Hotel Libertador Trelew

... my first day, I took a long walk along the beach (white sand for the first time on the trip), and found the caves (yes, caves) where the first Welsh settlers lived. I decided to go a bit further afield so hired a bike and took to the Argentinian roads, which was easier than I thought - everyone drives like they don´t know the rules of the road, some people drive on the left, it doesn´t really matter. Eventually I got to Playa Doradillo, 25km of protected coastline and the breeding ...

It doesn´t look difficult. tray-LOO, right? My guidebook says tray-LAY-oo, and the locals range from tray-LAU to treel-OW to some unrecognizable permutation. I give up. Trelew is another former Welsh settlement with precious little left of the Welsh influence save for another excuse to eat cake, the old-fashioned Welsh-style cakes sold most everywhere (Argentinians love sweets nearly as much as ham.) While here, we visited a truly wonderful ...

... lovely - everyone is happy to have a chat and help out the gringos. We stayed in BA (insert your own Mr T gag here - why should I do all the work?) for 4 nights; its a really nice place. Modern in parts, lots of nice architecture, old stuff. We saw the ...

... with and met a guy from Holland called Walter. We are going up to Trelew together to see the Penguins! It took 5 1/2 hours to Trelew from Comorodo Rivaderia and we eventually arived at 12 - noon. We were on a tour by 2pm to see the penguins at a whoping $50 but it was great. Car hire wold have been cheaper but it is Sunday and everything is closed - and i mean EVERYTHING!!! It was the largest penguin ...

... of Gaiman a few reality check comments: - There are no Welsh people in Gaiman (they were...but no longer there) - All the Welsh Tea houses are a tourist trap - $28 pesos for tea and cakes in Argentina is simply not realistic. You can have a wonderful lunch for that amount. - The cakes are delicious, but hardly worth the trip. Carrefour can offer the same... - The Celtic music which they play at all these places is unbearable. Truly So, been there done that. Never again.

... gezeten, en weinig meer gezien dat wat pinguins, lama´s, wat zeeleeuwen en uiteraard steppe, steppe, steppe.. Gelukkig hebben de zeeleeuwen het vanochtend helemaal goed gemaakt met Annelieke. Die heeft vanochtend gedoken tussen die beesies. Met ze gezwommen en ze geaaid, dat was een onvergetelijke gebeurtenis. Gelukkig maar, want dit is dan wel de enigste plek ter aarde waar dat mogelijk is. En dat pik je dan toch mooi ff mee in puerto Madryn! Kus

... Definitely not for us, we looked no further and left town and passed on Valdes as well. This is summer and we found where everyone goes, but not where we want to go right now, we'll wait until the season winds down, to possibly go back to Valdes, to see the fauna. From Puerto Madryn we drove back south to ,Gaiman, a Welsh village just a short distance west of Trelew. It captured our interest with its quaint country charm and tea ...

... of the main land and attracts a lot of sea mammals to it. In the winter time is it a place where whales could be watched but unfortunately we had not hit it this time of year. Instead on our various stops along the coast line we got to see a huge colony of sea lions just lazying out of the beach! Occasionally there would be a lot of noise between a couple of the males, making territory and their females around them. There were so many of them on the ...

... You can hear it though. Well, we continued on and made our way back for the last part of our journey. We arrived to Gaiman and Siobhan and I decided to fore go the Welsh tea and just sat in a park and ate our lunch. There are dogs everywhere in this country and one came up to me after digging a rock out of the ground, picking it up, sticking his head between my legs(I was standing) and dropping the rock on the ground for me to throw. I played with the dog for awhile and tried to ...

... quite touristy with man made bridges crossing over the penguin paths to the sea. I feel a little sorry for the penguins that are beside the pedestrian path where all the tourists are walking. They seem relaxed and almost unaware that humans are any different from a penguin though. We watch them waddle down to the sea for a wash and dive. Under the water they become expert divers, moving at great speeds. Spurred on by the Paleontological musueum in ...