Welsh Patagonia

14/10/2024

Patagonia's Cattle Show
Yesterday, Sunday 13 October, saw the last day of the annual Hereford cattle show in Esquel. This year the Angus breed was also included. It all starts on Wednesday, with breeders across Patagonia bringing their animals to the headquarters of the Esquel Rural Society and dozens of agricultural suppliers setting up stands in the showgrounds. Judging takes place on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday, the big event - the cattlemen's lunch (price less than £20 per head), followed by an auction of all the champions. The lunch, beef, of course, included wonderful salads, beer, wine and soft drinks, and ice cream to wash it all down. Of course, it wouldn't be Patagonia without interminable speeches and, once they were finished, hundreds of us went down to the pens for the auction. The Grand Champion, from the million acre Leleque ranch near Esquel (owned by the Benetton family and managed by Ronnie MacDonald) was sold first for 8 million pesos (£5,000), with the reserve champion from Estancia Media Luna in the south of Patagonia, making 7 million (£4,500). I was sitting next to the owner, Nicky Ayling (whose father captained Argentina at cricket), and he expressed himself quite satisfied with the results. In third place, a bull from Estancia Rio Frio on the other side of Trevelin made 8 million (£5,000). This farm is managed by Pedro Schmalz, a charming Chilean who learned his trade in Australia. Dozens of lesser bulls came under the hammer, each making about £2,000. Finally came the turn of the Angus breed and a big round of applause went up when the grand champion, again from Estancia Rio Frio, sold for 16 million pesos (about £10,000) after some very spirited bidding. The reserve champion made 7 million. We will all gather again in the New Year for the annual Merino sheep show.

07/10/2024

Top of the table clash between Esquel 14s (which includes players from Trevelin) and Pehuenes (the Mapuche word for Monkey Puzzle Tree) from Bariloche. Tomos, one of 4 Welsh Patagonians in the team, shows off the new Esquel shirt. The event was very well attended, with a polo match going on on the adjoining field. Esquel scored in the last minute of the second half to win 22 to 17. Only Andean teams compete in this league with distances being so great that the majority of away games feature all night bus trips prior to the match.

16/08/2024

Another global award for Welsh Patagonia:

Following in the footsteps of its younger sister, Trevelin, Gaiman was named today by the United Nations as a finalist in the World’s Best Tourism Village. It was Gaiman’s 150th birthday this week, so a very timely present!

14/08/2024

Had a great time showing Cerys Matthews and her lovely daughter Glenys around Patagonia. We even sang a few songs!!

08/07/2024

So sad to hear about the death of Charles Arch. He and his friends John and Dafydd Watkin and Paul Fleming made such a difference to the future of Ysgol y Cwm in Trevelin through their amazing fundraising in conjunction with Cymdeithias yr Hoelion Wyth. I will never open a Patagonian gate again without thinking of him.

14/06/2024

Here's a link to a wonderful initiative! United Airlines has sponsored a small group of Welsh Patagonians to visit Wales to realise the dreams of one of them - a fanatical supporter of Wrecsam football club who could never have afforded the trip without such assistance. Anyone who has been on one of my trips will recognise a few of the characters - Ricardo Irianni, donor of many cows to our feasts and the daughter of Ana Rees, the owner of Plas y Coed, the Gaiman hotel where we always rest our weary heads before crossing the Paith.

I hope that something more comes of this and that Gaiman and Wrecsam tie some sort of knot!

160 years ago, Welsh settlers landed in Patagonia, Argentina. Follow the journey of five Wrexham A.F.C. fans as they travel 7,603 miles from South America to...

16/04/2024

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13/04/2024

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12/04/2024

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11/04/2024

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09/04/2024

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08/04/2024

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04/04/2024

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03/04/2024

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29/03/2024

…..when everything was Welsh

One of Welsh Patagonia’s most popular tours is the one that follows the route taken by explorers, Fontana’s Riflemen, who struck out from Gaiman in October of 1885. After 6 weeks on the road, they came upon their “Beautiful Valley” (“Cwm Hyfryd”) in the Andes and, as they say, the rest is history.

This all happened because in October the previous year, the Argentine Government in Buenos Aires declared that an enormous area, between the 42nd and 46th parallels, should become an official territory of the Republic. This recognition was entirely due to the Welsh settling an area that had only been occupied previously by nomadic Indians. The territory was to be named Chubut, after the river that flowed across the entire region, and its area, at 225,000 square kilometres, was more than ten times the size of Wales. Sadly, for the Welsh, as it subsequently turned out, membership of this ‘club’ brought with it rules, regulations, jobsworths, pettifoggers, bureaucrats and jacks-in-office, none of whom spoke Welsh nor had any idea of Welsh culture. One of the regulations laid down was how townships should be organised and administered and so, dutifully, the Welsh organised an election for the Municipality of Gaiman that would have authority over the whole of the Territory. Of the 175 men entitled to vote, only two weren’t Welsh, and one of those two was German! The accompanying photographs list the 85 men registered in Gaiman and the names of their houses and farms.

Soon after the election, the Welsh persuaded the recently appointed Governor of the Territory, Luis Jorge Fontana, to mount an expedition of 30 men, all equipped with Re*****on rifles, to explore the newly established Territory.

16/03/2024

Late spring is a great time to be in Welsh Patagonia - that's when the big farms have their sheep and cattle auctions. And everyone's invited. A couple of weeks ago, the Leleque ranch ("Estancia" in Spanish), owned by the Italian Benetton family, auctioned off a few hundred of their 100,000 Merino sheep and almost 9,000 Hereford cattle that roam the 1 million acre farm near Esquel. The guests were treated to a slap-up lunch prior to the auction and their bidding fingers were loosened by waiters carrying trays of whisky and wine.

Yesterday, it was the turn of Estancia Tecka to roll out the earthen carpet. The estancia is one of the most important fly fishing lodges in Patagonia and its 70,000 hectares house a goodly number of sheep and cattle. We drove down to the little town of Tecka (Hafn Lâs in Welsh), about 90 km south of Esquel, with the intention of buying a few cattle for the family farm. After an excellent lunch the auction unloaded every single lot, all at quite generous prices. Pregnant Hereford cows were sold at about $900 each (typically in lots of 20 animals) and expectant Merino sheep went for about $45, typically in lots of a hundred. Those with finer wool (16.3 microns) went for $55. The rams went for $50 each. We managed to buy 20 cows and my father-in-law's brother Coco bought 40 for his farm in Corcovado.

There was a considerable Patagonia Welsh farming presence at the event.

In the photos, the new owner of Estancia Amancay, Miguel Mirantes, takes time off from his always-busy tea house in Gaiman, Ty Te Caerdydd (where Lady Diana had a cuppa on her visit in 1995), to joke with Arnold Dalar Evans, son of Vicente Evans, one of the stalwarts of the Welsh community in Trevelin. Standing with the paper in his hand is the lucky buyer, my brother-in-law, Alejandro Luque. He had the job of transporting the cows back to the farm.

14/01/2024

Dates for the 2024 Chubut Eisteddfod have been announced. The main events will take place on 17, 18, 19 and 20 October. If you want to enter any competitions, the programme can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-9tm06ls88ze-EEPfNex03uJ57qSmJuk/view?fbclid=IwAR1TOpVPpERg3AgF3wBRlcgRu8BOnvcTNKp7ir2e89MkCLmkdl9bEdFpqs8

24/09/2023

THE CHUBUT EISTEDDFOD

The Chubut Eisteddfod will take place in Trelew on October 27 and 28 in Salón San David. On the 29th the Cymanfa Ganu will take place at 11 at Capel Bethel, Gaiman.

These are the dates for receiving competition entries:

Literature in Spanish and Translations: due today at midnight (so hurry!).

Visual Arts, Crafts and Photography: from September 25 to 29.

Food entries received on October 9.

Music registrations take place from October 2 to 6. And those of Recitation and Dance from October 9 to 13.

Inquiries in person at the eisteddfod office, or by email to the email address [email protected]

Several groups are expected to arrive from Wales.

Ticket prices (in pesos): participants: $500; minors: $500; members: one day: $1000, two days: $1500; non-members: one day: $1500, two days: $2500. The traditional barbecue is also being organized for Sunday at noon.