Word from the Owner David Perez

Despite the best shooting ever on the property, this past month has been difficult for us. As many of you may or may not know, we were robbed approximately two weeks ago. Thankfully, nobody was hurt during the incident (see below for info on new security measures). Despite this difficult situation and the global financial crisis, we did host over 90 clients in October, and every single one of them enjoyed beautiful spring weather and world class wingshooting! Most importantly, we welcomed a new addition to the Los Chanares family – Alex and Jessica had a beautiful baby boy – Anthony!

Shooting Update from Alex Mitri

The main attraction at Los Chanares is better than ever! We have never seen the volume and quality of birds since we started operating the lodge 3 years ago. All the flyways are working perfectly. We had our first 1,000 bird female shooter – Annette Nygren from Denmark. Congrats Annette!

Furthermore, we had good rains this month, which bodes well for the upcoming sunflower season. As many of you know, we plant several hundred hectares of sunflower and throw over 500 tons of corn per year. This allows us to maintain the birds on the property, so your shoots are just a stones throw from the lodge. Given the good rains this month, we have planted over a third of the sunflower for next year. Our gamekeeper Martin figures we will have big sunflowers which will be great in Jan-March.

Featured Employee – Daniel Ceballos

Daniel has been the main chef at our lodge for the past 5 years and was working at Los Chanares when we took over operations in 2005. Daniel’s meals are a perfect blend of simple Argentine ingredients mixed with just the right amount of gourmet touch. Some specialties include homemade lasagna and ravioli plates. Of course like many Argentines, Daniel takes pride in preparing mouth watering asados (bbqs).

Daniel studied in the top culinary school in Cordoba. He has worked in several top restaurants in Argentina, including the restaurant in the Sheraton, Cordoba. Daniel is married with 1 son. His wife is pregnant and is due to have a baby daughter in the coming months. We can only hope that one of his kids will learn to cook like he does!

The Latest and Greatest Improvement

Unfortunately our latest and greatest improvement is the result of the robbery at the lodge. We can now safely say we are the most secure lodge in Argentina. We have hired the country’s preeminent security company (www.gruposanmiguel.com.ar). As a point of reference, I used to work for one of Argentina’s richest families (Bunge family), and they used this security company as their personal bodyguards as well as for the protection of their farm. Some of the companies that trust their security to Grupo San Miguel include Bayer, Syngenta, GM, Nike and AIG, among others. It is definitely way out of our budget but we realize the importance of staying safe, especially during this initial phase. Their service will include 3 security guards 24 hours a day, that were trained in the Special Forces, along with a patrol car that will make continuous rounds of the property.

In addition, the local police has agreed to come by the lodge every 3-4 hours, at least. I imagine you will not ever see any of these guards or police, unless you walk to the back of the lodge or on the road entering the lodge. This extra security will be top-notch and discreet at the same time.

So, it is now safe to say that Los Chanares has the best birds, lodge, service, food AND security!

Frequently Asked Question

Why are the birds the best ever this year?
There are several theories to explain the explosion of birds this year. Specifically at Los Chanares, this is our 8th year with a strict game management program. By providing the birds with so much food, it is logical that Los Chanares has more birds than ever. However, the other outfitters in Cordoba have also commented on the high volume of birds.

The most likely reason is the huge increase in planted acreage. The planted acreage in the North of Cordoba is 40x more than 15 years ago. This is due to the increase in grain commodity prices. As many of you can see on the highways, almost all the ranches are almost exclusively dedicated to agriculture. In particular this past season saw a tremendous increase in planted corn acreage (from soybean). Corn is a favorite for doves.

The second reason is simple math. There have been studies done that put the amount of birds between 20-100 million. Whatever the number, the birds have an average of 4 hatches per year (2 eggs per hatch). So even though many birds are shot per year, the multiplier effect is too great to slow down the increase in birds.

January Dates

All the records for most doves shot have occurred in the month of January. Since the days are long and the sunflower is plentiful, many clients think January is the best month to come down. The problem has always been airline flights being full due to the high season for Argentine tourism. If any of you have miles or are willing to pay a little extra, please contact us to enjoy the excellent January shooting!

I certainly hope you have enjoyed our newsletter updating you on Los Chanares experience.

Thank you very much for your time and hope to hear from you, sometime soon.

David Perez

Owner