"Oh no! Who died?"
Bill was calling to invite me to fill an open slot on their annual trip to Tierra del Fuego. My response was predicated upon his initial mention of the trip almost a year earlier. He and three friends had been regular guests at Estancia Despedida for several years but he assured me that one of them would probably have to die before a vacancy opened up. As it turned out, one of their gang had suffered a fate worse than death. The IRS seemed to have an interest in some previous tax returns and had strongly, uh, encouraged him to not even think of leaving the country.
Without considering how I would pay for the excursion, my mental bags were being packed. I had roughly six months to work out the minor details. Sell my truck? Take out a second mortgage on my house? Sell some fly fishing gear? Forget that one. Live off Beanie Weanies and VegAll for the next 180 days. Heck, that's not a drastic departure from life as I know it right now. I’m in!
You ever try to find Tierra del Fuego on a globe? It’s like waaaay down there. You have to turn the globe upside down. The next piece of solid ground is Antarctica. It’s just a small tip of land between the Strait of Magellan and Ushuaia the southernmost city in the world. In the world! From Atlanta, I would change planes in Miami with a layover for the night in Buenos Aires before heading to Rio Grande the next morning. Total plane time, sitting in the last seat to hit the ground in the event of a sudden, plummeting stop against the Pampas then Patagonia regions below, surrounded by absolutely no one who spoke English, was a little over 18 hours. I can be pretty quiet at times and for extended periods if in the mood. This usually uncomfortable character trait was actually pretty handy in this situation.
It was summer at the end of the world, or what they refer to as summer. First impression was one of a colorless world dominated by vast treeless plains and the foothills of the Andes. But the more I became immersed in it, the more I saw the life. Shortly after leaving the airport, we passed the giant statue of a 30-foot brown trout with bright red gills to match the sign stating “RIO GRANDE T.DEL FUEGO - CAPITAL INTERNACIONAL DE LA TRUCHA”. Yeah, baby! I’m in the right place!