Welsh Patagonia

My Patagonian odyssey concluded in Puerto Madryn, on the Atlantic coast of Argentina. This area was colonised by the Welsh towards the end of the 19th Century, who, seeking freedom from British repression, and having been granted permission by the Argentine government, arrived expecting to establish farms and instead found avast barren desert promising little hope of survival. Many died and the colony only survived because they befriended the indigenous tribes who taught them how to hunt. Interestingly, this is the only occurrence in the history of the colonisation of Argentina wherein a friendly relationship existed between the natives and the settlers. I went to visit Gaiman, one of the "Welsh" villages where they still speak Welsh. Part of the typical tourist circuit, we went to a Welsh teahouse (since when was Wales famous for tea? I thought it rude to sing the more obvious praises of Devonshire cream teas in too high a voice but I did let my travelling companions know sotto voce). Anyway, the remarkable thing about this particular teahouse, appropriately called Caerdydd (I did not fail to let them know where I live when I´m in the UK), is that it is a shrine to Princess Diana (Lady Dee as she is affectionately called in Patagonia) This is THE teahouse where she took her tea when she visited Patagonia and sure enough, her lipstick-imprinted teacup is encased in a glass display cabinet, together with a cornucopia of Diana kitsch filling the whole building....! Fabulous!

I walked with penguins, 700,000 of them, in Punta Tombo. Funny, curious creatures, crossing your path. I did feel a touch of moral unease about being able to walk through their colony, especially when I saw a child taunting a penguin with a plastic bottle. Hmm. Not so good.

I visited colonies of sealions and elephant seals and saw Commerson`s dolphins playing in the waves, all around the Valdès Peninsula, a natural haven for the animalitos. You need to go in the Patagonian winter to see the awesome sight of whales splashing in front of the boat, so that I did not see. But all in all, I was living a veritable wildlife David Attenborough stylie documentary. ¡Que barbaro!, as they say here!

I visited colonies of sealions and elephant seals and saw Commerson`s dolphins playing in the waves, all around the Valdès Peninsula, a natural haven for the animalitos. You need to go in the Patagonian winter to see the awesome sight of whales splashing in front of the boat, so that I did not see. But all in all, I was living a veritable wildlife David Attenborough stylie documentary. ¡Que barbaro!, as they say here!