Met a slightly sickly Emma in Trelew and went to Gaiman to check out the centre of Welsh Patagonia and have some tea. God milky tea in a teapot plus tea cosy felt good! We went to the tea house belonging to the great granddaughter of the first Welsh settler in Patagonia who arrived in 1865. The tea house was like a swiss lodge full of Welsh memorabilia in cabinets and a big iron fire/grate thing which came across on that first ship to Patagonia, the Mimosa.
After stuffing our faces with inordinate amounts of dulce de leche cake we caught the bus back to Trelew and our kitch tumble down hostel. The next day we passed through Puerto Madryn and on to Puerto Piramides where we got on a boat to do some whale watching. Emma´s SLR camera went nuts at this point. There were big Right whales and their calves everywhere, enormous and beautiful animals with big carbuncles all over. After this I had a big lamb lunch a la parilla (big fat bbq) in a lighthouse estancia on the Peninsula Valdes. Em, still not feeling great had soup, a few guilt feelings on my part. That afternoon, we went onto the beach below to see elephant seals. Whopping creatures making bit flatulent snoring noises, awesome.
Saturday and Sunday were spent chilling while Emma recovered and the elections took place meaning everything was shut. Much time listening to "estas viendo Warner Channel" on tv. Sunday afternoon we flew down to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the town which claims to be at the end of the world. It´s not really but it is the biggest southern town apparently. It´s like an Austrian or Swiss ski resort. We are staying in a wood pannelled hostel, feels very European and much more wealthy than concrete jungle Welsh Patagonia. It does feel good and quite strange to be the furthest South I have been in my life.
Since being here we have done a boat trip down the Beagle Channel and seen sea lions and massive cormorants that look like penguins if you squint. Yesterday we took a bus to the National Park, Tierra del Fuego, and strolled around the park which is stunning. Looks a bit like the Lake District in the UK but more extreme. Today we are off dog sledding up in the snow should be hilarious, am thinking Canadian Mountie style but we shall see. Tomorrow morning we plan to go up a glacier before flying to El Calafate to see the mother of glaciers and the best apparently, El Perito Moreno. Em and I are hugely excited about this and Torres del Paine, the best National Park in South America apparently, our next destination after that....
That´s all for now, if you´ve read this far, thanks for your persistence and interest! xx
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