By Pete Gray

A couple of years ago, my wife Lolly and I traveled to the Argentina side of Patagonia.  We fished and hiked and had an amazing adventure.  We returned home and decided we needed more of this while we still can, so we decided to try the other side of the Andes Mountains and set up a trip to Chile.  Geographically, Chile is a very long and thin country, that stretches from the eastern side of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean, covering many climates from Peru to the tip of South America.  The area considered Patagonia in Chile starts in the “Lake District” to the north and ends at the tip of South America. The area offers many opportunities for people who love the outdoors. One of the advantages of traveling to the south in January and February, it is the peak of their summer, so it is kind of like chasing “The Endless Summer” .

Our trip started in Santiago, but our first destination was Estancia de los Rios in mid Patagonia. The next day we flew to Balmaceda, about a 2 ½ hour flight where we were picked up by our guide Jota and drove through the Andes mountains 4.5 hours to the remote Estancia.  The drive was spectacular, but after almost 2 days of travel, we were ready for a Pisco Sour- the classic drink of Chile.  The lodge is located on a private 445,000-acre ranch near the Argentina border, with 60 miles of river, many lakes and spring creeks only accessible to the people staying at the ranch…which is a maximum of 10.  Needless to say, you have a lot of water to fish and never see another person.  The lodge is run by co-owner Marcelo and his wife Victoria.  Along with an amazing staff, the experience is beyond five stars. One of the best parts of the lodge is they cater to anyone that enjoys the outdoors.  Lolly likes to fish…a little bit, me I want to fish all the time.  This normally would create a challenge, not at Estancia de los Rios.  Being a working ranch, they have an extensive horse-riding program and are more than willing to make everyone happy.

Our first day we started on the Cisnes River, which runs from Argentina all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The Estancia has “only” brown trout, and a few juvenile king salmon in the Cisnes River that migrate up from the ocean. We caught a lot of 12-to-20-inch brown trout on dry flies while enjoying spectacular scenery.  At lunch we met a few of the others from the lodge that were fishing in different sections of the river and Lolly and her“Gaucho”  Bernardo, arrived on horseback.   Marcello and his crew had tables and chairs set up in the shade and we feasted on a traditional barbeque made on an open fire while we relaxed.  Truly a fantastic experience to start the week.  After an afternoon of fun fishing, we headed back to the lodge to relax and enjoy cocktails and appetizers before a fantastic dinner prepared by their amazing chef.  The rest of the week included fishing at a couple of local lakes for big browns up to 26 inches and walking and fishing spring creeks for fish big and small.  The highlight of the week was an overnight horseback trip up into the Andes with Lolly and another couple.  Marcello had a hard time convincing us we should do this as we did not want to leave the amazing comfort of our room and the lodge to go “camping” for the night.   The ride was 3 ½ hours on the horseback, which was long for me but a fantastic experience.  Once we arrived at the camp, there were 2 lakes that see very little pressure (no one had been there for 2 weeks). They had a boat on each lake, and we had amazing nymph and dry fly fishing for brown trout from 18 to 26 inches.  The camp was super deluxe, big tents, cots, plenty of warm bedding, a toilet and fantastic meals cooked by Bernardo.  It was a super special experience. 

At the end of our week, we did not want to leave Estancia de los Rios, but we had more adventures ahead.  We traveled by plane north to Puerto Montt, where we rented a car and drove to Puerto Varas. We spent 4-days hiking volcanoes and exploring this beautiful area.  We then drove further north to a fantastic lodge called “Parque Futangue”, a private reserve with fantastic hiking , mountain biking and an amazing lodge.  They offered lake fishing for trout, but we did not have enough time to experience this.   We then flew back to Santiago, drove southeast for 2.5 hours and explored the famous Colchagua Valley wine country before flying back to San Diego.

Chile is an beautiful country, and I encourage you to check it out someday, especially the Patagonia region.  Estancia de los Rios is truly a special place, and I hope some day we can go back.  The hospitality and experience was outstanding. It doesn’t matter if you are just getting into flyfishing or you are an expert, there is something for everyone, including the non-angler.  Our trip was set up by Christian and Anne-Marie at Andes Journeys (andesjourneys.com).  Christian is co-owner of Estancia del los Rios with his brother Marcello but lives in Montana.  He knows his home country of Chile and can design a trip to your needs like he did for Lolly and me.  He can also book you for an experience of a lifetime at Estancia de los Rios.  No matter which side of the Andes Mountains you are on, I hope you can visit Patagonia. It is amazing.