Hunter: The Lake Arrington Group – Pampa, TX
Outfitter: Black River Outfitters
Booking Agent: Adam Clements Safari Trackers
Airlines/Route: American Airlines (DFW-MIAMI-MONTEVIDEO)
Guides: Juan Pablo & Nacho Portella
Dates: Feb. 17th – 24th, 2010
Game Hunted/Fished: Doves, Pigeon, Parakeet, Axis Deer & Golden Dorado
Areas Hunted/Fished: Estancia San Cirilo & the Uruguayan River

Pre-Trip Information:
This trip started when a buddy of mine contacted me wanting to put another group together for their annual Argentina Wingshooting Trip for the month of Feb. We did some talking and decided that a different destination would be great and adventurous and would also benefit myself by going down and checking out The Portella Brothers operation in the Rio Negro region of Uruguay. We worked on it for a few weeks and then decided that this is where we would go and started working on flights and group members to join in on the fun. After it was all said and done we had put together a group of 10 guys, 9 from Texas and 1 from Oklahoma, and booked our tickets through American Airlines and we were ready to go. All of us have been to South America wingshooting before but have never been to Uruguay, where the bird hunting is just as good if not better because of the virgin fields and SUPER low hunting pressure that these birds see!


The back side of the Estancia


The Estancia


Where we sat everyday before and after hunts


Side of the Estancia going into the gun room


Bedroom


Dinning Room

Start of the Trip:
The trip started out by all of us meeting up at DFW to fly onto Miami where we then hop on a flight to fly directly into the capitol city Montevideo, Uruguay. Getting to DFW was smooth for a few of us but the majority of the group was delayed in Amarillo, Texas for no apparent reason other that no one on board could figure out. With all of this going on, it almost made for a very long and stressful trip because these guys arrived into Terminal B of DFW at 4:45 PM and needed to get over to Terminal D for a 5:00 PM flight that American Airlines would not hold the flight for! Once I figured this out, I went straight up to the ticket counter at our gate and asked what we needed to do if the remainder of our group didn’t make the flight and her only response at first was, “I guess they will just have to get on another flight to Miami,” which the nicest thing that I can say about her was that she was RUDE! She then checks in the system and says, “Yes, there is another flight that leaves here at 8:00 PM and arrives Miami at 10:55 PM,” and this is where I almost lost it because she has our schedule in front of her knowing that we need to get on another plane for Uruguay at 11:10 PM and once these guys to try and get off the plane from Miami and get to the gate for Uruguay in 15 minutes! I told her that American Airlines couldn’t even get them to Terminal D with 2 hours to spare at DFW so what makes me think that they would get to the right gate within Miami with only 15 min. before the flight is suppose to depart. Either way to make a long story short, she tried all different 2 and 3 stop options, which our original schedule had no other international stops, throughout different South American countries. This is where I then stopped her and told her that there is no way that this will work because we were all flying with guns and if something should happen to us like a plane getting grounded or something, we didn’t have the right documentation to even have our guns in those countries and that American Airlines isn’t going to like have to pay for all of that headache. Low and behold all 7 of these guys come up running to the gate, while they are shutting the door and she lets them on to get out on the right flight with the rest of us. After we get on the plane, AA delays us another hour just sitting on the runway because of mechanical failure which they don’t compensate you for but if the rest of my group would have missed this fight all AA had to say was tough luck and sorry! Man I get so mad every time I think of that lady in DFW’s D Terminal! After all of this that happened we ended up have a good smooth flight all the way to Montevideo and everything went according to plan. Once we got through customs, we were met by Black River’s secretary and taken in with our guns to go over paperwork. This took about 30 mins in total for all 9 of us to get through with guns and permits then we were on our way for our 3.5 hour drive to the Estancia. On the way, we stopped a few different times and were running late so we decided to just go straight to the field from the airport and change to start hunting, not to waste any time!


Everyone had their own shooting station like this, but we typically would shoot in pairs and have contests


We hunted over the edge of this soybean field that butted right up to a roost


Royce, our photographer & our drivers sitting enjoying the afternoon


Lorenzo & Mario being lazy watching Nacho do all the work on the phone!!!

We had a great shoot that evening at one of the roosts and then headed back to the Estancia where we were met by a group lodge staff with cold wash cloths and drinks and snacks. That evening Lorenzo, Mario & I went out spotlighting for pigs and Axis deer where they put me on two does and a fawn at about 4 am and I was lucky to take one.


My Axis deer hanging the next morning

The next morning we all got up and hunted a sunflower field that had more birds in it than I have ever seen in my entire life. I think that all of us averaged like 5 cases in the few hours that we hunted that morning before all of us wanted to get back for lunch.


Just an example of what the field looked like with birds, and they would not leave!


More birds in the field when we were pulling up


After the shoot waiting to load up and head back to the Estancia

We had a great lunch, Dove Fajitas, that were some of the best that I have ever had and I could have eaten about 4 or 5 if the cook would have kept bringing them, which I am glad he didn’t!


Dove Fajitas

That evening we went right back to a different part of that cut sunflower field and hunted the edge of a non-harvested field that evening where the bird hunting was equally as good as that morning.


Large constant flights all afternoon(hard to tell in this photo)


The guys enjoying a beer after this shoot


Just a few of the birds that the bird boys picked up while we were there.

We all sat down for dinner that evening after returning from the field and Juan Pablo & Nacho told us the bad news about the rain that was fixing to be upon us, and little did I know when I say rain I mean RAIN!


This is the river behind the lodge looking down on it from the balcony of my room


This river rose like 20ft over night

It rained almost the whole night and through about 11 AM the next morning so after lunch we all made a trek out to the muddy fields to see if we could shoot some birds for the evening shoot. Surprisingly, we actually shot lots of dove again with the occasional pigeon that would fly into our shooting path.


Looking down the shooting line


This is what the birds looked like every second until we left the field


You can see how muddy it was by looking at all the ruts in that grass field

That night once again, Lorenzo & Mario took a few of us out spotlighting for deer and pigs and the first thing that we saw was a fox that Lake shot and later on Trevor blasted an Axis Deer.


Lake and the fox that he shot


Everyone standing around looking at the Axis doe that Trevor shot

The next morning we hunted decoyed Pigeons out of a blind over a motorized machine with decoys and this was fun! These birds literally are as spooky as ducks and you hunt them just the same but without calling them. The typically come in a flock and decoy straight to the decoys that you have out. What a blast that morning of decoyed Pigeon was!


Lake in our blind waiting for the first flight of birds


First Pigeon of the morning down!


A few Parakeets that got in our way


Lake and some of the Parakeets that we shot


Enjoying a morning beer after our Pigeon shoot

Another afternoon of dove shooting took place that evening, where two of our guys decided that they wanted to go to the beach and casino in Punta Del Este so they chartered a plane to come pick them up and fly them there.


Appetizers and believe me the BEST deviled eggs I have ever had!!!


Our deer from the night before, just like a good ole Texas chicken fried steak

That evening we were so tired we all relaxed and turned in early for an early morning of Golden Dorado fishing on the Uruguayan River. It was about a 25 min. ride to the small town of Paysandu where we put the boats in and tried to fish. Let me tell you that I have never seen a river flood like that in my life and those guys were telling me that since the rain the other evening the river had risen over 20 ft in one day so you can imagine how well the fishing went.


Clint & Trevor trolling for Dorado on the SUPER flooded Uruguayan River

The river was so flooded and dirty that casting, and fly fishing was more or less out of the question. We did get to do a bit of casting if we got off into a spot that was flooded and were out of the main current.


Pulling into Montevideo and it was flooded, more rain than they have had in like 25 years is what they told us.


Lots of water everywhere

We had plenty of hook ups but nothing all the way into the boat so we decided we would head back to Montevideo where we were staying at the Sheraton Hotel for the last night of our trip. When we got back to Montevideo we cleaned up and had dinner right across the street from the hotel. Both Lorenzo and Juan Pablo recommended this place, La Perdiz, to us and let me tell you I am very glad they did because it was some of the best meat that I have had but also the price was SUPER cheap compared to the states.


Our hotel which was very nice


Standing in front of La Perdiz before dinner


At the table outside on the patio enjoying a great dinner and night


The grill at La Perdiz with all kinds of meats and veggies

Later on that night we all went to the casino that was down the road and tried to make some money, but anyone that has been to a casino more than once knows how the most of us made out. The next morning, AR’s very own Lorenzo, was kind enough to come meet our group with a bus from his father-in-laws hotel and took us down to the Mercado to eat lunch and enjoy some wine and culture. I have never seen anything like this before, as there were shops, restaurants, and people everywhere in this place.


Inside the Mercado, walking around


Some more food inside and this was good!


Inside the Mercado


Buck, Lorenzo & Joe getting a drink at one of the bars inside the Mercado


Wine store inside the Mercado


Our group with HOST LORENZO at a great lunch - meats, seafood and great wine!

After we ate, which we all still owe Lorenzo, he took us around town to look about and then over to his families “Free Trade Zone – ZonAmerica” where he gave us a private room at his hotel, and all the amenities of the hotel which was incredible!


The entrance to Lorenzo's hotel


The pool at Lorenzo's hotel


More offices going up within ZonAmerica


More construction around the hotel and buildings


Their own private church within ZonAmerica that is over 100 years old and has been historicall redone and is just BEAUTIFUL!!!

After we sat around and relaxed for a few hours we all decided it was time to head to the airport so Lorenzo and Black River’s secretary took us there, made sure we cleared our guns and watched us get on our flight back home.

Ending:
This was a phenomenal trip that I enjoyed and would recommend to anyone wanting to go to South America wingshooting! Uruguay is known not only for their high volume dove shooting over vast amounts of different terrain but also the Mixed Bag wingshooting(Perdiz, Ducks, Pigeon, Dove & Golden Dorado. Our group has been to Argntina and hunted some of the best lodges there(Los Chanares) and compared the bird shooting here as equally good or if not a little better because of the different types of terrain you get to hunt. We weren't caught up in the amount of shells we shot per shoot or how many birds that we shot but had more fun playing games and making bets within the group. If anyone is interested please feel free to contact the office anytime and we can get you set up.

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Hahaha what a mess !!!
I'm glad you enjoyed the trip down here.
Hope to see you soon.
L

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quote:

Originally posted by SafariTracker4868:
Hey seriously how the hell do you fix this?!?!

To fix it, click the pencil eraser icon in your original post and you can edit it. You need to deleted the position codes from where you inserted the images:

[IMG:left]

Take out the ": left"

When you click the icon to insert a picture leave the position selector (reads "align image") at "none."

Hopefully that will fix it.

Charles_Helm,

Thanks SO much for the help getting that re-aligned as it was truly pissing me off!!


Lorenzo,

You think its SO funny that I couldn't figure it out, just wait to see what you scope comes back looking like now!!!

Did you guys notice a wild boar with a limp a few miles from the lodge ? Not one of my finer moments ... It sure is a nice lodge and great people. And, of course, Lorenzo and Mario are the best !

Nope didn't notice one because we didn't even see any pigs while we were there! The day I got back Lorenzo sent me an email rubbing it in my face that Mario had just seen some! Our group really had a great time and am going back ASAP!

Thanks for sharing Cameron. Looks like a great hunt !

And happy birthday !

Wonderful report. Thanks for sharing.

I love URUGUAY and im hunting and fishing there more and more as we bougth a smalL house in PUNTA DEL ESTE ,and became friend of JORGE BORGES a well known Uruguayan hunter and fisherman.