Can You Listen Me?

The Viking Jupiter left Montevideo and cruised south to the Argentine port of Puerto Madryn. At this point, we are now in Patagonia, which comprises the southern part of the South American continent, including the countries of both Argentina and Chile. The name Patagonia originated with the Portuguese explorers. Apparently Ferdinand Magellan observed that the indigenous people of this area had large feet, so he called them pata gau, which is Portuguese for big paw. Eventually the name evolved into Patagonia.  

Approaching Puerto Madryn

Here are a few photos of the town of Puerto Madryn.

I don't speak much Spanish, but I'm pretty sure this is a supermarket.

Patagonia is home to much wildlife such as penguins, sea lions, whales, dolphins, guanacos (similar to llamas), foxes, maras (similar to hares) and many unique birds, including the Rhea. The largest penguin nesting ground in South America is in Patagonia, and it is also a popular breeding ground for whales. There are many nature reserves here. There are also many pelagic birds here. Pelagic birds are birds that mostly live over the open ocean, continuously in flight. They actually even sleep while flying. They can be found thousands of miles offshore. The albatross is common in Patagonia, and can have wingspans as large as 6.5 feet. 

This area is also home to the discovery of the world's largest dinosaur bones. The largest dinosaur has been given the name titanosaurus, and is sometimes called Argentinosaurus for obvious reasons. There is a paleontological museum in the nearby town of Trelew which houses dinosaur bones. They were very excited when Argentinosaurus was discovered, and hoped to add the creature to its exhibits. However, Argentinosaurus was so large, that it wouldn't fit inside the museum, so the museum is closed for renovations to enlarge it so that the re-created dinosaur will fit inside. Currently a replica is residing outside and can be seen from the highway. 

Our cruise ship docked at Puerto Madryn and then we boarded a bus for the 80 km (almost 50 mile) drive to the little town of Gaiman. Our tour guide's name for this excursion was Karina. I mentioned in a previous post how the tour guides speak English but sometimes word things a little differently than we do. Karina began the day by asking us if we could hear her by saying "Can you listen me"?

Karina and me

Karina informed us that Gaiman is home to the largest Welsh community outside of Wales, with lots of history, heritage, and culture. We began by driving through the town of Puerto Madryn and then heading west and south. We passed through the aforementioned Trelew (where we saw the large dinosaur that's forced to live outside until they build a bigger museum) on the way to Gaiman. The highway we traveled on was Highway 3, which is a very important highway in Patagonia as it connects the region of Patagonia with Buenos Aires to the north, where they derive many of their goods and supplies. We were warned that the roads would be bumpy, and the warning was not wrong. In fact, halfway to Gaiman I noticed that my fitbit said that I had over 14,000 steps for the day so far, even though I had been sitting on the bus most of the morning. My hand apparently was going up and down with the bumpiness of the road, and the fitbit was recording it as steps. I guess it's too much to hope that 14,000 steps worth of calories would be burned from the ride on the bumpy bus.

The weather was cool and breezy in Puerto Madryn, but inland it was sunny and very hot. The arid desert-like climate was evident in the treeless scenery along the way, which consisted of a lot of scrub grass, thorny bushes, rocky escarpments, and plateaus.

The area only gets about 8 inches of rain per year. It is windy enough here that there are an abundance of windmills to harness the wind for energy. In addition to the windmills, there is a hydroelectric dam that produces electricity for this area, which Karina kept referring to as the valley, since the Andes mountains are to our west.

One of the more unusual things I spotted along the drive was an airplane sitting up on a bluff next to what looked like a house. Now it could be that there was a small airport located on the other side of the bluff which was not visible from the road down below where we were traveling, and it also could be that what looked like a house was a small airport terminal building. But from the only view we had, it looked like a house with an airplane sitting in its driveway. 

The name Gaiman means sharp stone in the indigenous language. There are three flags that are flown here: the Argentine flag, the Welsh flag, and the indigenous peoples' flag. When we arrived in Gaiman we went to a Welsh tea house named Ty Gwyn, which means White House. We went inside and were seated at tables to enjoy some Welsh refreshments such as cakes, pastries, and, what else would you have at a tea house? Tea, of course. Everything was fresh and delicious as we were told that the ladies get up early every morning to bake the days' goodies. We sat at a table with a couple from San Antonio, Lisa and Pat, whose daughter-in-law is from Pittsburgh, so we enjoyed a nice conversation with them, part of which included the famous Pittsburgh "cookie table". 

After a time of conversation and enjoying the freshly baked pastries, we were serenaded by a group of Welsh singers. They are a choir group, so most of their songs were hymns. They sang "Amazing Grace" in Welsh and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" in Spanish, both very beautifully done. They closed with a very lively Welsh folk song. They were all dressed in black and sported a small yellow flower on their shirts. We later asked Karina about the flower, and she said they were mimosas which is the state flower of Chubut, which is the province (state) of Argentina where Gaiman is located. 

A few people of our group wandered through a side door and discovered a nice garden area behind the tea house. We followed them and took a few pictures.

After our tea and short concert of Welsh singers, we took a walking tour through town. We walked along the Chubut River. 

Then we walked through the town and to the town square where there was a nativity scene display and a Catholic Church across the street. We also viewed a monument to Christopher Columbus and an unusual butterfly tree.

We ended up at an area of a few shops, where we wandered in and out looking for Patagonian souvenirs before re-boarding the bus back to Puerto Madryn. 

Being silly

Other photos from the town of Gaiman

I don't speak much Spanish, but I'm pretty sure this place sells sandwiches.

On the bus trip back, Karina told us that she had a gift for us, and she walked down the aisle of the bus and handed each of us a jar of jam that was made from local fruit. 

Here are a few pictures coming back into Puerto Madryn.

Here is a picture of our ship - Viking Jupiter.

A few hours after our return to the ship, we set sail for the Falkland Islands. We are leaving Argentina for now, but we will be back. We'll head over some potentially rough south Atlantic seas for a couple of days, take a brief tour of the Falkland Islands, and then head back to southern Argentina.

Here are a few parting shots of Puerto Madryn.

Watching our departure from the balcony