Leaving Wales and arriving in Argentina!

English translation of Welsh blog below!

I said that I was going to try to keep a blog about my travels…so I’m giving it a go at least! I´m not sure who will have any interest in what I have to say…bit here we go and here´s a brief(ish) outline of the first week!

Sunday 7th June 2009
Leave Manchester full of excitement about the adventures ahead of me, fly to Heathrow before catching the flight to Sao Paolo and connection to Buenos Aires. Went for a quick drink with Hywel, the other officer who´s going to Trelew and the Gaiman to contemplate what´s ahead of us and the two of us can´t quite believe that we´re off to Patagonia! Good start on the plane, it´s half empty and a row of ´extra leg room´ just for me and I’m very happy with the ´Brad Pitt fest´ selection of films available! Great flight with Tam Airlines, apart from taking the wrong option for breakfast…the omlette was not good! Nearly had to spend a night in Sao Paolo as the connection was tight…but arrived safely in Buenos Aires on Monday morning. No one there to greet us, so had a sit down in arrivals, got our Lonely Planets out and looked for somewhere to stay…spot the tourists!! We chose well anyway, and stayed on Avenue de Mayo right in the middle of things and went to have a look at Casa de Rosa (where Evita gave her famous speech…or Madonna sang!! And it seriously is pink! Out for supper then…so as we were in Buenos Aires..we went for pizza, and it was good pizza too!!

Tuesday 8th June 2009
Neither of us had much idea of what Buenos Aires had to offer so decided to take the easy option and went on the open top bus tour, was a nice day after all! Came off in the La Boca, got little exited when I saw the Boca Juniors Stadium. BA is has quite and European feel..but La Boca is completely different. Colorful buildings, lots of statues of Maradona (some good, some not so…!) and people doing the Argentine Tango in the street…Strictly Come Dancing eat your heart out! This is where I had my first experience with a ´submarino´ too, mug of frothy milk with a small chocolate bar to melt in it…yum yum, the first of many I’m sure!

Next place we came off was in the Recoleta district, we wanted to see Evita´s grave for some reason! (thought I could add it to the other famous graves I’ve seen..JFK, Martin Luther King amongst others!). Recoleta Cemetery is a village of tombs one could say and I’ve never seen anywhere like it! It´s very eerie, streets and streets of tombs and had to follow the map to find Evita, I’m sure I could smell death there! Anyway…we didn´t hang around..we had a bus to catch!!

A 20 hour…yes 20 hour bus to Trelew! We´d heard that South American buses were pretty comfortable…and they were indeed! Traws Cambria has a lot to learn! The seats turned into beds and there was like a cabin crew that bought us food and drink..talk about traveling in style!

Wednesday 9th June 2009
Arrive in Trelew at lunch time, half expecting someone to meet us again…but no…started thinking that everyone had forgot we were coming! Hywel had been here before luckily, so jumped into a taxi and went the the Gaiman to look for life…but arrived at the worst time..siesta time where everywhere is shut…and I mean everywhere! Finally found Catrin, a teacher from Llanrwst who´s been over here for nearly a year and were then picked up by Luned Gonzalez. This was y first experience of speaking Welsh with a Welsh Argentinean and it´s a seriously surreal experience!! Luned is a huge personality in the area and we were given a warm welcome in here home, where we had some lunch. Luned´s sister Tegai, who´s in her 80s was there and it was exactly like going to Cae Einion to visit Uncle John and Anti Beca when we were kids! It was so bizarre going into an old Welsh farmhouse from the 70s on the other side of the world!

Thursday 11th June 2009
Went to the Welsh primary school in Trelew with Catrin and yet again amazed at hearing the kids being taught in Welsh! The teachers there are so enthusiastic and have learnt Welsh so well..no mean feat at the other side of the world! Visited the Eisteddfod Office later on..where I met a cousin of mine! My great great great grandfather´s brother went over to Patagonia in the 1800s and she was one of his descendants…it´s a small world!

Friday 12th June 2009
Finally had a lie in! Beautiful winters day outside so Catrin and I went for a walk around the Gaiman, it´s very odd seeing Welsh signs everywhere! Went up the hill for a proper view of the area…wilderness! Who knows what the Welsh settlers though when they arrived! Luned and Tegai present a radio show every Friday, it´s in Spanish but they talk about Welsh things and play Welsh songs, it´s very bizarre! Hywel and I were interviewed about our work over here. Apparently the have quite high listening figures, including people without any Welsh connections, they just like listening to Welsh music!
Left the Gaiman that night on the night bus after laughing a lot for my home in Esquel in the Andes. Only 8 hours on the bus this time! Never again will I complain about the 4 hour journey between Ruthin and Cardiff!! …and hallelujah, there was someone at the station to meet me!! It was 6 in the morning and minus 3!! It had taken 20 hours in an airplane, 28 hours on a bus to reach home…and it was nice to unpack at last!!