This is Steve’s narrative of our trip to Argentina. You can tell he writes to a different audience than I do. I will add pictures to the post.
Our next trip was to Argentina where I fished the Chimehuin out of Tipiliuke Lodge near San Martin de los Andes on Feb 26, 27, 28 and then after a stay in Villa Angostura, the Traful and Limay out of Estancia Arroyo Verde near Bariloche, March 3-7.
Tipiliuke (tipiliuke.com) is a beautiful old lodge in a very large estancia, with the Lanin volcano, over 11,000 feet and snow capped, visible in the distance. 
There are 2 rivers, plus a constructed spring creek, but I fished the main draw, the Chimehuin, all 3 days. My guide was Adrain, a very experienced and knowledgeable guide and fisherman, who is captain of the Argentine national team. The Chimehuin is a good sized river with deep pools, fast runs,and broad riffles, crossable at this low water season. The water temperature was 60-62 and the river was very clear. It is populated with wild rainbows and browns, with some huge browns taken, especially in April. the weather was beautiful every day-cool mornings that warmed to around 60 by the time we hit the water around 10 am, and peaking around 75-80 in late afternoon. It was breezy, but nothing like Chile. The fishing day was 10 am until around 2 pm, then a great lunch back at the lodge and a siesta, followed by an evening session from around 6 pm until dark, which was close to 9 pm even this late in the season. Dinner was at 10 pm. On February 26 I fished the El Cardinal beat and caught 12 rainbows and 2 browns in the first session, with the best a 17 ” rainbow . Most came on Adrian’s fullinguista nymph, a spartan Spanish perigon nymph of thread and UV cement with a copper bead. For the pm session, I fished the Whitestone beat and caught 13 rainbows and 3 browns, none over 13″. Fishing was fast and furious during the last half hour of daylight swinging a yellow mayfly nymph in a fast riffle.
On February 27, I fished the Anquendo beat for the am session and caught 14 rainbows and 1 brown. I caught 2 on the PMX, one on a fly I tied, and most of the rest on another Euro nymph, the blue and orange. (Linda’s comment is “the blue and orange, not to be confused with the orange and blue”) Three fish were 16-17.75″ and three others were 13-14″. For the pm, I fished Andres’ pool and Cormorant Island, and caught 9 rainbows and 2 browns. One rainbow was 18″. Again the yellow mayfly nymph was hot, but I also caught 3 on the dun, a size 8. The hatch lasts only 20 minutes but it’s great fun.
On February 28 I fished the same beat as the prior pm, just a lower section. I caught 18 rainbows and 2 browns in the am session, most on another Euro nymph called the Superman because of its red and blue colors. I also caught 5 on small dries. Again, my largest was an 18′ rainbow. 
For the evening I convinced Linda to go out for the yellow fly hatch. 
She caught 3 swinging the nymph in fast waster, one a hard fighting 16 incher, and she was briefly attached to a really big fish. This time we have both photo and video evidence, thanks to Adrian.
Adrian had me use his Euro nymphing outfit, a 10 foot, 3 weight rod with a tiny reel spooled with monofilament. I quickly caught 8, none large, in a nice run, then one more on the yellow fly nymph,giving me 30 for the day and 86 for the 3 days on the Chimehuin. I loved both the river and Tipiliuke Lodge, and would like to return some day. Adrian was a superb guide, both enthusiastic and knowledgeable.
Starting on the evening of March 3, I fished the Traful on the property of Estancia Arroyo Verde. estanciaarroyoverde.com.ar. Both the river and lodge are justly famous for their beauty and ambiance. 
Fernando Gonzalez was my guide for the entire stay. Like Adrian, he is very experienced and knowledgeable. 
On this first evening, I caught 2 7 inchers on a PMX. The next morning, March 4, was cool and windy and we fished the upper 2 pools where landlocked salmon are often found. We sighted 5, which I cast to hundreds of times, with no action. In the pm session, I fished some gorgeous water downstream and caught only 3 small fish on the PMX. The water was slow and extremely clear, and a bit too warm, which could explain the lack of good fish showing . I asked Fernando what he thought and he said, “I have many excuses. I just don’t know which one is right”. But I knew going in that the Traful is moody and difficult, with few fish but also some really big ones. 
March 5 started well. It was a beautiful sunny toning, cool and calm. I caught a 19″ brown on my first cast at the head of a small side channel on a PMX and caught 6 small rainbows on dries. 
We also saw 3 very nice browns in a willow lined side channel, and marked their lies for the evening session. 
In the evening I caught only 1 15″ brown on a Fat Albert . The others we saw in the morning did not show.
On March 6 I floated the Limay from 12 Miles upstream of the reservoir down to its entrance. 
The Limay is big water, even this late in the season. Wading is not really an option. It has a mixture of small to medium sized rainbows and browns that can exceed 10 pounds. The rainbows take insect imitations but the browns eat meat, especially a crab called a Pancora, which is very common. It is 1-2 inches long and very dark. We used a PMX or chubby Chernobyl on a 6 weight and pancora imitations on a 7 weight with a fast sinking tip. The fish were widely scattered, with the best fishing in the shallowest, fastest water. Deep runs and pools simply did not produce, although they do at times produce big browns. I caught 5 browns and 7 rainbows for the day. The rainbows were 10-15″, and only one came to a dry, although I missed 2 nice browns on the PMX. All of the other fish took the pancora or an articulated leech. One of these was a very thick brown, over 21″ that Fernando guesstimated at 2.5 kg, or about 5.5 pounds. 
But the star of the day was a very fat 18 inch brown that was as beautiful as any I’ve caught. 
All of the fish that took the pancora or leech crushed it. 
On March 7, we again tried for salmon in the 2 uppermost pools below the lake outlet. The first had no fish visible, but 3 were sitting on a shallow gravel bar in the second pool. 
After many casts, I was able to hook and land a very nice 24 incher on an ugly bug nymph. I was very disappointed with the fight, mostly head shaking and a few short runs. Later, I caught a small brown and a small rainbow, giving me the grand slam for the Traful. In the evening, we again went hunting for big browns, but I caught only 4 smallish rainbows on the PMX. However, that evening another guest, Dennis Hall of Calgary, who has fished the Traful for years, caught an incredible 29.5″ brown on a big streamer, besting the 28″ brown he’d caught a few years back. 
The prior evening, in response to my commenting that the fishing was slow, Dennis remarked “Yes, but always remember that on this river your next cast can produce the fish of a lifetime”. This is why I want to return to the Traful. Fernando emphasized that April is best, when the water cools and the browns begin their spawning run, both from the lake above and reservoir below. Likewise the Limay gives up its best fish then.
Overall, I caught 32 during my 4.5 days of fishing at Arroyo Verde, and 118 for the trip.
I hope that you enjoyed Steve’s trip report and my inserted pictures!
We left Tipiliuke and headed south west to San Martin de los Andes. 
On the way we passed a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course. Did you know that Jack liked to fish also?There are a few lots available to purchase in the golf course development. 
This is one of the grocery stores that I stopped at with Mary Jo the other day. No time to stop today, we had places to go, adventures to enjoy! 
San MartÃn de los Andes is located at the end of Lake Lácar, or Lagar Lácar as the Argentinians say. There are lots of roses everywhere, and the buildings are built in a Tyrollean style. Many of the shops sell ski gear, chocolates and sporting clothes. 
Lagar Lácar is a glacial lake, and there is only development near the base of the lake. Lanin National Park was created in 1937, and the logging industry that had been prevalent was ended. The area reminded me of Lake George without the houses!
It’s about 12:40 on a Thursday afternoon, only a few people are on the beach. It would be equivalent to a Thursday after Labor Day back home. There are a few boats at the marina here to take people on a cruise.
We stopped to enjoy the view at Lago Machónico vista. 
Here is Steve with our driver. I can’t remember his name, but he did have a sexy Argentinian accent! Not to worry though, Steve is still my main squeeze!
This is a picture of the truck we were driven in. They had lots of truck similar to this in Chile also. Steve thinks that they would sell like hot cakes in the US. 
Here is a panoramic view of Lago Machónico vista. We eventually passed by seven of the lakes, that I previously told you we would pass on Seven Lakes Road. After almost 3 hours we arrived at Villa La Angostura. More later!
Tipiliuke Lodge is also known as Estancia Los Pinos. I believe there are over 1000 trees from around the world here! The Estancia is still family owned, but Kevin and Mary Jo are in charge of the guest lodge. We did not meet any of the family on our trip, maybe next time! 
Yes, the weather was sunny and delightful. Back home they were expecting a terrible snow storm. This view is from a little higher up, you an see the meandering stream quite well. If you drive further to the right down 49, you will end up at River House. 
Now from farther up in the sky, you see Junin de los Andes at the top of the picture. San Martin de los Andes is just south and to the west. It’s on a lake, you can’t quite see the lake as the name is in the way.
This is the map of the Estancia. It is almost 50,000 acres! The Larminat Brothers came to Tipiliuike in 1909 from France. They fell in love with the area, as does everyone who visits here! The Larminat family still owns the Estancia.
An aerial view of the lodge where we stayed. You can see the pergola where we had lunch on the left of the picture.
There is a beautiful view of Tipiliuke from the back garden. This phot was taken in the fall.
This was the bar, where everyone would gather at all times of the day. This is where I would sit and work on my blog. I would often show Maru or Monica a picture and ask them what it was, for my posts. 
Here is the living room. We didn’t have any fires as it was summer. Here we see the afternoon tea and coffee set up.
After a day of fishing, Steve would return to this sight. How welcoming! Life doesn’t get much better than this, does it? 
Here is a picture of Adrian, who was Steve’s guide. Maru and Monica, comprise the rest of the trio. This picture was taken earlier in the week. Maru left on Tuesday to fly to Buenos Aries to attend her sister’s wedding. There were going to be 400 guests, I told her to keep her eyes open there for a special someone. In my romance novels, weddings are often a great place to meet your future spouse! 
Here is another picture of the interns. Aren’t they handsome? I didn’t inquire if they needed girlfriends back home! Send me your email if interested, and I will try to forward it to the guys!
Here I am saying good bye to Monica! My hat is at a jaunty angle, isn’t it? Monica and I both have our chins placed correctly, our guts are sucked in and our shoulders back. We are picture posing pros!
We started with a lovely salad of fresh greens, cheese, some Parma ham and then a light drizzle of Balsamic vinegar. 
Next course was a bit of beef, with carrots and potatoes.
Dessert was a delightful mint mousse with a topping of dark chocolate. Very refreshing. I should have switched my dessert with the guest next to me, as her dessert didn’t have a bumpy top!
Steve had found that the fishing was best the last hour of the day. He is always trying to get me to go fishing with him. When everyone asks me if I fish, I say that “I never want to come between Steve and a fish!”. I don’t want that big fish to take my fly instead of Steve’s.
Here I am in the Chimehuin. Adrian is next to me, explaining the technique and where I should cast. He left me after awhile and went to where Steve was as Steve was catching fish. Adrian wanted to make sure that Steve had the European nymphing technique down pat also! 
I did catch a little one, and also had a fish jump near me. I lost another fish just after I set the hook. Don’t I look happy? I think I really look like I know what I am doing!
Here are Steve and Adrian. The sun has still not set, there is lots of time left to fish.
Fishing slowed down, and my back was starting to hurt. My casting technique was for shit, I would jerk, and hurl my body causing an terrible twist to my body. I am sure it looked atrocious and Steve was probably biting his lip in laughter. I wisely decided to stop fishing until the may flies started to hatch. Adrian had brought a camp chair along, and I plopped down in it and watched Steve catch fish. I must admit that I read a little bit of one of my romance novels on my Kindle app on my phone, I am a multi task type of gal! 
This picture was taken at 8:29, you can see how light out it is still! Steve has always wanted to fish under a full moon, I think that would be quite exciting!
The fish were on! I caught this beautiful medium size rainbow. 
He sure was squiggly! I caught a much larger fish also, Adrain thought he was 16 inches, a nice size fish. Of all the fish that day, my 16 incher was the largest. Steve of course had the most fish for the evening.
All the meals at Tipiliuke were posted on the blackboard. Here is the menu for our final night. 
The spinach with egg was piping hot, and delicious! 
Next up was the homemade spaghetti. 
Final course was the fruit crisp with vanilla ice cream.
What better name for a Gaucho Store but “Patagonia Rodeo?”
There was lots of stuff for sale in the store. Here we see a selection big Mate cups and straws, picture frames and coffee thermoses.
Here are some beautiful silver belt buckles. Do you think that Steve would like the ones with the trout on them? Well too bad for him, I didn’t buy him one!
There were some beautiful knives that I think my friends Charlie and Greg would like. They didn’t get any presents either. 
There were lots of bridles also. I didn’t even get our daughter’s pony something either!
There were los of boots for sale, both for him and for her. 
These are the thermoses to hold you hot water for your Mate break when you are on the go!
There were lots of sheep skins for the saddle. Hats, blankets, saddles and wraps were available also. 
This shelf held lots of shirts, pants, and berets!
These are some of the handsome belts available. I was thinking about getting Steve a belt. I wasn’t sure about his size. If I got him too big, he might think I thought he was fat, if I got too small, he’d think I thought he was skinnier that he actually was, and therefore he might think he was fat! So I played it safe and got him nothing. He told me afterward that he was a 38. The belts were all sold in centimeters so a size 38, wouldn’t have done me any good anyway!
So the whole idea was to show you how belts are made right? Here we have the young belt maker. Like Steve, he isn’t quite sure where to look for a picture. 
The belts are hand made. Here Senor Belt Maker Jr. is sewing the thread into the belt. I am not sure if the design is free style, or if he had a pattern already transferred to the belt. I also have some video but that won’t be posted until we come back from the trip. Or maybe not! You’ll have to come back to find out!
Here you see four colors of horse leather. Natural leather is on the bottom of the display. Brown when the skin is dyed by coffee, green is from a mate dip and then the red is from a dip in beet juice. 
The skin is cut into skinny pieces and then sliced again into a thread. 
Here is the finished belt, made with all the colors of horse thread. Kevin said that the belts are extremely long lasting, he has had his belt for over 40 years! That I can’t believe, I think something was lost in translation!
I left you yesterday halfway through the Asado. We had two more courses of meat. Now that’s my kind of meal, meat, meat, and more meat! 
I love the little touches here. Even the forks and knives used at lunch have the Tipiliuke mark on them! 
Dessert was yummy as usual. It will be interesting to see how much weight I gain this vacation. I am a little less active than at home. Of course I could always go fishing with Steve all day, and wade those rivers. That burns a lot of calories. But if I did that, there would be no blog! 
A beautiful bowl of fruit is passed at dessert for those people who aren’t into the high caloric treats. Or, you could be like me and eat both! 
In the afternoon there is always a set up of coffee and tea with cookies in the living room. 
Steve had free time in the afternoon between fishing sessions. I convinced him to come look at River House. Doesn’t he look happy? He hasn’t even seen the stream yet!
Steve is checking out the river. The house comes with a mile of river frontage. The sale of River House to the Lants was not to be. It was a fun dream while it lasted! Does anyone have a bridge in Brooklyn they want to try to sell me? 
This is Kevin’s truck. I got to ride in it a lot. I think they go through tires and shocks pretty often. The roads are very bumpy! 
While Steve went to his late afternoon and fish until dark session, I asked to go to St. Marin de los Andes. Guess where I went? You got it, a supermarket! There were no doubts that I would get my visit, was there? This supermarket had everything! 
School starts next week, so all the uniforms were out. In Argentina, the children wear white smocks. Pens, markers, and other school paraphernalia were in the bins. 
This is the vegetable aisle. 
Chicken looks like chicken everywhere! 
The butcher was hard at work. 
I looked for some of the fancy Pisco Sour bottles that we saw in Chile, but only the Easter Island Brand was available. 
There were lots of Coke products. 
Mary Jo told me that this was a mix of ketchup and mayonnaise. I told her that I had never heard of Salsa Golf before!
Potato Chips are everywhere!
In America this soup is called “Cup A Soup”. 
There were many brands of Dulce De Leche. 
Mary Jo said that the cereal aisle was really limited compared to the United States. She was correct! 
The toilet paper here had some pretty high class names!
Mary Jo told me that most of the empanadas are made with store brought crusts. That way all you had to do was fill and bake or fry. 
While I was at the grocery store Steve caught this beautiful rainbow. He ended up with 26 fish for the day. During the last hour of daylight they hit a Yellow May Fly hatch, and he did very well. This photo was taken at 8:12 pm! 
Steve finally made it back and we could eat dinner. My time stamp shows that this picture was taken at 9:56! I told you that we ate dinners late here. Back home I would be in bed with a book! 
Dinner was salmon, green beans and tomatoes. 
We had a chocolate cake for dessert.
Breakfast was a fried egg and bacon for me. No pictures of Steve’s breakfast as he ate earlier. I thought he was only going to get coffee and then come back to get me. Instead, he ate breakfast by himself. Silly Steve!
This picture of staff full of smiles is of Adrian, Steve’s fishing guide and Maru and Monica. Monica would love a someone special also. He doesn’t need to live in the mountains full time as Maru’s prospective husband does. Monica will relocate to the city when the estancia is closed. Adrian has a family and children so he is off limits ladies! Adrian was a wonderful guide. He will be on the Argentinian Fly Fishing Team in the World Cup of Fishing. 
This is a picture of the kitchen at Tipiliuke, this is where all the delicious food comes from. 
I had some free time before a massage I was scheduled for. Harry took me along with him to see the property. Not sure what this is, but the roses are lovely. 
There is a chapel on site, but if you would love to have an intimate wedding in Patagonia, this is the place. Remember the web site is 
The chapel is made of local stone, like all the buildings at Tipiliuke. 
Harry has found the key and is opening the door for me. 
We are looking at the front of the chapel here. 
This is the view of the bride and groom as they exit the chapel. Martin and Sybille were trying to get Maya and Jeraldo to marry here. Maybe next visit!
Here are more beautiful gardens!
More rose gardens! 
We have a busy bee here. 
This was the room for the massage. My massage by Irene was wonderful. She is camera shy, so no pictures of her! 
The sauna was just off the masssage room. There is no swimming pool here, but it can be arranged to bring you to a private beach where you can wade and sun. I am too buy blogging to wade and sun!
Lunch was going to be an asado! That is barbecue. Here we see the meat had just been put on the grill. 
An hour later and the meat is almost ready!
Lunch was again outside under the pergola. Here we have the setup of the salad fixings. 
Doesn’t the table look lovely? The pine cones are amazing!
This was my salad. 
First meat course was sausages!
We left with Steve having a happy smile on his face. He fished in the morning and caught a whole bunch of fish. How many I can’t remember, I’ll have to get back to you on that. He keeps telling me how many, but it goes in one ear and out the other. I do care, it’s just any number over ten I just forget.
My hips were sore from riding, and I didn’t have a massage scheduled like some of the others, so I explored a little. I do look awful cute, don’t I?
This is the view from one of the back patios. You can see Tipiliuke in the background. 
This is the gift shop. They didn’t have any baseball caps to add to Steve’s collection so he got a tee shirt instead. We will have to come back another year to add to his cap collection. On the top shelf is a book written by one of the grandsons of the founders of the Estancia. I had no time to read the lodge copy, maybe next time when I won’t have anything new to blog!
Kevin had mentioned the other property on site that could be rented. It is called River House. It is perfect for a group getaway. There are definitely at least 4, maybe 5 bedrooms. It was built by an investment banker who has since died. Then a German bought it, who might have ended up in jail, and now some Argentinian businessmen own it. They are looking to sell it, so it can be yours! 500 acres, over a mile of beautiful water, and only $4 US million. Who wants to chip in? There is wind and solar power with a backup generator and batteries. They have satellite dishes also. There is a caretaker to mind the Estancia while you are away. Let’s get closer shall we?
Here is Kevin going up the front steps. The front door is humongous!
Here is the big ass pool table. Every house needs a big ass pool table, doesn’t it?
This is the living room. Can you imagine all your nearest and dearest sitting around and talking about all the fish you caught that day? You can see the dining room from here. 
A few of the other guests staying at Tipiliuke came along to see the River House. They weren’t interested in joining me in on a partnership on the property.
The shades in the bedrooms were kept closed due to all the bright sun. There is no air conditioning, but there are usually lots of Patagonian breezes. Nights get very cool. 
There is no hot tub, or pool. Perhaps we might want to make sure the owners throw in a hot tub to seal the deal! 
This is the view from one of the bedrooms upstairs. That is one of the side channels. It dries up during the summer. The main river stays in good shape. The lines in the photo are due to my taking the picture through the screen. 
The River House comes with a full team of help. You get maids, cooks and servers. No need to bring your own personal staff with you. There is a grocery store 20 minutes away if you want to do all the cooking yourselves. 
This is the mirror in the foyer of the River house. That’s one big ass mirror also! 
Here is a small part of your 500 acre view. 
Did I mention that the property comes with a pond? Well it does. Here is Maru, striking a pose for me! Isn’t she adorable? Does anyone have a brother who wants to live in Argentina in the mountains, has a great smile, sparking eyes and a great sense of humor? Shoot me an email. 
This is the view of the back of the house. Just beautiful! 
One last view of River House, I can’t wait for dinner and tell Steve that I put a binder on the property. Hmm, the bushes look a little overgrown, we’d have to add a gardener to the payroll. That just might kill the deal for Steve. 
Back to Tipiliuke and it is time for a Pisco Sour!
Here is Harry, our intern from the UK. Isn’t that a great spread? He really does have teeth! 
Here we have Lalla and Gianni from Milan, with Mary Jo (her real name is Maria Jose, but we call her Mary Jo, (on Kevin’s phone she is listed as Babe, he calls her “My Little Angel” when he talks to her on the phone. We don’t know what she calls him!) You might wonder how I know all this stuff. Well, I observe and ask questions. Steve scolded me at dinner the night of the faux proposal that I was interrupting myself by asking so many questions!
Gianni is an architect. He has designed villas all over the world. I asked him what he thought of River House, he said it was quite beautiful. Maybe I will ask Steve to buy it for me after all!
Gianni was the architect of the Italian President Silvio Berlusconi’s villa. I asked which room was the Boom Boom room, Gianni and Lalla pretended not understand my question.
Goodness, is it time for dinner already? Yes, it is. Let’s have some carrot soup.
Followed by spinach crepes with mushrooms. It doesn’t look so good in this lighting but it was delicious! 
Dessert was blueberries with a Dulce de Leche cake underneath. Steve’s total fish count for Monday was 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon. Steve believes in fishing and not taking pictures of each fish that he catches!
This is Tipiliuke Lodge. There are nine rooms available for guests to stay in. 
This is the living room where you might relax in the afternoon or chat before dinner. 
Here is another place to sit if there is no room in the living room. Many of the guides would sit here while waiting for the anglers to finish up their breakfast before a day of fishing.
Would you like to see our room? It’s just down the hallway. Come along!
Room is not in pristine condition as we have started to spread our stuff out already. 
Here we see Steve doing his unpacking. My Harlequin novel is sitting on the bed stand. I have been doing so much posting that I haven’t been able to do any reading at all! The things I give up for you!
Finally the other side of the room. Don’t you love that hat? I hope it doesn’t get seriously smashed during this vacation. 
Here we have the bathroom. No toiletries spread out yet! 
This is the toilet, bidet, and tub with shower. The faucets for the shower were on the side wall, and not the front of the tub. I am used to turning on the water from the front of the shower, and in reaching across to turn on the diverter to make it a shower. When I did that, I would get my head drenched every time. Finally the third time I took the shower I got the bright idea to turn on the taps from the other side of the curtain. Voila! I didn’t get drenched! 
Fishing for Steve was to start tomorrow so we decided to go for a horse back ride. Steve’s horse appears to be camera shy. Either that or he is giving us the side eye! That is Tipiliuke in the background. No, I will not be climbing it! All that you can see is part of the ranch. 
After our ride we went on a tour of the property in one of the Lodge’s trucks, this is Chimehuin River. 
We could see some fish rising. Steve is showing exactly where the currents were going and bringing insects to the lurking trout. Will he catch any fish tomorrow when he goes out? I sure hope so! 
This bridge was built just after World War One. It was really bumpy! 
Here is our obligatory “snatch a kiss” in the snap shot! You’d think we were quite in love, wouldn’t you! Well we are, at least I hope Steve thinks so too! 
Here we are driving over the bridge. 
The back side!
We continue driving as we are going to see the sun set. The scenery is just gorgeous. Did I give you the website yet? 
Here they are on the crest of the hill. Guanaco are Argentinian llamas. But you knew that already, didn’t you?
Here is Maru and Steve. I’m looking for a husband for her. She is going to her sister’s wedding this weekend. There are supposed to be 400 guests. I told her that I was praying that she would meet her special someone there!
Steve looks deliriously happy. He is going fishing tomorrow. The water looks excellent, and the scenery is gorgeous. What could be better? 
This is Tipiliuke, in the far back you can see Volcano Lanin. It is 12,000 feet high. I won’t be climbing that either! 
Here we are at sunset. It looks like I am getting some heavenly rays sent to me. I wish I could post the video here, of the 360 degree view, but the bandwidth is poor. We will have to wait until I come back home. 
One last kiss and it is time to go back to the lodge to shower and change for dinner.
Pisco Sour time! It’s not as good as Julio’s at Coyhaique River Lodge in Chile, but it will do. 
We enjoyed empanadas before dinner. Meat and vegetable were available. 
This is the interior of the meat empanada. 
First course was a salad. Dinner here is very late, about 9 or even later. Lunch is a big meal of the day. It is served about 2:30. Fishing runs from 9 until 1, we then have lunch and rest in the afternoon. Then those who fish go our at 6 and fish again. Steve says fishing is always best just after sunset. 
Did I show you how fun the chair cushions are? They were so soft! 
We were having so much fun at dinner, that I asked Kevin the manager to take a picture of our table. So he did! Kevin is such a wise guy! 
Here is our table. Next to Steve is Martin from Germany, and his wife is Sybil, she is sitting across from him. The next couple is Maya and Jeraldo. In the middle is Mary Jo, she is married to Kevin. Kevin and Mary Jo run the place. They are amazing. So much energy, and love for what they are doing. They have been managing Tipiluike for 20 years. Maya and Jeraldo are not married. We were all trying to get them engaged. I even took off my fake diamond so Jeraldo could use it but no dice! Since it was last night for Martin and Sybil, and Maya and Jeraldo,a bottle of champagne was brought to the table. I even took off my ring and put it in Maya’s champagne glass so Jeraldo could surprise Maya! (Although I was announcing the whole time what I was doing,so it wasn’t a surprise at all!) Martin gave a tremendous toast, describing the beautiful chapel on property, and how wonderful it would be if the sweet couple got married before the night was out. We could barely breathe we were all laughing so hard. Maya posed for some fake facebook pictures of her being in shock with the diamond in her glass. Too bad I was in such hysterics I couldn’t take my Kodak moment for you! 
Back to some serious business, Dinner was Ravioli and sauce. 
Dessert was berries. Sweet dreams everyone.
We had breakfast at our hotel, 
Steve still looks a little bit grumpy as he was only on his first cappuccino.
There was lots to choose from on the menu. 
The cappuccino was very tasty, not much foam art here!
Steve had his second cappuccino so he was feeling a lot happier, and had almost forgiven me for snoring so much!
Steve had the chocolate croissant. We are used to having the chocolate inside, here it is served on the side so you can go hog wild if you want to! Steve only had a little bit as it was very HEAVY! I am not sure if it is the type of butter that is used, or the flour, but this could probably break a toe if you dropped! Just kidding, it wasn’t quite that hard. 
Steve had scrambled eggs with sausage. This was the most interesting presentation of eggs that i have ever seen. I thought at first that he had ordered oatmeal!
I chose waffles again, they were served with dulce de leche on the side. I asked for fruit also. The duce de leche is SO SWEET! I would dip my fork in, and then spear a bit of the waffle. 
After breakfast we waited for our driver. We waited in the downstairs bar. I had quite a bit of excitement the previous night. Steve went downstairs to get an Irish whiskey. My phone is set up to give me alerts every time a charge is made. My phone alerted me to a $100 charge at the hotel! I got quite excited, as dinner was only about $52 at the Brick House, how could a simple drink cost so much money? No, no I was told, it was only 100 Argentinian pesos. No, No, I said, look at the charge on my phone! Well next morning I found out that the $100 charge was just a default room charge in case we were naughty guests and destroyed the room, like some American movie stars on a bender! Phew. 
Here is Movie Star Steve waiting patiently for our driver, trying not to fall asleep!
Then it was past the high rises, the polo field, and the flowering sculpture to the airport. The airport was right near the Rio de la Plata. Sunday morning all the guys line up to fish. No one appeared to catch anything, I think the guys just didn’t want to go to Mass!
We had no problems getting our boarding passes and going through security. We thought this was our plane just outside our gate. We were wrong! We boarded a bus and were driven to our plane. 
I should have remembered that we were not flying LAN but Aerolineas Argentinas! 
We were the only ones in Business Class. 
Here we are. Bad hair day, but my lipstick is on. I think I might need to use a little lip liner to give more definition to the lips. My eyes are always half shut when I smile, Steve is always has his “where am I supposed to look ? expression”! It will be fun to see pictures when we are 80, will we still have the same loopy expressions? You can see a few of my grey hairs here. Steve’s grey swath has gotten wider, and we were laughing about that. HE STILL HAS LOTS OF HAIR! He was at a meeting the other day, and only two of the guys had hair on their heads! GO TEAM STEVE!
Adios Buenos Aries! We will see you March 8! 
Next to the airport it looked like the airplane junk yard. Hopefully our planes won’t need any spare parts! 
Here is a great picture of Buenos Aries. You can see the airport on the left. The horse race track in the middle and the polo fields across the way. There also appears to be a beautiful golf course. Perhaps Steve will play it next year. 
Here we are much further up. There are about 3 million people who live in Buenos Aires, the area comprises about 78 square miles. 
Our flight was going to be a little over two hours which means that we got lunch! A ham and cheese sandwich, peanuts, coke and a cookie. 
The cookie was filled with Dulce de Leche. It was very sweet, but very dry at the same time. It reminded me of a Fig Newton. 
Our flight was to San Martin de los Andes. We would be staying four nights at Tipiliuke Lodge. That mountain is Tipiliuke, which means upside down heart. It was so named by the Mapuche, indigenous people of Patagonia. 
We have arrived! We just need to wait for the steps to arrive!
This is the sign for Tipiliuke. It is very small. What will this place be like? Will I meet any interesting people? Will I have any Excellent Adventures? You must wait for my next installment!