Santiago

At last! Touch down in the hot mediterranean climate of Santiago, and nobody was sending us back. After 3 months without a familiar face I was excited to be in the company of very good family friends, or should I say my surrogate family in Chile. Renato was there to meet us and if disturbed by the volume of luggage he would have to fit into his car he didn't show it. We stopped by at Astrid's apartment for a beautiful evening meal, putting the less than sociable but tired out Leo down for his bedtime. It was wonderful to see them all, our families have known each other for years and we have witnessed each other growing up, so bringing Leo to meet them was part of the continuum. And what a comfort to be amongst friends again. We slept soundly that night, and looked forward to a restful time from here on.

And we were not proved wrong. Our friends played perfect hosts to us as we sprawled ourselves out in their territory, used their facilities and generally took over their lives for the following 3 weeks (thanks guys for everything, you are forever welcome in our little English home).

I think we were ample distraction for Paula who was sitting university finals and Maria Paz who bunked off her last week of school before the summer holidays to hang out with us. Leo especially busied himself entertaining with his consummate skills at crawling, bouncing and babbling. He even had a few dips in the swimming pool, by now a favourite past time. 

I was 19 when I last visited this ol' town, and I struggled to recall strong memories of the locations I had frequented. Maybe it's because I've done a good job of frying my brain over the subsequent 'university intoxication' years or maybe it's because the city itself has had a bit of a facelift. Renato told us that a great deal of construction had taken place over the last 11 years, much like the rest of the modern world I expect. But the general appearance was clean, new, sprightly, quite a pleasant modern metropolis. The other trick that played havoc with my memory was that my last visit was over the winter months, when everything had a more gloomy aspect to it, as the oppressive smog hovers over the skyline due to the lack of air current between the mountains that sandwich Santiago city. 

Inbetween naps and siestas we managed to fit in a little sightseeing, the city view from el Cerro San Cristobal, the Plaza de Armas, a lovely pre Columbian art museum and the colonial splendour of the church of Los Dominicos and the pretty arts and crafts market nearby.

And that's about it. After nearly 4 months of travelling can one be sightseeing'd out? I suspect so. 
But we had great fun just 'hanging with the kids' instead. Ari displayed his competitive streak when we were introduced to the Wii for the first time, who'd have thought that a game called Rayman Raving Rabbids could have caused a grown man to act so juvenilely? And I'm not even going to speak about Guitar Hero. I just hope Leo had his eyes closed at all times. We also learned about how 'da youf' live in Santiago and Chile in general, so you could say we had a cultural experience nonetheless. A veritable win win situation methinks.

The Lake District

A long drawn out journey by the bus and ferry back to Puerto Montt was followed by a relatively pleasant taxi ride back north to the picturesque location of the Chilean lake district. Here was our opportunity to head back to the area we'd passed through on the bus journey from Argentina, which was not something to be missed. Our cheery taxi driver took us for a supermarket pitstop in Puerto Varas, the largest town and popular base for exploring the lake Llanquihue before continuing on. As we drove along the lakeside we marvelled at the incredible view of two volcanic mountain crests, snowcapped and imposing. We'd chosen to stay in the tiny place called Ensenada, to be found at the last corner of lake Llanquihue under the gaze of the great volcano Osorno, and not 10km from the most beautiful lake in Chile, Lago todo los Santos.


We were introduced to our new cabana, which was just infront of the beach and the mountain itself, a truly spectacular location. And as ever, hardly a soul in sight. Not so impressive was the cabana itself, significantly less comfortable than our place in Chiloe, this cabana was a little tired and less equipped for holiday makers. None the less it was pretty cheap and with a little grocery shop nearby we were happy enough and settled in after taking a quick dip in the lake. Glorious. Soon we discovered the first peril of being in the country, how to aerate the room without letting in the swarm of little fruit flies into every nook and cranny. A tricky one. Obviously we didn't have the knack so before we knew it the place was swarming and each window was covered with a swarm sea of black. Nice. After a stifling night we were quick to get out into the open. After stopping for a few essentials like laundry and internet we wondered about the lifespan of the fruitfly and enjoyed being in this wonderful location. Peril number two of the country, allergies galore. Again we wondered whether it was our stuffy old cabana or the Chilean spring air that was the culprit, but swallowed the antihistamines down and hoped for the best. Leo had sprung out in a rash, and to eliminate all possibilities we rewashed all his clothes in the softest detergent we could find and doused him down in the shower frequently to make sure he kept cool, much to his great pleasure. Not. It would appear we were not as hardened to the 'great outdoors' as much as we would have liked.
To ease our pains we sought out a nice eatery for the evening. Ensenada is really a strip of road along the lakeside with various cabana sites and grocery stores on either side. Not much going on. Still we walked on unti we came across a sign for a restaurant within a lodge complex, and with grand statements such as 'best meal in Chile'(!) doing their best to entice us in we happily took the turning off the road to explore. YankeeWay lodge (ie LLanquihue for the Yankees) appeared a little plush complex for the rich middle aged tourist with a penchant for fishing. It's grounds were beautiful and it crossed our mind to enquire the price to take us out of our allergy misery for our last night. After enquiring we decided that our allergy hole was the preferable option (we don't even fish) but settled down for a sumptous meal. In the end we booked ourselves in for a night in Puerto Varas and contented ourselves with that.
For our last day in Ensenada we took the short trip to Petrohue, a port (of the smallest kind) on the Western bank of Lago Todo Los Santos. This lake was true to the word of the guidebook, beautiful, peaceful and again with the backdrop of the mountains, picture perfect. A guy with a boat offered us a little sail around the lake, but as we needed to feed lil Leo we were more interested in finding an eatery he kindly obliged us by taking us across the lake to someone's house (probably a family member) whose front deck served as a little restaurant.
The house was in a pleasant lakeside spot and the fish served was good. Though we baked in the greenhouse nature of the room we had fun showing Leo the animals in the yard, dogs (by now a definite favourite), ducks and a gobbling turkey, though I didn't explain to him that the turkey was probably a temporary visitor until his special guest appearance in the Christmas eve banquet.
Back on the boat we sailed around a corner of the lake and took in the view.

Blessed with yet another perfect day it was all we could do not to jump off the side and swim off into the horizon..! After disembarking we hung around the lakeside whilst Leo slept in the shade, and while Ari disappeared off to try and find somewhere to swim I moped at my inability to go swimming and busied myself by trying to keep the flies away from Leo. I had my chance later to have a solitary wander in the tranquility, considered swimming in my underwear but then noticed the boat guy sailing past with another group of tourists waving at me, and was grateful that I had not taken that moment to expose myself and merely contented myself with a paddle.
Back at basecamp we found the cabana free of flies! Someone had been busy with a can of something. But in aerating the room once more before we knew it the swarm was back, though not in full force thankfully. We took turns to take a swim in the lake, it's so big you have to keep reminding yourself that it's not a sea, that the water is fresh and clear and as ever at this time of year here in Patagonia, you feel like you're the only one in the whole place. It was one of those moments I really wanted to have ingrained in my brain, something to take back with me ready for the cold, dark and wet British winter. I hope I have succeeded, I'll have to wait and see.
The bus back to Puerto Varas was about a tenth of the price of the taxi so as we were travelling light (only a pushchair, baby sling, suitcase and two rucksacks holding us back) we did the obvious thing, hung by the side of the road like hobos waiting for the next bus. With no timetable or bus stop we hoped we weren't in for the longhaul but soon enough the bus turned up and we clambered aboard. There was another 9 month old baby on the bus who Leo greeted with interest, but soon we were thwarting his attempts at pulling the other baby's dummy out and grabbing indiscriminately at his ears and hair. I hope this is normal for his age..
We piled out of the bus once we saw by chance our hotel passing by and rocked up to the front door. It was so nice to be in a good hotel once more!


We spent the next day or so wandering around Puerto Varas, having a decent steak, wandering around the lakeside. The day that started out cloudy broke into sun, so while we lamented yet again forgetting our bathers Ari went for a swim in his boxers and I contented myself with the knowledge that I would go early the following day whilst playing with Leo on the stone beach. As it was the weekend the whole town was out in full force and people were out in their boats, windsurfs and beachtowels.

The following morning we headed to the beach with all our our neccesary equipment in tow. Unfortunately the sunshine of the previous day was hidden behind a vail of clouds, making the mountain backdrop invisible and more of more relevance the water freezing.
So this is me having my 'swim'. Yes we wussed out, but there's no point having an unpleasant experience for the hell of it. Just as we were preparing to leave Puerto Varas to head back to Puerto Montt, the sun came out again and we left a trail of sunbathers in our wake.

So we were back in Puerto Montt to be reunited with our mountain of luggage, have a repacking frenzy and get set for our next and let's say final leg of our adventure, Santiago and the middle district of Chile. From here on in we would be back in the arms of friends and family, and so I lamented our last days of being 'just us three' and yet looked forward to familiar faces and lively company once more.

Just a small problem of getting there. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to be informed that there were problems with our tickets, that the only one valid still was Leo's and that we had to wait until they investigated the problem. In intricacies of the problem are far too dull for these musings but suffice to say that an earlier missed flight meant they had effectively cancelled this one too. Aghhh. Never has a call been so close. I was at the point of tears, and with baby in arms and sufficient persuasion eventually they let us on despite really resolving the issue, LITERALLY 5 minutes before the plane was due to take off they gave us tickets for the flight. We flew through the airport and boarded all a fluster. Thank God it was a small airport. I was convinced something else was to go wrong and did not think us safe until we were airborn. But at last we were, and on our way to Santiago

Leo's Crawling!

Puerto Montt and Chiloe

A morning was spent pottering around Bariloche town before our bus (last long one folks!!) was due to depart. Once aboard we settled down for the journey. We took in the breathtaking scenery as we drove through the winding roads through the lakes and mountains in the border area of Argentina and Chile. There is an alternative and popular border crossing by boat, sailing through the lakes from Bariloche to Puerto Montt which we had considered doing. Unfortunately it is quite expensive and involves an overnight stay, so to make up costs from previous expenses (eg missed flight) we took the cheaper, shorter bus option, with the idea that the landscape would still make it worthwhile. And we were not proved wrong, it was stunning. What a shame to spend a beautiful afternoon on a bus. Our first stop was at Argentinian immigration, our second was at Chilean immigration. We had to annoyingly bequeath the majority of our packed lunch to the bins at this point as Chile allows no fruit, veg or animal products over the border, and waited around for the journey to begin again. I could see this one would drag out. Finally it was time to set off again, and we ventured into Chilean territory for the first time. Ari pointed out that Leo, not having turned 9 months yet, has managed to rack up 8 countries in this 8 months of life which, as well as being quite a feat, the only time in his life when he'll be able to say it (if he could speak, or infact have the cognitive capacity to give a monkeys) . A tribute to you then little one. As we drove on, now late in the day, the park became habited and small towns erupted in the views. It looked like on this side of the border there is more civilisation, for better or worse, and maybe more to do. It was very late by the time we rocked into Puerto Montt bus station, and quite an arduous journey all in all. Maybe because We'd spent a lot of Leo awake time travelling, and these days, as he gets older and more active, he gets more tricky to entertain. Thankfully it's our last long haul bus trip. Our new hotel was comfy and We hit the sack asap.
The next morning we bounded off to breakfast, to be met by the waitresses making a total fuss of Leo (it's been a while actually since he got this kind of attention) and whisked him off into the kitchen to meet the staff. Ari and I took the opportunity to wolf down some food and probably ate in 3 minutes flat to be free to tend to Leo and be off to head for town.

Puerto Montt was like being back in the city after weeks of country living. It's a sea port, and pretty commercial, and whilst a bit chaotic and not as pretty as the admittedly purpose built tourist towns we'd just come from, it was nice to be among the people once again. And everyone seemed particularly friendly too. I had my usual shopping fix by visiting a pharmacy and supermarket and lo and behold, baby food was now available at every turn! Hallelujah. Although on second thoughts, Leo may have learnt how to eat a more varied diet so we didn't feel so reliant on this stuff after all... We wandered into a shopping mall and grabbed a bite to eat in the food hall. The pre Christmas commerce drive was in full swing, which though expected as we were on the verge of December and I'm sure the folks back home have been subjected to Christmas songs, ads and such like since the end of October, this was our first taste and it seemed somewhat bizarre. More so because of the plentiful sunshine and warm weather outside. It's my first Christmas away from the cold and dark days of home and I'm not sure if I'm going to enjoy it. I am actually deadly serious, I love the whole cosy on up by the fire in your woolies singing Christmas carols whilst watching 'The Snowman' kind of thing. (not that I've actually done all those things at once). Anyway, as I was wandering about I saw a big toy store and with promises that I didn't want to buy anything to Ari we mosyed on over. Toy stores are so much fun and I was happy browsing. Unlike Ari. He saw a cute little glo-worm and decided Leo had to have it, and I did nothing to stop him, it was just too darn cute and we're coming up to his 9 month birthday after all. We've managed to lose more toys on the way and it makes me sad pulling out the same old blocks for Leo to entertain himself with. Having said that, it has been clear that Leo's favourite toys are the following 1) his dummy holder 2) the lid to his beaker and 3) any spoon, preferably of the shiny metal variety. I really believe that you can make toys out of anything with a little imagination. So this was pure indulgence on our part. Leo did seem to be intrigued by the strange musical glowing thing and we left with Wormy already in arms.

The following day we organised ourselves to travel to the island of Chiloe for a few days. This island is just to the south of Puerto Montt, and has wildlife and lakes and parks to explore. We'd hired a self catering apartment for five nights and were looking forward to an extended period in one place, I might even unpack again, perish the thought. And we'd left most of our luggage in the hotel in Puerto Montt so we were light as feathers boarding yet another bus (only 3 hours this time), no need to plead with the coach staff to overlook the luggage situation, they didn't even bat an eyelid. The weather had taken a turn for the worse unfortunately, and the wind and rain howled against the windows. The bus journey includes a 20 minute ferry crossing, and the sea was wild and unsettled and I watched in both amusement and horror as the spray from the waves smacked the windows of the bus. Even more amusing was the surprise on the faces on the poor people who'd disembarked to see the 'view' as they received their drenching and hurried to find shelter. I couldn't believe Ari and Leo could sleep through all this drama. The bus journey continued for another hour on the island, and with the lack of dramatic snowcapped mountains and the vista of ramshackle houses at every habited place I was thinking that the whole place looked a little bleak and hoped that the weather was painting an inferior picture. We arrived at our destination in Castro, the capital town, Ari did a quick supermarket sweep whilst I waited with Leo and the luggage in the taxi and we were off to meet our new cabin for the next 6 days. The location of our cabana turned out to be beautiful, a lucky find on the back of advice from our travel book. A little way out of Castro on a hillside, we had a beautiful panoramic view of the sea inlet and hill behind, complete with rainbow and hazy sunshine as the rain had run its course.

We knew instantly we had landed on our feet. Leo instantly was happy to explore the floor, having been fully crawling a week his progress has been dramatic as he can now stand with support and cruise tentatively round furniture. We therefore needed a cunning way to keep him away from the fireplace. Oh new challenges at every turn!

Our new little home was to be our refuge for the next few days, providing us with the independence we need from time to time. The weather was cold the first night, trying to keep Leo well wrapped up in his travel cot proved a challenge with all his wriggling and squirming. But the following days grew warmer and brighter, until we had the opposite problem, how to keep Leo cool enough to sleep comfortably. Again, we felt the need to downscale operations, so much so we barely left our cabana for two days. And then we felt we really had to get out and about, so hired a car for a day trip to the national park across the island. In perfect weather we drove the hour long drive round lake to the little town of Cucao and sought out an eatery for lunch. Did I already say that Chiloe is a bit ramshackle? Well this place was no exception, finding the best place is kind of like trying to decide who has the best menu from who's front room looks the most inviting. A little drive on and we stopped at the place that looked most like a public establishment and sauntered in (we also spied a couple of tourists heading that way, safety in numbers). The menu was seabass or salmon, so we opted for both and settled down to a hearty meal. Success! It was all really lovely, we were in a quiet, beautiful location with practically only ourselves for company. After dinner we headed off into the National Park for some scenic walking, and a short trek to the beach (hello Pacific coast we meet again) was great for the beautiful sea view- marred only by a couple of nudies (man and woman, or is that two men? Rude to stare..) and with the strong sun we had to make an about turn to head for the shade of the forest and not long after, homeward bound.


Chiloe is famed for having maintained a unique identity from the Chilean mainland, which includes an architectural style of its own, the remnants of which are visible in many churches made entirely out of wood. I've got a picture of one of these here for you now, which was located close to our cabana.


We had a lovely relaxing time here in Chiloe, and as it turns out I think we were extremely fortunate with the weather, though usually wet and blowy we had mostly blue skies and warm, sunny days. Ari's daily mantra does indeed ring true: wonderful things are happening to us everyday.

Argentina (by Leo)

Hey everyone! Guess what I've got some great news, I'm crawling! And forwards too! I can get into all sorts of corners and explore all the things that Mummy and Daddy don't want me too. I can even crawl over Daddy as he makes a really good playmat.
I'm having a nice time in Argentina, I've had a bit of a cough but I'm much better now thanks. It's been really hot and really cold again, it's a bit hard to know what to expect. I've met loads more animals, and made some new friends along the way too. I particularly like dogs, they make funny noises and make me laugh! I really enjoyed going on the swings, I want to visit more playparks! And Mummy and Daddy went somewhere and left me playing with lots of other children, they had some really cool toys and one girl kept showing me her stomach which was a little strange.
Mummy's been giving me new things to eat. I like bread, cheese, bananas and cereal. I also really like meat, but find it a bit hard to chew, I've only got two teeth afterall! I've

been to a beach, and had a picnic by a beautiful lake and seen some wonderful views. And Daddy would have shown me more from my view in the sling but I was asleep for some of it. Ok a lot of it.
I had another haircut but this one wasn't as much fun, I didn't


get my own chair and had to sit on Mummy's knee, it was rubbish.

Mummy says I look really cute though, more grown up. I like to think 'more distinguished'!
Lots of love, Leonardo xx

Esquel and Bariloche

We got on the bus and immediately settled down for the 'night', Leo had been asleep up until boarding and we wanted him back to sleep asap. We, unaccustomed to late nights that we are (sadly!) were pretty ready to get our heads down too, so were a bit perturbed to find a film and food and drink round apparently appropriate for 11 o'clock at night! Luckily for me, the film looked awful so had no compulsion to keep my eyes open, and before I knew it, I'd been asleep for hours and it was the wee hours of the morning. We were travelling on a decent bus, with reclining seats to 160 degrees, so it wasn't really that uncomfortable at all, apart from a slight dead arm from having Leo sleeping on me too. He's so sensitive to any slight movement that I hardly dare move in the night for fear of waking him. A little more shut eye and we were practically there, arriving punctually (for Argentinian time) around half an hour late, 6.45am. We stumbled out of the bus quickly and did the usual, me, trampling off to change Leo in the nearest facilities whilst Ari dealt quickly with the luggage as the bus departed on its onward journey. We hailed the taxi and I wondered if the hotel would accept our arrival at such an early time, on arrival they were fine and bless them would have our room ready in half a hour. A quick bag count revealed we were a bag short, my handbag. In the kerfufle of getting off we must have thought the other had it. Drat. I jumped back in the taxi to go back to the bus station and pray that if it was on the bus it might be handed in at the next town. Pretty unhelpful staff gave me a number to call later on in the day, once they'd had a chance to call the bus on arrival in Bariloche. No bag appeared however. As we thought about it, it became more and more likely that we hadn't forgotten the bag at all, we're used to triple checking behind us and Ari had actually checked underneath the seats before leaving. Stolen on a nightbus. How obvious. Really peeved to have been the victim of a crime I spent the whole of the day fretting, phoning and in a mood about my lost items. Cards to be cancelled, possessions gone forever. It felt awful. Still, this was the worst and only bad thing that had happened so far, so in perspective, couldn't really be that aggrieved. Still, not nice. In the meantime we planned our excursion for the next day, we were going to hire a car and take a drive to the nearby Los Alerces National Park, for nice walks and sightseeing. The Esquel area is set in the beautiful mountainous lake district, in the winter it's great for skiing, in the summer lovely for trekking, walking, mountain biking. Something positive to look forward to the next day.

The drive was pretty straightforward (I wasn't driving), roads easy to navigate, hardly anyone on them infact. Some of the road was gravelly and required a slow pace, but soon enough we arrived at the entrance to the park. Funny, no one there, we'd expected to pay the customary fee. We drove on and came to the information centre, except it wasn't clear what it was until we found a solitary gardener who pointed it out. Luckily the inside was inhabited and I was given very helpful information on some walks that would be good to do with baby, some places to visit and must see vista points. We set off with map in tow enthusiastically, even Leo was enjoying the ride in his car seat.

The park is really breathtakingly beautiful, our first stop was a short climb to a vista of the lake with snow capped mountains in the background. Our next two stops were to see some waterfalls hidden within forest growth, the next to find a little place to eat our picnic. After a long drive along the lakeside, we came to a lovely place by the shore. We were the only people around. Sure, there was evidence of life, the odd car passing, a parked car here and there, but we didn't see anyone. We couldn't help but be blessed to have the place to ourselves. You just don't find this kind of solitude in such a beauty spot anywhere very easily, I can't remember ever having this privilege before.
Our leisurely lunch was curtailed only by the need to move on to prevent Leo from trying to eat the stones on the beach and to make it further round the lake for the highlight of the area, the view of the ancient alcerce trees across the Lago Verde.
It was quite a drive going at a snail's pace and when we got there we weren't altogether sure we were at the spot. The weather, having been beautiful, warm and sunny was beginning to turn and on bumping into some humans (finally) they assured us the hike up to the vista point was worth it but it was an hour long. We went for it and hoped we wouldn't get caught out and virtually sprinted up.
The view was indeed spectacular, and after a short while, set off back down in a hurry to get back to the car. The whole trip took us 25 minutes. And so it was time to drive back, a long slow drive, but the weather held, and Leo had a good sleep, aided by the bumpy motions.
A beautiful day, but we were tired and we had another bus journey to look forward as our travels were to take us slightly north and deep into lake district territory, Bariloche.

We bid farewell to Esquel and I bid farewell to my handbag, knowing that we were never to meet again. Ari never did like it, it did scream TOURIST!! (no it wasn't a bum bag) and had far too many pockets that were more hindrance than help, but still it had been with me thus far and I do tend to mourn old friends. The bus I'm having trouble remembering, there have been so many and it can't have been too bad, except that Evan Almighty was the film which I found hysterically funny despite understanding it was a bit crap (really enjoying Steve Carell in the US Office at the mo so that might have something to do with it-honest guv) and right at the end the film froze and then started from the beginning again. I had a good mind to complain except that it would have been a bit embarrassing as no-one else seemed to be watching it.

We arrived in Bariloche and found our lovely cabana (chalet) type place for the next few days. Bariloche is a town situated right on lake Nahuel Huapi and is really picturesque. They've cultivated a really swiss image, complete with chalet style buildings, St Bernard dogs and chocolate shops at every turn.
We popped into the tourist information to see what we could amuse ourselves doing over the few days and glazed over as the lady described lakes, boats, tours. Seemed like more of the same, in short, we needed a rest. There is plenty to do and see in and around Bariloche but I have to say, we did none of it. We hung out in our nice cosy hotel, went for a swim, admired the lake view, and that my friends, is it. One of the most important things about travelling is to know when to rest and do nothing, and this was our time.

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).