Rio Manso Lodge and Carrileufu Valley Lodge
February 24 – March 5, 2009

The trip begins with your morning arrival in Buenos Aires on February 24. You’ll have the afternoon and early evening for exploring this beautiful 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. We’ll gather for cocktails in the hotel’s cozy bar and then go to dinner together.

On Wednesday we will fly from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, a two-hour jet flight, arriving in Bariloche by mid-afternoon. Hosts from Rio Manso will meet us at the airport and take us to the lodge – driving time is an hour and a half. We should be at the lodge in time for an early evening fishing session on a side channel of the lake, Lago Hess, that is immediately in front of the lodge.

Rio Manso is a relatively new lodge and 2009 will be its fifth 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 dinner, are excellent.

There are three 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 hiking and birding trip. Lorenzo lives in Bariloche and is South America’s foremost expert on the Andean Condor. Everyone who has spent a day with him has loved the experience.

We will leave Rio Manso on March 1 and drive south along the base of the Andes to the charming little town of El Bolson where we’ll have lunch. Our hosts from Carrileufu Valley Lodge will meet us in El Bolson and take us to their lodge. Total driving time between the two lodges is about three hours.

Carrileufu Valley Lodge (www.patagoniafishinghosts.com) 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 this February and were impressed by all the changes – new furnishings, new boats, new chef - that Pancho has made.

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, 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. Fishing from power boats is also an excellent option as the lodge is close to the many beautiful and productive lakes of Los Alerces National Park. Spring creek fishing is available on the near-by Rivadavia spring creek or on Arroyo Pescado, Argentina’s most famous spring creek.

After three days of guided fishing at Carrileufu Valley Lodge, you’ll depart Thursday morning, March 5th, and be driven 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 $4500 per person, based on double occupancy. It includes three ground transfers in BA, each with English-speaking guide, van and driver; cocktails, dinner and one night’s hotel stay in BA; eight nights’ lodging in Patagonia (four at each lodge); all meals, liquor, wine, beer, bottled water and soft drinks; six days of guided fishing and other guided activities like birding, riding or hiking.

The package does not include arrival day lunch 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 $2,250 is due at booking; final payment is due December 15, 2008. 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.