"Once again through Uruguay

Hi,

my name is Uwe W e r n e r, from Germany. The one or the other might know my name from aquarium articles or fish books, especially about cichlids. This year, I passed two weeks in Uruguay on a collecting trip, guided by Felipe Cantera.

My friends Hans-Günther Breidohr and Hans-Peter Risch (he's from Switzerland) proposed to do so because they had been on such a collecting-trip with Felipe the year before and appreciated it so much that they wanted to go again. Felipe found a completely new tour with different fish for us - with only one collecting-site which was the same as the year before, but of course we had wanted to go there.

And he prepared everything the finest: Our bus was spacy, the equipment fantastic, the bus driver Pedro the most helpful and dear companion you can imagine, the small hotels inviting and the stops on te different farms days of close contact to the people and animals and full of discovery and adventure. Do you want me to talk about food? None of us will neither forget the specialities we were advised to try in different restaurants nor the opulent barbecues at the farms.

Of course, each of us liked and will remember the trip for some special details: Hans-Peter for the Mate Felipe shared with him, Hans-Günther for all the little services he did for him, Klaus Pröpper for 'livebearers, Rhineloriacaria and - most of all - flan' and me for the best pieces of meat he stole for me from the barbecues early because I like my meat 'red'. Yes, we were well looked after, but most of all we had a lot of unforgettable fun…

Of course Felipe knew the most hidden collecting-sites, but also the names of the fishes, turtles, spiders and snakes we found, and whenever something was difficult to catch, he helped. He also saw to it the we all got our papers for taking the fish legally from Uruguay into the EU, so that we all returned home relaxed and with good conscience.

So let me – let us  - say thank you again to Felipe, his team and his friends, but perhaps I should also warn him that we – I think you will imagine what I want to say!? - will return…"