I should spend more time in Argentina, I thought to myself as I perused a map of South America. I was in Mexico City trying to decide where I should travel next. Why don’t I spend more time in Argentina? I thoughtfully considered. Was there a reason I didn’t travel to Argentina regularly? My gaze left Google Maps and drifted dreamily into the distance — a congested sidestreet where traffic honked and pedestrians scampered (probably — or maybe; I don’t really know this is a fictitious recollection for dramatic effect). Had I been avoiding Argentina? Hm, no not particularly. But the question was interesting – as much as I am working to improve my Spanish, and as much as I have enjoyed the places I have visited in Argentina, Cordoba, Mendoza, and Buenos Aires — it didn’t really make sense that I didn’t spend more of my time there. I should spend more time in Argentina. Well, I thought, what better time to visit than now? It was autumn in Argentina and apparently a really nice time to visit. I tucked the thought into my mind and continued on with other tasks.
That afternoon I was walking through La Condesa, a neighborhood in Mexico City when I passed by an Argentinian restaurant named “Bariloche” after a famous Patagonian town, San Carlos de Bariloche. “Good enough for me,” I thought, “that’s all the encouragement I need from the universe to head to Argentina next.” So I planned to have a four-day stop-over in Buenos Aires before heading to Bariloche in Patagonia, afterwards. This is typically how I travel – at the behest of the universe and/or obligatory invitations, opportunities, or inspirations; these get aggregated onto a queue of obligatory places I need to travel to. If I can dequeue some destinations before adding new ones, then I feel as though I am making progress. Bariloche had been in my queue for at least four years when my friend Peter told me about it while we were having dinner in Buenos Aires — in fact, I was eating bief de chorizo! Peter had visited Bariloche and done a lot of hiking, claiming that the town was a great adventure destination and launch point into the rest of Patagonia. I was excited to return to Argentina and hit both destinations
I stayed in Palermo Hollywood, an ideal, walkable neighborhood well-suited for visitors. Palermo has lots of restaurants, bars, and cafes; while I’m in Argentina I make a point to eat one of my favorite dishes worldwide, bief de chorizo (sirloin steak). Though I was again busy with work, I found an opportunity to eat steak twice, offsetting years of absence from Argentina. My very cool apartment was the perfect spot for working feverishly — huge, sunlit windows and a kitchen table that I turned into a desk. It made it easy to imagine myself returning for more of the same.
Before heading to the airport in Buenos Aires I met up with and had breakfast with old friends that I used to know in Denver, Colorado before they moved to San Francisco. See if you can find the photo of Scott, Brittany, and their daughter, London in my photos.
And then just like that, I was off to Bariloche! I had one week there and a rental car. Unfortunately, the obligatory work consumed a lot of time that I would otherwise have liked to have spent exploring the area. Instead, I made myself comfortable working from the picturesque cabin I had rented for the week. In the afternoons I sunbathed naked on the outside deck overlooking the lake. The autumnal sun might be the best kind.
But autumn evenings are even better I think. This cozy cabin had a CD stereo system and a variety of albums including Cat Stevens’ Greatest Hits and a 97.3 KBCO album recorded in Studio C, Argentinian artists I had never heard of, and acoustic guitar solos. As the sun went down, it soon became my habit to uncork a bottle of Argentinian Malbec or Tannat wine, make myself a charcuterie of olives, salami, cheese, cocktail onions, peanuts, and almonds and play CD roulette.
The day after I arrived in Bariloche, I had a full-day fishing trip with a guide on the Limay River, outside of Bariloche on Sunday. During autumn, the big Brown Trout are spawning on the Limay and there is a better-than-normal chance to catch a giant, trophy trout. We spent the entire day floating on a drift boat down the Limay and the techniques employed using ten meters of sinking line and large streamers. A long cast would be made and then aggressively stripped in, to catch the attention of these large fish. It was tough work to cast a sink-tip line aggressively for 9 hours, in the cold; I was fortunate to have two layers of gloves I had used for Iztaccihuatl to protect my hands that would have otherwise assuredly been frozen. I caught two small fish once I switched to dry flies, which was fun, but I never got any hits on the streamers.
At midday, we took a break for lunch — steak, chorizo, and Argentinian wine served river-side. By this time the sun was out and the weather was warm. After a few glasses of wine, my casts got a little better too. I never caught one of those big trophy trout I was hoping to, but the experience of fishing on a river in Patagonia, drinking wine in the sunshine, and casting long lines of streamers sure was fun. The two small fish I caught on dry flies were especially fun since I had targeted them specifically — the 5-second delay after the fly landed on the surface of the water was really fun. I was leaning into it just waiting to pull back my rod in expectation of the fish taking the fly — and they did!
The last time that I fished in Argentina was in 2005 in Tierra del Fuego, on a river called the Rio Grande. I was there by myself, didn’t speak any Spanish, but somehow managed to catch a number of very large Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout from the riverside, wading. It was my proudest fishing adventure. Though I have others in New Zealand and Alaska, so far fishing in Argentina brings me warm nostalgia; this was a great way to revisit it again.
After working from the cabin for a few days, I was able to escape for a mini road trip down the seven lake road. It’s this famous, scenic drive that passes around seven different Patagonian lakes. Unfortunately, I only made it to four of the seven lakes before I had to turn back on account of the setting sun, but I did take some nice photos and videos.
