Fishing on Rio Neuquèn

Emillio, my personal chauffeur, Sergio, my guide and I went fishing up river yesterday morning. The river is well known for its salmon and people come from all over the world to fly fish. Emillio knows a smattering of english and Sergio knew none. We played sherades all morning and in the process I learned a lot of spanish and Emillio learned a lot of english. Sergio learned patience. I didn´t catch anything but Sergio hooked several fish and let me reel them in. Of course I lost the big one... it gets larger with every telling of the story. Funny how even when you cannot communicate in a common language, everyone understands the big fish story. We were in the mountains very close to the Chilean border and the sky was the bluest blue that you can imagine and the water the clearest clear that I have ever seen. I took many photographs but I know they can never do the countryside justice. Emillio is 65 and looks much like Mario of the video game... short and wide. When we started off I was ahead of him and kept offering him my hand to get from one difficult rock to another. He eventually got fed up with that and bombed on ahead of me. You should have seen him go. He is like a mountain goat. I was so embarrassed for trying to help him. On the drive back we picked up many hitchhikers... it seems that it is how people get around in these parts. First we picked up a Mother and two young boys who were on their way home from school, then we passed the school teacher from Huingan-Cò who was on his way home to Andollo. There was no room for him so Emillio put one of the young boys on my lap to make space. We dropped that bunch off and then picked up a woman in Andollo who had been in town shopping and was on her way home. She was replaced with another school teacher who was on her way home from blah, blah, blah. It seems to be a way of life. And interesting one to say the least.

The day was one of the most interesting and one of the most peaceful that I have ever and I am sure that I could write a book about it but I will bore you no more. Besides, it is early morning and the community hall is coming to life and I think that I am keeping Horatio from using his office, so, until tomorrow...... Adios.