Following in Welsh footsteps.

The Welsh have landed

In May 1865, a boat called ‘Mimosa’ brought a boat full of Welsh settlers to Patagonia in search of new land where they could set up a new protected Welsh culture. They disembarked in Puerto Madryn where we arrived this week also. They built their first houses in the soft clay rock just below our campsite. The houses were simple, there was a bed, stove and meat hung from the roof. They also made use of wood from a nearby ship wreck both for the houses and other things, people have found a coffin that is said to be made of the wood.

The journey to Patagonia from Liverpool was one big one with no stopping and took three months. Whilst on board there was a marriage, birth and sadly 5 children died. There was no fresh water where they landed so after a while they moved away from Puerto Madryn to the Chubut valley in search of better lands. It was very difficult, even today we see only green near to the river and everywhere else is near desert. The colony almost failed but eventually with the help of the native Teheulche and by creating irrigation channels, the Welsh survived. Later other boats with more people on board, landed.

Many people went to live in Gaiman and along the Chubut Valley. The first settler there was a man called Daffyd Roberts in 1874. We have visited his house. It is long and thin, with 2 doors and 4 rooms. There’s a bedroom, living room, pantry and storeroom. It was furnished basically and is bare.

Later on in Guiman they built a railway that carried goods. We walked through the tunnel, it was long, dark and SCARY! We went to the train station which had been turned into a museum. There was a nice man who spoke Welsh, Spanish and English. He told us about the place and how there is a school that is now giving children a choice of learning Welsh as their second language and a nursery that sings Welsh songs and has Sally Mally painted on the side.

Whilst travelling around we have met a few people whose family have come over on the Mimosa. For instance at the penguin colony, the ranger lady there asked where were from and when we said Wales, she said that her Great grandma came over on the Mimosa!

Places are named after ones in Wales, near Gaiman there was a Bethesda and a few places’s names are in English, for instance there is a place called black eye because someone fell over and got a black eye!

We are going to continue along the Chubut Valley to Trevelin with the Welsh flag waving proudly in the back window of Dotty.