We arrived in Cordoba, Argentina on Tuesday, August 5th, having left Houston on Monday. We\u00a0got through customs, and then on to the lodge.\u00a0That trip was another two hours, but at the lodge, Eduardo met us with champagne and goodies to snack on. So\u00a0it was 5 AM by the time we got to bed.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, we choose to forgo the early morning hunt –\u00a0but not the afternoon one. This came after a wonderful lunch of beef and of course the fabulous desserts at each meal.<\/p>\n
The first hunt was wonderful, with a lot of birds. But\u00a0we are in Argentina, so we expected that. The nice thing was the field was very close to the lodge… like, right around the corner. Yay! A true advantage for La Zenaida Lodge.<\/p>\n
The wind picked up in the afternoon, so the\u00a0birds were very challenging. But the OSP “Kick-Ash” method worked again!\u00a0If you got behind these birds, they were gone. As we went to visit each student, we learned\u00a0that they wouldn’t start their move early enough to be able to stay in front of the bird. And\u00a0with the wind,\u00a0they could not catch up to the bird, much less get in front of it.\u00a0 So we stood behind each student and told them when to begin their move and let the bird come to them. It worked a lot better that way.<\/p>\n
When everyone got tired, we went\u00a0back to the bus to go to the lodge. Then we were met by\u00a0Eduardo and the ladies who had fresh towels and mugs of cold beer for us\u00a0to enjoy. What a nice surprise.\u00a0I had not had a cold beer in over a year, and it\u00a0tasted wonderful. I think I had forgotten how good a cold beer is\u00a0after a hunt.<\/p>\n
Dinner again was fabulous and the wines were delightful. Argentina is known for its beef and Malbec wine, and both are wonderful. Our chef did a great job of cooking the beef perfectly, the way we like it. And the dessert was great. It’s not\u00a0like we have in the States –\u00a0but ice cream with fruit, flan, crepes with blueberry ice cream, etc. We rationalized that it was fruit and therefore it was good for you. HA!<\/p>\n
The second day, Gil and I started out with our protein shakes, as we knew if we kept this intake in we would not be happy by the next Tuesday when we were to go home. The morning hunt was without\u00a0wind \u2013\u00a0much nicer. The birds were\u00a0not quite as erratic and many went down. We worked with everyone on moving earlier with the birds to stay in front.<\/p>\n
Gil had the job of shooting videos with the ShotKam to get more kill shots for the website. He was a tired boy after shooting the ShotKam on the end of his gun, but what great movies he got. They will be coming to the website soon.<\/p>\n
The third day was even better. Everyone had gotten\u00a0over their fear of using their full chokes on the birds. Many of the birds were high with a lot of wind, so we put those full chokes and went to town. By the end of the day, full choke was the perfect choke and the two students\u00a0who had rented guns from the lodge realized the importance of bringing their own guns. Three of us will not hunt tomorrow as we have to travel four hours to the pigeon lodge in the hills west of Cordoba. The two that weren\u2019t going to shoot pigeons hunted that morning and then went\u00a0off to the airport to return to the States.<\/p>\n
The long drive was worth it. We arrived at the estancia that was built in 1611, and the pigeon shoots all four days were superb. There was a\u00a0lot of laughing and howling as each bird went down. We added four of our students from Mexico City to add to the four days worth of\u00a0fun and laughter. This lodge was in the hills and had a completely different feel. It was also\u00a0much colder than the dove lodge in the valley.<\/p>\n
We had an absolute ball at both lodges. Now we’re going home to lose the weight we gained… but what a way to go.\u00a0Great food, great hunting, and most importantly, great people. We will return to do this trip again.<\/p>\n
Remember, the life of the hunter is\u00a0hard<\/i>. He must rise early in the morning and eat, then hunt the birds,\u00a0then eat again, then siesta, then hunt the birds, then eat and drink the wine…\u00a0Very hard!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We arrived in Cordoba, Argentina on Tuesday, August 5th, having left Houston on Monday. We\u00a0got through customs, and then on to the lodge.\u00a0That trip was another two hours, but at the lodge, Eduardo met us with champagne and goodies to snack on. So\u00a0it was 5…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vicki"],"yoast_head":"\n