Puerto Madryn

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Geo: -42.77, -65.04

Back in Argentina. Awoke to The skyline of Puerto Madryn on our port side, sunshine and a calm sea - another perfect day. We docked away from the downtown area as the Infinity needs deep water so for those not booked on excursions they had a short bus ride to get to the main shops and beach area. At breakfast we were lucky enough to see 4 sea lions sleeping on a jetty right next to the boat. We had booked to visit Gaimen in the Chubut Valley (sticker number 23) famous for being a Welsh speaking community maintaining a Welsh tradition even today. Thrown into the trip was a visit to the paleontological museum and a stop off to view a colony of sea lions at Punta Loma Natural Reserve. Our guide, Sonya, was fantastic, an older lady who was born near Gaiman (although not into the Welsh community) and she was full of information about the local economy , the landscape, the wildlife, the geology (she'd definitely be my 'call a friend' on Who wants to be a Millionaire- what she didn't know wasn't worth knowing) First stop, the Museum -Sonya had worked there and was so enthusiast about the findings (many fossils and bones dating back thousands of years when Australia and Africa were still joined to the South American continent and hence plants found here also exist in Oz and Africa too) Next, Gaimen. Welsh settlers (300 initially) arrived in the town in 1886, families wanting to start a new life. The townsfolk and schools still teach Welsh to their children and hold an annual eisteddfod. We enjoyed Welsh tea served with homemade bread, jams, and cakes at a tea house done out with Welsh-dressers, various Welsh crests and coincidentally we sat with 2 couples from Port Talbot (the nice part) one of whom spoke Welsh and he chatted to the waiting staff. He felt quite emotional being so far from home, but speaking in Welsh. It was a very unique and quiet place and it felt like stepping back in time. Tea over, and on to the sea lion reserve. The road was part of Panamerican highway and continues to the southern tip of Chile - very straight with a flat, not very fertile landscape. On the way we saw wild guanacos (llamas) wandering amongst the gorse and some sheep that roam freely within various ranches. When we reached the sealions we were able to view them from a balcony that overlooked a beach. There were several groups of sealions, male,female and lots of pups. There were also cormorants nesting above the beach. We got back to the ship and listened to a guitar duo whilst we had a coffee. Then on to dinner and to finish the day another show - a saxophonist named Oli Nez - a young Welsh guy - very good!

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