit payment of $2,550 is due at booking; final payment is due December 15, 2009. Deposit and final payments are not refunded unless you find someone to take your place.

HOSTS
Doug and Liza McClelland will be your hosts. Doug is a graduate of Yale and UC Berkeley Law School. He’s been a lawyer, professor, fishing guide and National President of Trout Unlimited. Liza is a graduate of Stanford and UC Berkeley, a retired reference librarian, and a Montana native. Liza and Doug started traveling and fishing in Argentina and Chile in 1997; they’ve been back every year since except 2002. They live in Red Lodge, Montana.