We have spent 20 years bouncing around Utah, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado during the Holidays (seeing family) but not this year! We decided to spend 10 days in Chile!
We flew into Puerto Natales (Houston->Lima->Santiago-> Puerto Natales) to visit Torres del Paine and stay at a lodge named Remota. The views were amazing (duh!).
The lodge
Torres del Paine is amazing (another poster on the OB did a great job taking pictures and sharing a few months ago!)
It was pretty awesome to see Guanaco (Llama's) wandering around the park with stunning views in the background
We saw plenty of condors in the region.
We didn't plan on fishing near Puerto Natales but the head guide saw us come in with fly fishing gear and insisted that we spend a day with him on a local spring creek... thankfully the wife agree'd (we had 4 days of fishing on the books in Coihaique later in the trip).
I won't be naming the Estancia but the views were amazing. in the pic below there are sheep and flamingo's (likely can't see with the posting quality). The ranches down here are truly amazing: massive land holdings, beautiful vistas, highly productive (sheep, cattle, idiots from N. America fishing) etc.
We came across a dead Rhea (related to an Ostrich) and pulled some feathers for fly tying. Further discussion lead to us agreeing to pick up the bird at the end of the day (and we did, I have no idea what i'm going to use these feathers for but I have a lifetime supply!)
Did I mention it was scenic? Amazing spring creek with views of Torres del Paine!
okay, time to see some fish (this is the Flyfishing thread!)
We had a bit of a slow day on this spring creek and didn't land any monsters.
I caught this fish in the evening on a size 18 elk hair caddis I tied. We found this fish sipping caddis on the surface in some still water just behind some current. We slipped in and did some casting laying on the ground and patiently waiting for the fish to move into the current where I could put the fly for a decent drift.
We fished until about 10 pm (kind of like visiting North Dakota in the summer, stays light forever!) This picture was taken in the evening with the spring creek in the background and some of this scene is located in Argentina. Dinner was eaten in the truck along with a nice bottle of Chilean wine before we eased on down the road to pick up our Rhea. Unfortunately, we had some mechanical issues and didn't get home until around 2 am.
We slept in the next day and didn't book any "excursions" (who knew we'd be back at 2 am!). The lodge had an opening for a mtn bike ride (only event that was still open), why not! The lupine were in full bloom.
There was another guy on the ride with us in addition to our "guide". The other rider was a self proclaimed "racer" and our poor guide carried a backpack with everyone's water, first aid kit and small assortment of not so useful bike tools. Despite being half our age (between the 3 of us), our poor guide couldn't keep up as we tore up this trail and opened/ closed the gates for the poor hombre leading the ride! (My wife and I met on the Texas A&M cycling team and rode hard this spring getting ready for the MS-150).
How about a bar-b-que!
It was time to move from Puerto Natales to Coihaique to stay with our friends at Cinco Rio's.
We were watching video's on YouTube prior to our trip and came across a video clip of Cinco Rio's on fire! Unfortunately, the lodge burned down in February of 2018 and our booking agency didn't bother to tell us this minor detail when we booked in July. We checked in and were assured everything would be okay by the time we showed up in December. Turns out, they were right but my wife was a bit concerned (think about all the "soft openings" for restaurant's... given a choice we never go until things are lined out! Sebastian runs the lodge and was an incredible host, he kept everybody on the payroll and didn't miss a beat).
This region has at least 5 rivers (Cinco Rio's!) and many lakes. We took a jet boat on our first day to fish a lake then drift for a few miles on a river.
Mi Esposa (Rule Numero Uno!)
Killed the small fish on some wooly buggers I tied for the trip. Pics below are a merger of a couple of different days spent on lakes:
I've had some good lunches on streams but Chileans beat everybody in N. America with meals! We typically had some veggies, chicken or lamb, soup and Chilean wine for lunch followed by warm coffee if necessary (It was indeed necessary on a few days!).
We don't have any pictures of the bad weather but suffice it to say, when the wind picks up in Chile, things get serious. Coming back on this day, the spray from the boat as we crossed the chop in this lake in 40+ mph winds was like riding in my buddies 1996 pathfinder in 2' sea's in Port O' Conner! Before we hit the wall of wind and chop, everybody donned a PFD.
Evenings back at the lodge were super fun. All meals are served family style and you get to meet guests from around the world. We had a great time meeting new folks and one evening, they had a local gaucho come sing old country western songs (this guy loved Johnny Cash, Elvis and the Eagle)!
Nobody goes hungry or thirsty. Cinco Rio's has a full bar, beer on tap and bottle along with great Chilean wine.
We only had 4 days at Cinco Rio's but especially enjoyed our day on one of the small streams that was sheltered from the wind (We had some tough weather on this trip).
A big fish for this stream. I spotted this fish rising just against the opposite bank. She was rising regularly but the casting was tricky with the wind. I finally managed a cast across the stream and put my size 18 caddis on the local flora. A slight pull dropped the fly on the water 24" in front of the rising fish. She rose to the fly and the game was over! Our guide, Felipe, was nearby and warned me to be careful with the small tippet (4x). Chileans don't comprehend 5,6 or 7x tippet and they don't have too!
My wife had a hard time getting this fly out of a fish's mouth. The struggle was because the shank of the fly was bent... ever seen this? The fish didn't do it, she didn't bend it removing, must have been caught on a rock on a prior cast?
We did a day trip to Estancia del Zorro
We went to del Zorro to catch a monster but the cold front that came through shut down the spring creek. Caught a few fish but nothing notable, check out Cinco Rio's instragram page to see pics of the brown trout we were chasing.
On our last day, a pretty rainbow gave us a great parting pic as you look over the Simpson Valley.
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