Twenty seven years ago our “marketing people” told us that naming a lodge Kau Tapen was a bad idea. They said English speakers could not pronounce it. Today, anglers still garble the name.... From “cow toppin” to “cow tappin,” we hear plenty of variations. But everyone that has held a fly rod for more than a few minutes knows where we are, and what we do.
We have been catching big sea trout steadily for over twenty seven years, with that kind of track record, the name speaks for itself. We are Tierra del Fuego.
Everybody likes records, tallest, fastest, longest...that sort of thing. If you are interested in fishing records, have a look at Kau Tapen. No less than five world records have been set for brown trout on the Kau Tapen water, we have them framed on the lodge wall. Our guides tell us they have broken many, many, more records, but that most people don’t want to bother with the paper work. They just like to fish, and maybe take a photo. We’re good with that. We are Tierra del Fuego.
Back in the day, the large estancias or ranches in this area were pretty formal places. Even though they were just big sheep farms, a couple nights a week the men dressed in black tie and took their wives, garbed in evening gowns, to another ranch for black tie dinners. The food and wines were spectacular, everything from fresh seafood to the best Argentine beef, to fruits and vegetables imported from the tropics. At our lodges, we have relaxed the dress code considerably. But we have not changed the concept of dining much at all. We are Tierra del Fuego.
The truth? Yes, it is windy. Some days it can be very windy, and it is almost always “blow your hat off” windy. But you get used to it, and you get used to working with the wind, rather than against it. That’s why we put the lodges on the south banks of the river; we orient ourselves so the wind is behind us. The wind has always been here, and it’s really a minor inconvenience. When there is a twenty pound brown trout in the net, you’ll forget all about the wind, and that is the truth, too. We are Tierra del Fuego.
Tierra del Fuego is a long, long way from just about everything. The logistics of getting things here can be a nightmare at times. But after almost thirty-some years, we have the kinks pretty well worked out. After all, we still run sheep along the river, and if we can find one lost sheep on a few hundred thousand acres, we can sure find one misplaced duffle bag on the conveyor belt. We are Tierra del Fuego.
We are proud of our guides and our staff, and it makes us happy that our guides, even though they have been on the river, some of them for almost twenty years or more, still will stop the truck on the way to the fishing to point out a flock of geese, or a fox, or a guanaco. They still have the same sense of wonder and feel the same tie to the land that we have always felt. We are Tierra del Fuego.
Everyone that has been successful in business usually says it is a combination of hard work and luck. We’re no different. Lucky for us that a few rain barrels full of trout decided to start going to the sea in search of better meals. Lucky that we had all these river miles on the Rio Grande to begin with, and that our families were here in the beginning. We’re still working hard too; we want our lodges to be the best lodges anywhere-to raise the bar, to set the standard. Some of that sounds cliché, but it isn’t when you return to the lodge after a day of fishing, and everything is in it’s place, when a friendly face asks about your success and offers a drink, when dinner is as memorable as the fishing day. Our measure of success? When one of our anglers waves and says..... “See you next year!” as the truck pulls away to the airport. We’ll be here and we’ll have everything ready. We are Tierra del Fuego. |
