Trelew, Gaiman, Rawson and Playa Union

The hotel in Trelew was buzzing with people when we arrived back after our endless journey from Peninsula Valdez. We checked into a different room, which was less dated, but loads smaller, so suddenly we found ourselves asking for our old room back. Unfortunately it was taken, but we were offered a room with two bedrooms, so we had somewhere to dump our suitcases. It's also not so much that we mind falling over our mountain of luggage all the time, but as Leo's bedtime is earlier than ours, it provides somewhere for us to actually go so as not to worry about waking him with lights, tv etc. We hurriedly agreed and set about getting fed and watered quickly to put Leo to bed.

We had a few days in Trelew, which is good as a base to visit several other areas not too far away. The main nature location is Punta Tombo, another coastal area where some 500,000 penguins come to breed. As we had been to see the Magellan penguins already, we decided against this trip, which left us a few slow paced days to see what else the area had to offer.

This area is unique amongst other things for its rich paleontological finds and for a much more recent history of Welsh settlers some of whose descendants today still speak Welsh and hold on to the settler's traditions. We thought we could combine these wholly unrelated interests in our day, by visiting the town of Gaiman. Morning, stop at a paleontogical museum followed by tea and cakes in a Welsh tea shop. How exciting!

The paleontological museum was totally different to what we expected. Firstly it was not really a museum, but a hour walk through some rockfilled hillside to view incased fossils of various species millions of years old. We were the only ones there (or so it seemed), and we felt we were in the land time forgot. A pretty atmospheric experience all in all.

Once a taxi had arrived to pick us up, we ordered him to drop us off at the best tea house as we were suffering from tea withdrawl (you just can't get tea like back home anywhere). He dropped us off at a place most frequented by tourists called the Ty Te Caerdydd tea house. Turns out this very well kept house with exquisite gardens and extremely quaint decor was the beneficiary of a visit from Princess Di once upon a time, and the the place has fully capitalised on that with gusto. Pictures of the princess and staff adorn the place, along with crockery and plaques commemorating her name. The place was full with middle aged folk and now, us. We sat down, ordered the full tea experience and waited with baited breath. What we received was a huge assortment of cakes, a few limp sandwiches and a big teapot, complete with handknitted tea cosy. How we would attempt to eat it all we had no idea, but set about trying at any rate. I earwigged in amusement to a table of Argentinians chatting to the waitress (aged around 70) about the tea, not being to their taste it was something you had to try as part of the experience. Couldn't help but chuckle hearing British staple hot drink being described as such, while we were gulping ours down and ordering our second pot.
If I was to be pernickity I could have pointed out that scones should not typically have lemon in them and bread and butter (already spread) was probably soemthing you could do without. I also would have explained about the ins and outs of clotted cream. But all in all, a pretty authentic experience. I'm pleased to report we didn't manage all of the cake (how restrained of us) and stumbled out to head home and drink a gallon of water to dilute the sugar rush.
The one thing we had not had the opportunity of seeing thus far were any dolphins, but we'd heard that you could take a trip from a nearby resort, Rawson, to see the commerson dolphin, so the next morning we headed off to try our luck. Viewing is only first thing each day during high tide, so there we were, Leo in tow, to aboard the large dinghy taking passengers out. Obviously they approved Leo being on board wholeheartedly and with life jacket fully secured he was fine, though I was a bit perturbed by the bumpiness of the ride and hoped Leo wouldn't be too scared by it. I couldn't believe how he could remain asleep through it all. The ultimate 'rocking' motion perhaps. Once out to sea we saw the odd glimpse of a sneaky dolphin. The Commerson dolphins are nicknamed the sea pandas as predictably, they are black and white, so also fairly easy to spot. The best bit was when another dinghy came up beside ours and you could see the dolphins swimming right at the nose of their boat. Ari and I switched between dolphin watch time and Leo duty, so neither of us got much of a look in. So probably best to do this one without a babe in arms, again not from a safety point of view but just to increase the enjoyability factor. Trips with bigger boats, like the whale watching, fine, this one, not so much.

After disembarking, we had the rest of the day free before we had to catch the night bus to our next destination, Esquel. So we thought we'd hit the beach and grab a bite to eat. We were informed the main beachfront area was 5km away, so with time on our hands, we set off. We soon realised we were misinformed, firstly the 5km seemed more like 10 and secondly, there was not the dicky bird of a chance of anything being open. Strange, beachfront, lovely day, hardly anyone around.
Eventually several km later we stumbled across THE only open restaurant open and refueled and pondered the rest of the afternoon. I pushed for sitting on the beach rather than head back to the town to do God knows what so we lazed around in the shade under some trees trying to avoid the dog poop.

Before too long we decided we'd had enough and sand and 8 month old babies really do not go together, so headed back to Trelew.
A few more hours were spent in our old hotel, which by now, had grown on us significantly, it's staff were friendly and accomodating, it was comfy and clean, and had good internet. What more can you ask for really. Plus it was our hang out until we left for the bus terminal for our overnight journey to Esquel (yikes).