Hola and bore da from Gaiman, what can be considered the best preserved Welsh town in Patagonia from around the times of the colony.
Gaiman is quite close to Trelew being only half hour away on the colectivo but a visit here will take up pretty much a full day to do everything here.
Getting off the bus in the centre of town you will find a plaza with a cute little dragon on it which is a good little touch, crossing the road are different shops and here translations are done from Spanish to Welsh.
There are a lot of places you can visit here from back in the day and there is a bit of a route you can do though the way I did it and with some things being closed I did it a bit randomly but it’s all interesting.
First place I visited was the first house of Gaiman, which as the name implies was the first building built here in 1874 by the Welsh settler David D Roberts. He would later be one of the main founders of the Chubut Mercantile Company (CMC) in Welsh Cwmni Masnachol Camwy in Spanish Compañía Mercantil del Chubut in 1885. In fact the company was run from this house between 1885 and 1888 until it was well established enough to have a proper head office building in town and later in Trelew.
The CMC was basically a farmers cooperative that also acted as an import export company being a vital link for both exporting what the farmers were able to grow as well as bringing in new tools and equipment. At its peak in the early 1900s and 1910s they had a branch in every major town of Chubut province. The CMC however faced major economic issues in the 1920s and eventually went under in 1933 in the great depression.
Moving on from the first house I found an interesting little school called Colegio Camwy. I walked past it and there was an outdoor dance class going on and while I was a little late to catch it on film they were teaching kids traditional Welsh dance! I knocked on the door and someone let me have a little look round and asked me “ydych chi’n siarad Cymraeg?” “Typyn Bach” which in South Walian basically means none (feel free to rip into me on this one!!). End up chatting to the staff there and they let me take a look into one of the old classrooms and there is an impressive book collection all in Welsh. Chatting to them some more Welsh is still taught here and people still speak it among themselves so yes the lingo and culture is still very much alive and well in Gaiman at least. Could have talked for ages but moving on.
Walking up from there there was a museum about the native Tehuelche peoples who helped the early colony but it was closed. One important detail to note was the Name Gaiman was from this tribe and not the Welsh settlers.
Just past this we had the train tunnel which was built in 1914 to expand the Chubut valley railway line from Dolavon to Gaiman to Trelew and Puerto Madryn. The line operated for nearly 50 years before it got closed down in the early 1960s. Today it’s another one of the attractions in Gaiman and you can walk one side of it to the other in a few minutes.
Next up was the mirador. Coming out of the tunnel you are at the start of that trail and it’s a 10 minute walk up. It’s not a particularly high valley but you can get a good look at the town from there. It’s also possible to hike to Dolavon from here but didn’t have the time to entertain this today.
Next up as it was lunchtime and the other 2 museums were now closed for 2 hours I had some lunch then went over the river to have a look at the chapel, well in fact there were 2 chapels there, one from the early days of the town and a more newer one, unfortunately they were not open outside of events a local told me.
The last two stops of the day were the poet’s house, the former home of Welsh poet and Journalist Evan Thomas, yes back in the day newspapers were made in Welsh here but unfortunately not anymore here. Today the poet’s house is a time capsule of how the Welsh settlers lived and what life would have looked like back in the day.
The final stop of the day was the old train station which is a museum on the history of Gaiman and the wider Welsh colony in the region. To be honest I have already covered the gist of this on previous posts but one interesting detail they had was the layout they intended for the colony which was that each family was given a stretch of land to develop and farm from Dolavon to Puerto Madryn.
There would be more to see and write about here if everywhere was open but this was an interesting day out and really does feel like stepping back in time visiting this town.
Next blog we explore Dolavon and Rawson before moving to Puerto Madryn and starting the Journey to Buenos Aires.
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