I was sitting with my feet dangling out the back of GANNET2 enjoying my morning tea with Rusty next to me also enjoying the view when Layne called out. She had just got a WhatsApp message from Sue and Hugh who were in a campground 200 miles ahead of us exactly where we had planned to go next.
We were in the road before ten and no idea how long it would take us to drive to Gaiman a small town near the Atlantic Coast.
Another tiny village, blink at you miss it. Don’t break down on Highway 25.
This is the countryside Welsh miners came to live in around 1865. They came to work and to live free from their minority status in Britain.
Apparently there is an attempt to maintain the Welsh identity but most people here don’t speak welsh though I did see occasional bilingual road signs.
Nowadays the Welsh towns of Trelew, Dawson, Puerto Madryn and Gaiman live off the history especially Gaiman land of the afternoon tea.
You’ll see lots of red welsh dragons here.
And as we pulled in to the Gaiman campground there was Maple, the Land Rover Defender they’ve driven from British Columbia. We first met them on the beach in Nicaragua and we’ve crossed paths lots of times since then though not since Cuenca in Ecuador.
Lots of time to catch up and exchange road stories…
…not in the campground where a crowd of Argentines also arrived.
We walked into town and they led the way as this was their second day in town. Check out the Welsh architecture:
I was not sure what to expect as I like strong hot black tea properly brewed. No Latin American knows how to do that. Except…
…these folks do. I was impressed.
String hot black tea under the tea cosy. As many refills as you can drink. Really really good.
On Sue’s advice we ordered one meal to share ($22) and an extra tea ($7) and we got our money’s worth.
Bread and butter, scones, cheese sandwich square’s and cakes.
Plenty to share.
We got some souvenirs, a couple of stainless maté mugs that we can use as wine glasses.
And back we meandered full of pastry and tea and good cheer. It was a great Sunday afternoon.
And next we had plans for some beach time with our Canadian friends.
