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| Puerto Madryn, Argentina - March 11, 2008 Long after Spanish explorers landed, this area was settled by Welsh colonists who left Great Britain seeking autonomy for their culture and language. The original settlers came ashore in July 1865 and named their first settlement Porth Madryn in honor of Baron Madryn of Wales. |
| The eastern side of South America is much different than the west side. The Andes are gone and the shoreline is pretty flat as far as you can see. We docked at Puerto Madryn at about 10 a.m. and our tour started about 11:30 a.m. We spent most of the day at the little towns of Trelew and Gaiman (map at right) |
| Puerto Madryn Harbor - The sea was very calm and the temperature in the mid 80's! |
| We had been up very late last night so we decided to have breakfast in the room followed by coffee on the veranda (life is tough at sea!!). We had stayed up so late to watch a performance by a world famous pianist from China - Tian Jiang. The evening shows have been very good on this cruise. |
| The first town we visited was Trelew about 30 miles from Puerto Madryn. The countryside is very barren since they only get about 2 cm of rain a year. We did see some Guanaco (like Llamas) along the way. They also are very religious here and there are many roadside shrines. Our first stop was a paleontological museum. |
| The museum was small but had some excellent displays. This particular one (left) was showing the relative size of a saurpod-type of dinosaur - a good picture op! |
| In the left picture is a replica of an ammonite shell which was found in Germany. All of the dioramas are composed of bones artificially reproduced but the actual bones are kept in this museum, or other museums. |
| Our next stop was in the town of Gaiman, another Welsh settlement. We stopped at one of the many tea shops in town. This one is called Ty Gwyn. We entered a big room with lots of tables set up with china plates filled with tea goodies - cakes, pies, sandwiches, quiches, scones. Another busload from the ship was also there. We were served tea and enjoyed a performance by a local chorus group singing in Spanish and Welsh. |
| Outside the tea shop they had the Welsh (red dragon) and Argentinian flags, and also a pretty garden. |
| The river Chubutt runs through the valley where Trelew and Gaiman are located, making that area green with lots of trees. |
| We were back on the ship by 5:30. In time to enjoy the sun on our balcony. We checked our emails and found one from the Halls saying Rachel wanted to write my biography for school so I answered the questions she sent. |