
After a wonderful day of rafting with Uschi Hill and Ana Maria, Uschi and Matt talked me into assending the mighty active Volcano Villarrica! It was to be my first assent of any major mountain and we all thought this would be an excellent mountain to check out. The weather was perfect and I was more than excited to do this climb cause I thought, how perfect it would be to do it with a USFS forest climbing ranger and a nurse from Mt Shasta. I never realized it would become a lifetime highlight that I would never forget!

As we climbed the Volcano to the half way mark we saw three Condors flying over head, they were huge and seemed to enjoy seeing us as much as we did them. It was a sight to see, with their huge wing span and graceful way they cut through the inversions the mountain provided for their flight. I stopped and thought to myself how lucky we were to witness this on a day that nothing could go wrong. The climb was easy and the sites were incredible, seeing six other volcanos as we climbed to 8500 feet.

In previous days I went wading on the Rio Trancura, I saw this spot from a bridge and thought, what a great place to fish right behind this rock. I ended up catching a dozen or more of these bright McCloud River Rainbows that ranged in size from 10 to 14 inches. It was a great place to fish for three hours before the sunset at 9:30 PM. I used a size 14 Pheasant Tail after turning over some rocks to see what was living in the river.

After we picked up Daniel in Puerto Montt, we took him to a seafood restaurant right on the bay. The food was awesome and it was more than fresh, our seafood was caught that day. I had the best Congrio I¥ve ever tasted and we all decided to return there later in the trip, and return we did for another delicious meal about 10 days later! The island across the shore reminded us of the Sausalito area before all the present building, and the town of Puerto Montt could be a replica of San Francisco in previous years past.

Daniel enjoyed his mixed seafood stew, companied by a fine bottle of Chilean wine. He commented that we really set the stakes high with this meal and would be hard to out do this food in future meals on his trip! Little did he know every meal would end up being as good, as we steered him to every fine restaurant the 9th and 10th regions had to offer.
We finished our fine meal in Puerto Montt and we headed on a scenic tour along the gorgeous Lago LLanquihue. We stopped at a hut that sold bottled pickled trout and salmon the lady was so nice that sold it to us, we knew we were once again in an area that enjoyed tourist like ourselves. We then headed to the Rio Petrohue to try our luck catching McCloud River Rainbows. Daniel started by using a dry fly and a dropper nymph, but once we canned the dropper and used only a Royal Wulff size 16, he started to really catch the trout! This was great start to his trip and we thanked the Rio Petrohue for providing us with this adventure.

On another day we used a boat to drift the Rio Petrohue. The fishing in the river was slow that day but our guide Francisco brought to this lagoona section of the river and Daniel had a ball catching these healthy trout on large Chernoble Ants on the surface! Afterwards we enjoyed another great lunch on the beach as we watched more trout rise.

In the town of Pucon we found this restaurant that made the best pasta I¥ve ever tasted. The chef would hand roll the spinach fettuchinni and I returned to this place 7 out of the 10 days we spent in Pucon. Ana Maria enjoyed their lasagna and the Kuntsmann beer on tap was also a treat!

This is why I returned so many times! I loved this place it's called the Trawen Restaurant and is located in Pucon, Chile.

Daniel Sedergren will go down as one of the best customers I ever guided! He was a complete gentleman and I hope his girlfriend Mary is reading this cause he's a catch for any girl seeking the right man. Daniel is without a doubt the Sizzler of the week award winner and I plan to guide him up on the Klamath in the Fall. Take care Daniel we¥ll never forget you.... As we left him off at the Puerto Montt airport a tear was seen in Ana Maria's eyes, as we both felt that we had lost a true friend as well as an excellent customer! Buen Viaje amigo! JACK AND ANA MARIA




