Back from Argentina

[Rapier]

We are now back from the wilds of Argentina, almost in one piece. I did leave a piece of molar in a restaurant in Cordoba and arrived back in country with an upp er respitory infection. But a great time was had by all, regardless.

We were gone for 10 days and shot birds for 5 of the 10 days including two days in the Perdiez fields. The final four that made the trip shot 21,500 shells.

This was my first trip with Junior Maers and Ariel Goldman as outfitters. Junior is the former manager for Treck and Ariel is the former manager for Sier Safari. They both are great guys and the facilities were the best I have seen in Argentina, new, modern and very clean. I loved the American electrical system with 110 wall plugs in every room.

The food was; Well if I told you you would think it a lie, but here goes anyway. The chef is Oscar Kahan (Le Cordon Bleu) who cooked at the White House for a year. I mean, really, unexpected is an understatement and superior does not begain to describe the meals. Just one memorable dish; perdiez in a paper thin crepe' with a white sauce wine reduction..... It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Every day it was a race back to the lodge to see what new magic Oscar had come up with. His mesquite grilled beef tenderloin with grilled Argentine sausages and gormet potato salad was simply amazing.

Here is a photo of my son's blind on day 4.
Ed

[Tater]

Just one memorable dish; perdiez in a paper thin crepe' with a white sauce wine reduction..... It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Every day it was a race back to the lodge to see what new magic Oscar had come up with. His mesquite grilled beef tenderloin with grilled Argentine sausages and gormet potato salad was simply amazing.

Sounds like "Roughing it" never entered the equation:D How many and what kind of birds did you end up with? How bout some pics of those? Sounds like you had a great time. Glad you're back safe and sound (mostly).

[fabsroman]

Yeah, lets see some more pics from the trip.

[Rudy507]

Sounds like you enjoyed the eating as much as the shooting! Yeah, I'm with Tater - what kinds of birds did you shoot? That's a lot of shells, 4 people or not!

[Valigator]

I would love to do that trip once before I die, is it expensive????

[Rapier]

For some reson I am not getting emails on all of the messages so am late to respond on some.

We shot Perdiez (a large quail type bird with long legs) good eating and some pigeons with mostly doves. Two of us old hands shot a case (old style of 500 shells) in the morning and a case in the afternoon. Both of us had been to the rodeo several times and found that a gentleman in his 60s can do a thousand shells without much trouble. 1500 gets serious and two thousand leaves you exausted for two or three days.

The plane ride was $1,700 RT (Pcola to Dallas to Santaigo to Cordoba), The entry fees, license and permits were $400, The 7 night and 6 day stay was $2,400 with 2,000 shells. Extra shells were $12 per box. But the government is trying to dig in everybody's pocket down south, in every country. I think they are going to kill the golden goose. 10 years ago the fees were $22, now $400. The courts stopped the fee increases, in a suit filed by outfitters, they won. But the govt., is back dooring them, now going after the shells, by adding a tax of X dollars per box. Paraguay just killed every outfitter's business by increasing the shells to $17 and the fees to over $100 per day. Overnight just about every outfitter left Paraguay. Paraguay is a big duck and pigeon hunting destination, or was.

Inflation is killing the working people, over 30% last year alone. Farm land outside Cordoba, just flat cleared dirt, is $7,000 US per hectar which is 2.3 acres. And salaries for workers in Argentina runs between $1,000 to $2,000 per month on average. So it is no longer real cheap.
Best,
Ed