Travels in Patagonia

Trip Start Jan 06, 2008
1
13
28
Trip End Mar 31, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Argentina  ,
Saturday, February 9, 2008

We left Buenos Aires this morning and flew down to Trelew in Chubut Province. This is in Southern Patagonia and the area were a small group of Welsh people settled in 1865. I have to be careful what I say about the Welsh as my photographic assistant had a Welsh grandfather. At least he was sensible enough to move to England and not semi arid windswept Patagonia. Our hotel was in Puerto Madryn, the place were they first came ashore from a boat that had sailed from Liverpool. There were only a few indians to welcome them as this was not settled Argentine territory but the frontier, much as it was in the west of the USA at that time. It is still a very sparsely populated area, it is a long way from  Buenos Aires  (800 miles ) down famous Ruta Nacional 3 which goes all the way to Tierra del Fuego.  After  many hardships the Welsh were ultimately successful, turning the semi desert Chubut Valley into a green and fruitful place which it still is today. There are still Welsh speakers there but it is now overwhelmingly Spanish in both language and culture
Moulting penguin
Moulting penguin
.
We had come to see the penguins at the Punta Tomba reserve however which is some 100 miles south of Puerto Madryn on the barren shores of the South Atlantic. It is the largest penguin colony in South America with some 270,000 Magellanic penguins. These penguins are also known as Jackass penguins because their call sounds uncannily like a donkey's hee haw. They build nests in holes they dig in the loose sandy soil. You are able to walk among them, indeed almost step on them, as, even though humans are restricted to defined paths, the penguins don't keep off the paths.
After having our fill of Penguins (Joan could not stop taking photos) we went to the town of Gaiman, founded by the Welsh, to have Welsh afternoon tea in a Welsh tea shop called Ty Gwyn. And very nice it was! We had home made scones, buttered bread, fruit cake, jams, cream cakes, chocolate sponge, and a nice pot of tea, complete with a hand knitted tea cosy.
Slideshow

Use this image in your site

Copy and paste this html: