{"id":2327,"date":"2016-11-17T23:28:55","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T02:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2017-01-05T09:58:45","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T12:58:45","slug":"trip-through-chile-and-welsh-patagonia-day-7-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/archives\/2327","title":{"rendered":"Trip through Chile and [Welsh] Patagonia \u2013 Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 16 November, 2016: Los Altares – Trelew<\/em><\/p>\n

We left Los Altares after a basic breakfast in the ACA cafe and drove east towards the Atlantic. Today was not supposed to be a wildlife day, but after a couple of hours driving we came across a herd of guanaco in the distance and then two splendid animals quite close to the road. A lovely sight, and a first for Caroline.<\/p>\n

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Our first big wild animal – a guanaco, one of several by the side of the road<\/p><\/div>\n

We stopped for a second breakfast in Las Plumas, where we were yet again served undrinkable coffee and made a note to carry coffee and filters with us in future. Perhaps\u00a0expresso machines are expensive for smaller establishments like this.<\/p>\n

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Coffee stop in Las Plumas<\/p><\/div>\n

On our way to Trelew we made a short diversion to see the huge Dique Ameghino<\/a> dam. We drove over the top of it, not without a sense of vertigo, and looked cautiously down into the valley below.<\/p>\n

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Driving over the Dique Ameghino<\/p><\/div>\n

The water in the reservoir and also in the stream below was a beautiful clear greeny-blue, although to save time (we seem to be always on a tight schedule!) we didn’t drive down to the small settlement at ground level but turned round and back to the main road east.<\/p>\n

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View of the valley from the top of the dam<\/p><\/div>\n

Soon we were in the Welsh town of Dolavon<\/a>, where we had a huge lunch at the El Rayo<\/em> restaurant, perhaps (?) the only restaurant in town and at least the only one we could find. Welcome beer and good wholesome food put us in a good mood.<\/p>\n

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Lunch stop in Dolavon<\/p><\/div>\n

We drove around Dolavon, which was an attractive if sleepy town, with (apparently) a Welsh butcher …<\/p>\n

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Welsh butcher (?) in Dolavon<\/p><\/div>\n

… and more than one pretty bird (though Martin is rationed in his bird shots on this trip). This little beauty is a red-crested cardinal (Paroaria coronata<\/i>), his gorgeous headgear a perfect match for the painted kerbs of Dolavon.<\/p>\n

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Colourful Cardenal on kerb at Dolavon<\/p><\/div>\n

Irrigation streams ran through the town in Dolavon, some with quite ingenious mechanisms for raising water (see here for video clip<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Another Welsh chapel in Dolavon<\/p><\/div>\n

The Welsh belt, especially in farmland alongside the river Chubut around Dolavon, Gaiman and Trelew, is known for its Welsh chapels. Above is one we saw on leaving\u00a0Dolavon for Gaiman.<\/p>\n

In Gaiman we asked a student the way to the railway museum; she is wearing a teeshirt that comes from a school where Welsh is taught. In Gaiman the teaching of Welsh is on the increase, but funding is\u00a0precarious and the future seems uncertain.<\/p>\n

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Schoolgirl in Gaiman with Welsh school teeshirt<\/p><\/div>\n

The young lady directed us to what had in another life been a railway station, but now was the local museum\u00a0<\/a>and housed many photographs, documents and artefacts \u00a0of settlers who had come to the region. Here we met Fabio Gonz\u00e1lez, who has curated the collection for the last six years; his aunt Tegai Roberts<\/a> had done this previously and was there when Martin visited in the 1980s. Fabio was a wealth of information and a pleasure to chat with.<\/p>\n

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The old Gaiman Railway Station, now a museum<\/p><\/div>\n

Obviously there was a Welsh dresser in the collection, along with harps, harmoniums, cooking utensils and a wealth of other items, together\u00a0with scores of fascinating photos and documents.<\/p>\n

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Welsh dresser in the Gaiman Welsh Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

On one\u00a0wall in the museum was a map of Wales; the extract below shows the area Caroline and Martin know so well – Martin through childhood and university days and Caroline also through some thirty years living there as an adult.<\/p>\n

\"10a\"

Map in Welsh museum of our part of Wales<\/p><\/div>\n

Gaiman<\/a> is perhaps the most Welsh of the towns in the Welsh belt, and there is a real Welsh feel; many of the people simply look Welsh and would not be out of place in the streets of Machynlleth<\/a>. Yes, we were definitely in Welsh Patagonia now, and enjoying every minute of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 16 November, 2016: Los Altares – Trelew We left Los Altares after a basic breakfast in the ACA cafe and drove east towards the Atlantic. Today was not supposed to be a wildlife day, but after a couple of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-2","category-trip-welsh-patagonia-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2327"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2503,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}