Changeable Santa Cruz River

Once the steppe is left behind, the City of Comandante Luis Piedra Buena welcomes visitors like an oasis with endless green hues and humid lands near the Santa Cruz River.

Wishing to go for a motorbike ride, we hired a tour that led us several kilometers upstream and downstream from the urban area. As we moved, our guide showed us some details on the shore, about the width of the river and told us about the activities practiced at that spsot. As it was a beautiful day, some people were using their kayaks or sailing boats. Likewise, we heard that there is also a special zone to practice water ski.

Expert anglers know the properties of this waterway where trout represents an unavoidable challenge. Also, large sea bass, silverside and trout compensate the distance anglers have to travel to reach Piedra Buena.

Without going any farther, Piedra Buena is the Argentinian trout capital and its festival is held every year late in March and early in April with the attendance of great audiences. This trout is known as steelhead and is born in freshwater courses. Then it travels down to the sea and swims back upstream to breed. Afterwards, it returns to saltwater. It is quite restless and it is during these moves that anglers have the chance to show their skill to catch them. Fly-casting and spinning are the most popular disciplines.

Rainfalls and snowfalls hit the glaciers on the ice fields where the river source is located and cause the volume of the waterway to change from its most plentiful point from November to March to the scarcest in September.

Featuring ferquent changes of hue according to the direction of the wind -which shifts from the sea to the mountain range and vice versa- the Santa Cruz River amazed us and promised to welcome us back on our next visit, when we will probably stay longer.