Welsh Patagonia

So, at the end of the 19th Century a group of Welsh folk set sail from their land. According to the woman we met from Cardiff last night (who had her own Tetley tea bags with her) it was all the undesireables -and we thought they'd fetched up in Swansea... Anyway, they made it across the Atlantic to Argentina. When they arrived they then crossed 500km of land to reach a place that looked a lot like Wales... a lush green valley, surrounded by beautiful mountains, with clear running rivers and lakes... The only difference between this and the real Wales, is that the sun actually shines here....Tidy.

Now we have isolated / angered a good percentage of our family and friends, we can say that we know why those folk stopped and founded Trevelin. Just as we think Argentina can't get any more beautiful, it does. We spent a good part of today cycling around it going "Wow". Yes Brian, this is a bucolic, gorgeous place.

For interested gastronomes and gourmands, we will reproduce below (with English translations) the entire ordering process of our meal last night:

Us: "Hola, Buenos Noches. ¿Una mesa para dos?" (Hi, good evening, a table for 2?)
Them: "Si." (yes)
Them: Put a plate of meat with little bowls of sauces on our chosen table
Us: Puzzled but start eating
Them: (who is now the big owner / chef of the restaurant). "¿Carne?" (Meat?)
Us: "Si".

20 minutes later a big grill of meat arrives. Gorgeous lovely meat.

20 minutes later...

Them: "¿Un poco mas?" (A little more?)
Martin: Si!

And repeat til we get the bill.

Today's culinary delights consisted of, after our 40km bike ride, going to a Welsh Tea Shop. For 6 quid each we each got:
- a scone with butter cream and jam
- a ham and cheese sandwich, home made white bread, crusts cut off
- slice of home made white bread and home made butter
- slice of chocolate cake
- slice of cheesecake (old fashioned way)
- slice of treacle & date cake
- slice of apple pie
- slice of nutty cake with icing on
- limitless tea with milk

Martin had seconds.

We like it here.

Cultural note
Welsh isn't spoken here widely as a first language. However, it is taught as an option in schools and there are a lot of visiting Welsh teachers and professors out here. Next week, our hostel has 22 Welsh kids coming over to share the language, dances, culture etc of Wales. This happens a lot. It seems to be a matter of pride for some locals to speak Welsh.

There are Welsh flags about the place and roads called things such as "John Murray Thomas" and "William Underwood" (our favourite is the street called "Las Malvinas Argentinas"). There's even a street called Brown....(for Martin's family).

The tea shops are "Welsh" (almost but not quite as good as Martin's aunty Gil's cake though and no Barra Brith!) and have displays in them of the pioneers and their stuff. What we have learnt from these is that if you are setting out on a perilous journey across the Atlantic from which you may never return, you bring your best china.

Oh yes, there is now a waitress in a Welsh tea shop who will be explaining Welsh devolution in all its complexity to tourists from all over the world as described by Martin and Kara, in Spanish, whilst on a sugar high.