Several people have asked me to write a report, so against my preferences, here goes......

I wanted to take my son, Adam, on a high school graduation trip before he started college in late Aug.

So I responded to Dr. Pozzi's ad on AR, "2 buffalos,2 capibaras,one day fishing ,2hogs ,6 days hunting 2 days of wing shooting 5000us. MANY AR MEMBERS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THIS OFERTS .box of shells 16us shotguns included .licenses not included." even though time was short. Dr. Pozzi responded that he had space available and would be glad to guide us personally. The next hurdle was finding reasonably priced airline tickets on short notice (less than 3 weeks). I fiddled around on the net for a couple of days myself and could not find a flight for less than about $3500 each, which was way too much IMO. So after a brief misunderstanding with another travel agent, due to his many recommendations received in here on Ar, I contacted Steve Turner of Travel with Guns. He got right on it and in short order we had tickets, DFW-Santiago-Cordoba, Arg and return on American Airlines and Lan for about $1635 each. It might be worth mentioning that the EXACT SAME tickets cost $300 more on Friday than they did when we booked them on Monday. Steve said this was quite common, so if anyone is thinking of booking tickets, I'd think early week instead of later. It may not make any difference, but it certainly did in our case. I used some of the savings to book "priority seats" so that Adam and I could be together instead of scattered through the middle seats. Steve's service was exemplary and his loose leaf binder with exhaustive travel information as well as restaurants, etc was very useful when we returned to our 2 1/2 day layover in Santiago, Chile so I could introduce Adam to another country and city. I can recommend Travel with Guns without reservations. Pun intended.

We left DFW Tues night, 31 July and flew about 10 hours to Santiago where we connected to Lan to Cordoba and arrived about 3:40 PM 1 Aug. After getting our baggage and going to customs, I was informed that it was illegal to bring .375 ammo into the country without guns. Dr. Pozzi had told me to "bring some 375 ammo in your bag." In the final rush of packing, I didn't check, nor really consider that it might be illegal. I was not happy and my first thought was, "Oh shit, I wonder how much this is going to cost to get me out of this deal?" with visions of an Argentine iron bar hotel flitting through my mind.

In fact, Arg. Customs were extremely understanding about it after I explained that it was a gift for a friend with a buffalo control problem and that I had no idea that importing ammo without guns would be a problem. They offered to keep the ammo for me and to return it to me on our departure so I could take it home with me. Frankly, I was amazed, but I had the 2 1/2 day layover in Santiago on the way back so I told them that I was grateful for their consideration, but that I would prefer to forfeit the ammo since I was VERY concerned that the Santiago Policia might not be quite so understanding. After an hour or so, and having the same piece of paper in quadruplicate signed 4 times by 4 different people including me, we were out of there minus 2 boxes of damn good .375 (one Fed Prem TBBCs) and I was breathing free Argentina air, thankfully. In the process we hooked up with Dr. Juan Pozzi and his guide Julio (whose last name I never heard even tho I asked). Dr. Juan was a very "hail fellow, well met" person from the get-go and it was soon apparent that he lived life's moments to the fullest (with his driving I can see why.... .

For those who care, Juan (and any other J name in Spanish) is pronounced as more or less cWan with the "c" sound kind of coming from the rear top of the mouth. Pozzi is pronounced more or less like "Poatsee"with the accent on the "poat".

As I said, we landed in Cordoba and had a 200plus KM drive in front of us to Juan's home town of San Francisco. The roads were very decent but two laned with heavy industrial traffic (farm trucks mostly) and a few towns to get through so the trip takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. We left Cordoba with me riding shotgun and Julio and Adam in the back seat probably around 5:30 or so. Generally speaking the speed limit was 80 KPH but this was taken as a minimum only when blocked by traffic on in town.

I would suggest that Dr. Juan's driving style can only charitably be described as AGGRESSIVE. This particular trip wasn't so bad, but on a rainy night time return from Esquina later, I had my life pass in front of my eyes so many times I got tired of the re-runs. On the theory that he was still alive, probably because of some special dispensation from above , I just kept quiet, held on, and tried to go to sleep. I'm not overly nervous, but I don't like riding on the back of a motorcycle with Evel Knievel driving for similar reasons. I'm sort of joking, Juan, sort of.......

At any rate, we arrived in San Francisco just about 8 (dark is about 6:30 this time of year) and he took us to his lodge which is a very beautiful and interesting older home built in the style of South African Boer homes. We had a welcoming fire which was needed since we arrived about the same time as an Argentine cold front. It was quite cold for the area and time of year, about high 30s/low 40s in morning and only mid to high 50s in afternoon AND windy to VERY windy. We didn't see ANY sun for the first 5 days we were there but not much rain either, some sprinkles was about all. I might add this is supposed to be the dry season....more on that later.

I already lost half of this story once when my computer blinked so I'm posting this for posterity and will continue later.....

After dropping our bags off, and taking a break in front of the fire, Juan came back in about 30 minutes and picked us up to take us to his home for dinner, about a 5 minute drive from the lodge. There, we met his lovely wife, Flavia, and his 3 great kids, not to mention the hounds, including the dogo, Cho-el who takes away any insecurity the family might feel when Juan is away. Anybody with evil thoughts and a smidgeon of sense would not want to meet Cho-el EVER.

What a great family! Both Adam and I enjoyed meeting and becoming friends with all of them immensely. Dinner was extremely good, perdiz and pasta (Juan's family background is Northern (always so described by him, not sure why)Italian so pasta is one of his preferences) with dark beer to drink. The kids had school the next day, so it was just the 2 Js, Adam and I, and Flavia for dinner. All of them continously kept trying to overstuff us with food at this and every meal. You won't go hungry with Juan, I can assure you. I resisted to the best of my ability, but Adam, who with his teen age appetite resembles a human garbage disposal was nearly up to the task.

For the next couple of days, we went bird hunting at one of Dr. Juan's family farms about a 10 minute drive from our lodge. As previously mentioned it was cold and windy, and I spent a fair amount of time watching Adam shoot. He did extremely well considering how little shotgunning he has done overall. We shot 4 types of birds, parrots, doves and two species of pigeons. The following is a previous post by me which pretty well sums up the bird shooting we did, there may be some repetition involved for which I apologize.

quote:

At any rate, the green parrots are fairly easy targets BUT they have large wings and can cut and dive on you in a NY second. I rank the 3 birds we were on as parrots easiest, then pigeons, then doves. We were a little unlucky on the weather, it was damn cold and even more damned windy, lows in 30s/low 40s in morning, and highs in mid to high 50s in afternoon. Pretty chilly when we left a balmy 105 in Texas. The wind was an unceasing 15 to 20 with gusts at 30 or above. Our fearless guides and most of the Argentines we saw were wrapped up like they expected the next ice age to arrive any moment. The weather significantly cut down on numbers of birds but Adam and I shot all we wanted, about 5 cases of shells in 3 days. This is a REALLY low total for Argentina but neither of us had shot for a while and, I spent a lot of time watching my son shoot and he shot quite well for a beginner if I do say so myself. Even with the conditions, had we been serious shooters, it would have been easy to shoot twice as many shells or more if you didn't mind missing a helluva lot of downwind doves.

Under normal conditions or against the wind parrots are easy. Downwind they get quite difficult. Triples are difficult because of the duck and dive factor. It's fairly easy to kill 2 with one shot if you wait for the shot. With the heavy winds and cold, there were many "patterns" of targets available and the shooting was challenging overall to say the least. Unlike what is posted by Juan, I shot very poorly IMO but it was fun.

There are many multiples more parrots now then when I was last there 10 years ago or so. It's hard not to feel sympathy for them, they come back to fallen birds, will land around dead ones, etc. OTOH, they are a "plaga" and fun to shoot.

We hunted doves morning and afternoons for the next 2 1/2 days. Since both Adam and I enjoyed meeting Juan's son, Iky, (who is and is going to be much of a man when he fills out, now 15, about 6'3", maybe 200plus pounds) who had a club (apparently no school sponsored sports events down there)rugby game scheduled on Saturday against the much large town's club of Cordoba (million plus inhabitants ag about 75,000 in San Francisco). I had never seen a rugby match and after consulting with Adam, told Juan we wanted to stay and watch it. He was incredulous but agreed to change our schedule when I insisted. He couldn't believe we were ditching most of a day of hunting to watch a rugby game, but Adam and I were there to have a good time, not just to hunt. The rugby game was fun to watch even tho we weren't clear on the rules. Juan, to say the least, was a sideline Daddy , and, while Iky's team lost, not too badly, 12-0 (what we would call 2 touchdowns at 5 pts each, and one after touchdown kick from the sidelines, looked fairly difficult to me, at 2 points), Iky handily won the fights on the field, coming home with a shirt with blood all over it, not any of it his.

After the match, we packed and left about dark for the buffalo hunting area, near the town of Esquina about 300plus kilos E from San Francisco, about a 4 hours drive thru several large and small towns. At Juan's usual driving pace, we arrived at a lovely lodge type motel around 11 situated on the edge of the Parana river, I think.

To be continued.....

Although we arrived late, Juan was a personal friend of the owner and the chef of the lodge's restaurant as well as the manager of both......it seems that Juan is a personal friend of almost anybody he meets, and I mean this in a very complimentary manner. His is an interesting and gregarious personality who makes friends very easily.....after Juan has a consultation with the chef, we had a very fine Northern Italian dinner.

Possibly because of our late arrival but more likely because that is the Argentine way, we didn't get started until fairly late the next morning. This brings up the only real sore point of the trip. Argentines HABITUALLY are late. If they say they'll be there at 8 o'clock en punto (on the dot) that means they MIGHT be there as early as 8:30 but it will probably be 8:45 or 9:00 or even later. The foreign concept of actually arriving when they say they will doesn't happen.

Adam, who is a late sleeper and a late almost anything else pointed out to me that I could no longer say that no one in the world worked on his schedule. True, and now he is thinking of moving to Argentina where he would fit right in. I would say, "Let's get an earlier start tomorrow at 7:00." Juan would say, "OK", and he and Julio would show up at their usual 8:30 or so. After this happened a couple of times, I gave up and if Juan said he'd be there at 8, we'd set our ALARMS at 8 because we knew we'd have at least 30 minutes before he showed up. Frankly it was annoying as hell because you're losing daylight, but it is their way so we adjusted.

After a typical breakfast of coffee and bread or pastries, we left Esquina about 9:30 or so for the buffalo ranch about 30 minutes drive over sandy roads. This is mostly open cattle country until you get nearer the rivers where we hunted and you have marshy areas, a lot of thickets, tall grass, and some larger treed areas.

We drove to the ranch where we were going to hunt(not sure of exact size but well over 50,000 acres IMO), with Julio opening a series of gates as we went deeper into it. This ranch is not the typical pampas but is some type of floodplain that is underwater for some parts of the year. This was the dry season and the only water was in rivers or river beds. I had told Juan that Adam was a fine rifle shot and I suppose he believed me since he just handed Adam a .308 and a .375 cold, both BRNOs and said, "Shoot when I tell you to shoot." Julio and Adam rode in the back of the truck (an incredibly tough Ford Ranger crew cab) and helped spot game while Juan drove and I observed. We were about 30 minutes into the hunt when a larger example of what Juan calls a South American ostrich started trotting off about 125 yards away. Juan waves his arm out of the driver's window saying, "Shoot, shoot, shoot" so Adam kills it with the .308. The bird is actually the larger of the two SA Rheas, rhea americana. The ranch had them running everywhere. We took pics and gave the meat to the local gauchos who the next day helped us with the buffalo Adam shot.

We drove around for several hours attempting to spot some water buffalo. Probably because of the unusually cold weather they were quite scarce and, in fact, we didn't see even one bull in two days of hunting covering many miles of habitat. We finally ran up on a herd around a corner of the "monte" which basically means thorn thicket (most of the tress looked very similar to our Texas Mesquite and were at least as thorny) but they were spooked. Nevertheless, Juan and Adam bailed out with Adam carrying the .375 and Juan with the .308 using military FMJs. In fact, IMO, they were semi-lost in the thickets when I hear a shot from the .308, a minute or so later another, then, after a couple of more minutes I hear another, then another, as in "BANG....looong pause....BANG" from the .375. The .375 has a decidely different report than a .308. I'm thinking, "Oh shit, they've wounded a buffalo and are chasing it thru the bush." Luckily I was wrong, no buffalo, but Adam shot the a capybara with the .308 as it was sitting next to the river about 125 yards away, hitting it in the middle shooting offhand. It jumped in the water and re-emerged. Adam had a jam on the BRNO and Juan grabbed it and shot or grazed the capybara a second time. It was already hard hit amidships and died in the water. Later recovered by the gauchos after it floated up relatively quickly. About that time, a pig decides to swim the river about a 100 yards down river from Adam. Adam waited until it was nearly out of the water but still swimming, and shot it in the head with the .375. Needless to say that ended that pig's future retirement plans. Adam ran down the bank and jumped in the river, and drug the pig up onto the bank. River is supposed to have piranhas in it, but Adam didn't stay in the water long enough to test for sure. About that time another pig decided to swim the river gauntlet about 100 yards upriver from where Adam, Juan, and dead pig were, Adam just coming out of water with pig #1. By the time Adam got the .375 back from Juan, pig #2 was just starting to stand up at the edge of the riverbank (river is maybe 20 or 25 yards wide at this spot). Adam snapped a shot, hit it high and broke it's back. Dead pig #2. These were the only pigs, minus one that I spotted as it bolted into the bush from side of road as we drove by, seen on the whole trip. So we've got one dead SA "ostrich", one dead capybara(a really large male BTW, hard to say what it weighed but substantially larger than the other 2 killed later), and 2 dead pigs. A good start. For the remainder of day, we looked for more buffalo, even enlisting help of 3 local gauchos on horseback with their dogs to try to jump them out of grass with no success. Returned to lodge after dark and had another fine meal of, among other things, some marinated cow's tongue and ravioli stuffed with ground lamb and spices. Excellent eating.

To be contd.....

Sounds good so far.....keep 'er coming.

So the next morning, our last day we had for hunting in this area, we are off bright and early for Argentines about 8:30 or so. We re-trace our route and get thru the various gates and are buffalo hunting. We enlist the guide services of a gaucho and his son (late teens early 20s) and we take off with all aboard the faithful Ranger. Adam and Julio in back with both gauchos in back seat. We drive, cross a river or two (very dicey appearing but bottom was sandy and there were no problems with the crossings)and come on a herd of buffalo. No bulls but there are a couple of old dry cows with good horns for cows. Juan and Adam try a couple of stalks on them but they slide away in the tall grass. Hard to say how many were in group but I'd guess 25 to 50. We drive around some more looking for another group. Spot one group across river but they slip into bush before we can really even get a good look at them. All this time I was REALLY regretting that I didn't pack my Leicas since there are worlds of birds, game, and other interesting things that deserved a closer look. I don't leave the house without them at home and I was mentally kicking my ass for not bringing them with me. At any rate, another stalk is tried on another smaller group and they get away before Juan can get a decent look at them. We waited a while at one spot since the gauchos assured us they had to come to water mid-day. In fact, they did but not where we were. In the interim, the gauchos decidedly mixed lot of 4 dogs, who apparently live to hunt or work cattle, jumped another capybara and Juan gave it a finishing shot to head with .308. It was interesting that there were PLENTY of the supposedly rare capybaras in this area and that they spend a lot of time up from the river in the monte. I had a chance to shoot one swimming several times but passed as I had no real urge to add one to the pile.

At any rate, the weather still sucks, the buffalo are still elusive and it is growing later. Finally we round a corner, and Juan or Julio by knocking on roof of Ranger, spots the group with the old cow across the river. There are only maybe 5 or 10 animals visible and they are milling around above a high bank of the river in the thick mesquite like brush. We approach to about 125 to 150 yards on other side of river in truck, Juan glasses them and says to me, "There's the old cow, it looks like our only chance" while waving his arm out the window telling Adam to "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" Meanwhile Adam is on them with the .375 and Julio is saying, "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" in his ear. I'm looking at this ball of black buffalos moving around (admittedly with my naked eyes which aren't as good as they used to be (Adam has 3-9X Leupie on .375), and I'm thinking, "How the f**k are you supposed to pick the right one out of this bunch?") and about that time, "BANG", there went some of the rest of my already diminished hearing, and one of the cows takes about 3 or 4 steps and collapses. Juan goes nuts, saying "Great shot, etc., etc." Did I mention that he is emotive?

At any rate, we now have to drive back a mile or so to cross river and approach downed buffalo. We do so, take a few pics, and the gauchos said the cow weighed about 800 kilos. Frankly I doubt it, but, then again, I'm not an expert on water buffalo's weights, to say the least, but I do know something about cattle weights. As it turned out, it was an old cow, dry, not pregnant, and with bad teeth. Then the gauchos agree that we'd take them back to get their old Chevy truck and they would come back and skin it, cut it up, etc. The guachos live with their knives, and are damn good with them. From start to finish, the whole buffalo took less than an hour and a half from whole to skinned, quartered, backstrapped, guts saved for sausage, etc. etc.

In the interim, while coming back to unskinned buffalo with Julio and 2 gauchos in their truck, the gauchos dogs jumped a largish capybara (turned out to be a really big female) out in the bush, about 150 yards from river. The capybara takes off for the river, flat out with dogs all over and around her. They ran by us, capybara at least holding her own against 4 dogs while steadily making for the water, and Juan bails out, grabs .308 and hands Adam his Regimental fighting knife, a double edged dagger type, all in double quick time. They take off after dogs and capybara, which by the time they catch up to the melee is about 50 yards from river and capybara is still making serious progress while carving big notches in dogs with her LONG teeth. Juan tells Adam to use the knife, since the fight is too fluid to shoot without possibly killing dog(s). From a distance it looked like Adam had a bunch of ants in his pants (hormigas en los juevos)as he danced around the fighting and running dogs/capybara until he got the first stick in. In retrospect, it appeared somewhat comical, but it was deadly serious while it was happening. Adam got about a half stick into the ribs, capybara noticeably sags, and Juan yells (from a few feet away ), "Stick him again!" More dancing and waving of arms for balance and Adam stuck it twice more to the hilt and the teeth-knife battle was settled in favor of steel. (As an aside for those who haven't done it, a good knife stick usually kills faster than most shots that don't involve the CNS or brain)

At that point, Juan REALLY went crazy, hugging Adam, doing the Argentine battle dance, hooting and hollering or the Argentina version thereof, while saying how he had NEVER had anyone kill one with a knife because it was so dangerous. Unlike pigs, capybaras don't lock up with dogs on them, they keep fighting and biting and are basically one large set of muscles with some big teeth on one end. They have teeth that are about 6 inches long and the Argentines won't knife them because of the danger of them locking on their legs, and infection. NOW HE TELLS US! At any rate, all's well that ends well and Adam had his knifed capybara and a helluva story. The dogs had several notches carved out of them, but they were ready for the next battle. Tough dogs is all I can say. Adam did good.

contd.

Adam was my first client to kill that big rat with knife indeed we have to do this because it was imposible to do shooting ,Adam is a brave warrior ,and yes MASTER CHARLIE, IM TOO ROMANTIC FOR THIS HARD WORLD TO MUCH EMOTIVE

Ill be in Corrientes soon Adam can tell you that i arrange some matters for next time............

more female personnel ............

Julio was great (tell him Adam and I say "Hola."), but he wasn't one of those models you mentioned.........

With 8000 incoming freshman at UT Austin this year, half of which are female, I suspect Adam may need a rest when he returns.

I'm not kidding, I think Adam would move to your lovely country in a heartbeat except for the one small detail of being able to afford it.

PS: Tell the vieja at the lodge that Adam and I say "hola" as well.

So we crossed the river and the gauchos made fairly quick work of the buffalo. They loaded everything (and I do mean everything)but the stomach and the heart and liver into the back of their truck and we followed them back to the camp that they had been working on. They cooked us some stir fried water buffalo and capybara. The buffalo was decent but tough. Peter Luger has nothing to fear. The capybara was interesting, fairly tasty with a slightly different flavor than anything I've tried before, not surprising for an overgrown rat.
Personally, neither choice weaned me off rib eyes.

By the time all the above was finished, it was time to head back. We arrived back at lodge in Esquina about dark as the first droplets of rain started to fall. We packed up and started the 4 hour trip back to San Francisco in a light rain. It's damn lucky it was the dry season because by the time we got to San Francisco it was a frigging deluge. I expected to see frogs raining any second. We remained lucky on the weather.

The next morning, because the roads were flooding, we couldn't go to Juan's ranch close to San Francisco so he took us to his "honey hole" for pigeon shooting not too far from town. He uses it only for times like these. We proceeded to shoot decoying pigeons all day with a break for lunch. Fun, fun, fun. I hate to be repetitive, but Adam shot really well.

That night we settled up over a nice dinner with the 2 Js, Flavia, Iky, and the two of us. Everything was as it should be and Juan invited us (well, truth be told, he invited Adam ) back for more adventures.

We all agreed that because we had an international flight to Santiago the next day at 12 that we should leave at 6 AM for Cordoba. We left promptly at 7. After cussing out a poor policeman at one checkpoint for delaying his delivery of an important US politician (I puffed up and sort of glared to look the part)to the airport, we arrived with plenty of time to make our flight.

While we were tired, it was with a sincere feeling of sadness that we said goodbye to our new friends Dr. Juan and Julio. They showed us a very good time and my kidding in this report should be considered as good friends joking with each other, but, of course I did kiss the ground when we got out of his car at the airport.

We took the hour and half flight to Santiago, arrived, paid the reciprocal visa fees of $160 each (because that's what the US charges their citizens to come here, I didn't particularly like it, but it seems fair if you think about it) and passed thru customs with no problems, possibly because I wasn't smuggling .375 ammo incountry. BTW to be clear, if you are in transit, that is not going thru customs into Chile as a visitor, then you do not have to pay these fees, and they are good for as long as your passport lasts.

There is nothing all that earth shattering to report about our visit to Santiago, the last time I was there a few years back it was raining on and off so that probably disguised the smog. It is damn smoggy and Adam complained that he could taste it with every breath. We ate at the Mercado Central for some extremely fresh seafood. It is less of a market and more of a restaurant mall these days, with hawkers in front of nearly everyone of the numerous restaurants/stalls asking you to come in and try their food. Food was great, but the hawkers lessened the experience. A couple of more restaurants that I can recommend....Kintaro, 460 Monjitas for sushi and Las Vacas Gordas, Cienfuegos 280, for steaks. Adam had a Lomo (filet mignon) about 11 ounces for $13 ala carte to die for. You have to be REALLY insistent that you want it RARE (crudo, con sangre, rojo) if you prefer it that way. They tend to cook it medium rare for rare. If it wasn't about 10 hours flight I'd be back there eating it regularly. We stayed at a "budget" Hotel, Hotel Foresta, Victoria Subercaseaux 353, which is just across from the NE corner of the Cerro Santa Lucia, in the downtown (Centro) area. I found recs for it on the net and we were lucky enough to get a room arriving with no reservations. It was great for the price, a two double bed suite for $60/night. Don't get me wrong, if you're the type who expects everything to be like a US Hilton or Marriot, don't go there. But we were offered Hilton type reservations at over $225/night. I'm one of those who just isn't that concerned about where I sleep, assuming some degree of safety and reasonable accomodations and I prefer to spend my money on eating, drinking, or hunting. YMMV, especially if you've got deeper pockets than I do. The Hotel Foresta had both, with an inhouse restaurant (fair) and a piano bar (I had fun asking the very elderly piano player if he could play "Piano Man". He quickly thumbed through some of his books and gave a rousing rendition in Spanish, got him a good tip from me).

Be advised that most restaurants, some cafes excepted, don't open for lunch until at least 12 noon, and 12:30 or 1 PM is common. Again, Chileans, and Argentines, dine late for dinner and many restaurants don't open for dinner until around 8 PM.

If you are wandering around, stop in one of the Filippo coffee/pastry/ice cream shops. The one we tried was Avda. Brasil 327, about a block and a half from Las Vacas Gordas (because I wrongly (with Adam saying "I told you so." ) assumed they would be open by 12 noon)Some type of chain, not sure how widespread, but the one we tried was very good. Try the "Cafe Helado Filippo" at about $4.50 US.
There are many other cafes, some serving Viennese style pastries. Try the Torta Sacher, if you like chocolate overdoses.

That brings me to a final observation. If you have plans to spend money in Chile, DON'T change money in the US airports, wait until you get to Santiago. Significantly better rates there. If you are in transit, all of the places that I am aware of in the rather large Santiago transit area take plastic, which usually has a m/l 3% upcharge by your credit card carrier back home, even if the charge is in US dollars.

Frankly, except for one or two of the winery tours, the tourist attractions in the Santiago metro area are minimal. I urged Adam to go out and mingle in the student bar scene but his Spanish, which improved a good bit on this trip (4 years of High School Spanish in US, would barely speak unless pushed) wasn't the best and he decided he should skip it for now. I suspect after this coming year at Univ of Texas, he would bail right in.

At any rate, that's about it. We flew overnight, leaving Santiago about 9 PM with about a 10 hour flight, back to DFW, arriving bright and early at about 6:30 on Sat morning, 11 Aug. We had a great time and I certainly hope to return to Argentina and see our new found friends (the Pozzis) again before long. If possible, I'll try to schedule a different "transfer" city the next time, possibly Buenos Aires or one I haven't been to before.

If I can pry Adam loose from his smartphone, I'll try to get him to post some additional pics than the ones Dr. Juan posted but he posted a good pic of Adam with the knife and capybara.

Gato - Great report and glad you and Adam had a great time with Dr. Juan and Julio. Appreciate the insight on Santiago as I just "passed through" coming and going in May. Sounds like not really much to see and do there. There are several good sightseeing areas in and around Cordoba that would most likely offer more for a day or two of adventure. Billinthewild and Guillermo Amestoy are ideal sources of information for checking out the area around Cordoba

Thanks for the report and am looking forward to a return visit to Argentina myself.

Larry Sellers
SCI Life Member

Larry:

Personally I considered and really preferred to spend the "wind down" days in Cordoba, but Adam had never been to Santiago or Chile (transiting the airport doesn't count IMO) and I wanted to show him (barely) a different city and country. Don't get me wrong, there are some decent museums in Santiago, but nothing world class IMO. We went to one off the Plaza d'Armas that had an interesting temporary exhibit of old style carpentry tools and the iron working (hierromientos sp?)that went into making them. If we fly into Cordoba instead of Santa Fe the next time, we will spend a day or three there for sure.

Aloha Charlie,
Thanks for sharing a great report. Juan's posted pics of Adam indicates that he's grown to be a handsome young man. Last pics I saw of Adam was taken 4 years ago when you and he visited Otjikoko. It's quite a graduation gift from you.

Best regards,
Geoff

Geoff:

Aloha, amigo. Great to hear from you. I think of Namibia and Otjikoko all the time. I've seriously considered buying a house in Swakopmund several times. How are the Walthers (I think, terrible on names) and how is Tommy doing with his new position? I've looked a the PH reports and, as far as I can tell, Rodney has not advanced?

Aloha Charlie,
The Walters are fine. I did a prototype management hunt on Otjikoko this past June. Sadly, the place has been hit hard by poachers. The game is far from abundant as it once was. We found many snares and even their camp.

Tommy is operating now as an independant outfitter doing hunts in the some of the conservancies in the Kunene province and some privately owned farms. He and Marion live in Swakopmund. Rodney did get his license and is a PH on one of the farms owned by Dirk DeBod.

Please drop me a PM if you have future interest in any management hunts.

Best regards,
Geoff

quote:

Rodney did get his license and is a PH on one of the farms owned by Dirk DeBod.

Maybe so, but he is not listed on the Namibia PH list as of today, unless his last name is not Hall.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:

Several people have asked me to write a report, so against my preferences, here goes......
MANY AR MEMBERS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THIS OFERTS .box of shells 16us shotguns included .licenses not included."

Muchas gracias, C. You had me rolling from jump. TFF, and great report. I really appreciate the details. Congrats to you and your son Bob.

Charlie,

That was fantastic. You are a very good report writer. Nothing better then father and son.

Juan my compliments to you as a great host.


Mike

Very comprehensive reports; thanks! Do you have any pictures?

I don't fool with pics much, don't like taking them, don't like being in them, and REALLY don't like having to DL and UL them. You can view the pics posted by Dr. Pozzi of our trip. My pic poster is at UT Austin, so the answer is, no pics.

Thanks for the great story.

Great report Charlie.

Kevin and I heard many stories of your time there, your description of Juan is spot on!

Juan was wondering though if your vocal chords had healed up from screaming at him about his driving.........."Grand Prix Pozzi.....


.

quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
Great report Charlie.

Kevin and I heard many stories of your time there, your description of Juan is spot on!

Juan was wondering though if your vocal chords had healed up from screaming at him about his driving.........."Grand Prix Pozzi.....


.

Actually I never screamed, I might have grunted a time or two when I thought death was milliseconds away. I didn't scream for one very good reason, when someone is balancing on a thread between life and death (yours among them), you don't want to distract them.......

quote:

I didn't scream for one very good reason, when someone is balancing on a thread between life and death (yours among them), you don't want to distract them.......

A big +1 on that Sir.


.

Gato ,we have a new constion in Quehue La Pampa province it would be nice to hunt red stags all together there next year then ,go to Cordoba and shoot doves .We have a big group of cfriends all expert shooters we can organize a dove shooting competition .....