Travel Quarter

From leavng the cold and wintry south of Argentina, I was heading north towards the metropolis of Buenos Aires, where I had been promised leafy streets and hot weather.  But I had a 24hr stopover in a costal town called Puerto Madryn.  I flew in Trelew late at night, and then got a shuttle bus 45mins to my hostel in Puerto Madryn, and straight into bed.  The first time I had got a private room, sooo nice!
As instructed I was up at 7am ready to be picked up for the snorkelling with sealions.  I dozed after brekkie until 10am when I met a girl from a trek in Bariloche who was doing the same trip.  We headed to the dive place, and were quickly kitted out in wetsuits and onto a boat with a few (rather wet!) Israelis.  As I´m a diver I didnt have to do the quick snorkelling course, but it was as painful to watch the Israeli girls.  Flaky is not the word.  But as soon as they were done, we could approach the sealion colony.  We were told we might not even get contact, the sealions decided on that.  The group the day before had some, but only got to touch them once. 
A few cheeky ones initially swam underneath, and occasionally came in for a quick bite on the wetsuit, or a nudge.  They grew quickly in confidence, and were soon approaching very close, biting at our gloves and eventually coming out of the water and nudging our faces as we tread water.  The photos show what a ball it was, I spent quite alot of the time just laughing so much as they played, with the occasional flipper in your face.  Probably one of the most fun and enchanting mornings I´ve had.  And if I ever throw it all in, thats the job I want.  Dive Instructor with sealions thrown in too!
The afternoon was spent wondering down the beach, watching the whales from show, coming in close and raising their huge tails into the air, just brilliant.  Headed to the airport early, but my flight was delayed again.  So, with six hours to kill i devided to visit the place I´d heard about in bedtime stories from my farther. A place where a wildly brave welsh colony had setup home in patagonia of all places.  I hailed a taxi from the airport, with a driver, who with his obviously failings eyes, was surprised to hear i wasn't argentina. I explained my british routes, English mother, Welsh father.
Seems we had that in common.
This taxi driver who was in his late 50s had both welsh parents. Agnes and David Richards from Cardiff, both welsh speakers.
We exchanged some shared words in welsh, bore dar, nostar, and penguin.  My Dad had also kindly sent me a list of welsh phrases, just in case!  He was quite keen to tell me that penguin was a welsh word, meaning white head.
The taxi driver asked for a quick lesson in pronouncing camarthen and Merthyr tydfil whilst he explained the founding of the welsh colonies here and the difficulties they faced.  He explained that Trelew was from tres, meaning village, and Lew from Lewish Jones who founded it!
On arriving into Gaiman after 45mins of chat, he took me to the best welsh tea shop in town. Pronounced, Gay Men. Which made me smile each time it came up in conversation. I needlessly to say used it probably more frequently than was necessary.  We drove down a dirt track laden with signs and welsh hostelries
I walked into this cottage in a gorgeous setting, served by tea ladies who looked like they were in their prime at the time titanic set sail.  I was watched over by a framed picture of our very own Lady Diana who visited in 1995.
I was supplied with crustless sandwiches, served with 10 different cakes. After 9 cups of actually amazing tea, and long renditions of classics songs by a welsh baritone choir, I visited the little town of  itself. It had streets such as Juan c Evans and hostels called Dyffryn Gwyrdd. Not sure how you prounounce that in Spanish to your taxi driver if you were say, Danish? It was a weird mix of a dusty Argentinian town, peppered with wool shops and welsh sounding ice cream shops.  My new found friend came and picked me up, and whizzed me back to the airport after my weirdest welsh experience, ready for a flight to BA.