Touted as one of the Welsh outposts in Argentine Patagonia, Trevelin is given a lot of press. It lies a mere 30 or so km from Esquel, and is definitely off the beaten track, although still a tour stop for its famous “Welsh tea”, known as te gales, which is the whole show of tea with cakes and sandwiches.
It was originally a town where flour was milled, and Trevelin means town of the mill in Welsh. The town radiates from its main square, which is still the center of much of what happens in town. Its tall shade trees, grassy areas and ample play areas come alive in the early evening, when people magically appear laden with their mate gear, chairs, folding tables, and park themselves all over the square to relax slowly into the evening. It is light until about 9:45 at this time of summer, and only a handful of people are thinking about dinner before 10ish. Kids are all over the playgrounds, and at some point the pop-corn cart appears and sets up in the middle of the square near the statue of a General Fontana, for whom the square is named. He led one of the original scouting parties into the area before it was settled by the Welsh. Surrounding the square are a smattering of kiosks, a small cultural center, the heavily visited ice-cream place, and on the square itself is the eternally open Tourist Info office.
Our week sported incredible weather, our hotel a pleasant quiet, other than the seriously confused rooster next door—crowing pretty much at will—and the troupe of neighborhood dogs, whose main conversation reigned during nighttime. Our days took on a slow and easy routine. Breakfast, hiking around the countryside across the nearby Percy River looking for quiet, off-road places to walk, swinging by one of several fruit/vegetable shops back in town to fill up on apples, bananas, peaches, and plums for lunch, a final stop at the gas station for the yogurt that they carried(generally unavailable in town), and then back to the hotel for a mid afternoon “lunch” of fruits. Weather permitting, which it mostly was, a couple of hours at the small round pool that sits near the back of the property, reading, or if it was too hot, simply wading in the water, followed by a bit of hand washing laundry, and eventually, showers and off to the square to just hang out. Upon discovering a place where we could buy nice vegetable tartas (pies), we’d head down to the Imperial, purveyor of such goods, and load up for dinner. Other than salad, we haven’t been getting enough in the veggie department, and finding this place was a plus for Trevelin on our personal list. Evenings were spent watching the often spectacular sunset/cloud colorings and slowly calling it a day.
We did take an hour one afternoon to visit the local history museum—presently being remodeled with an ambitious amount of money in the town's original flour mill—where the caretaker gave us a personal little tour of the selection of items that had been moved to the transitional space. She gave us the lowdown on everything from the mustache cup to musings (per her grandmother’s stories) about Butch Cassidy and Sundance, who settled about 80 km north near Cholila, and were regular visitors in town until one of the two(can’t remember who) shot one of the Welsh bigwigs, after which they allegedly fled to Bolivia before being apprehended. She was thrilled to tell us that she recalls her grandmother sharing a room with Ethel Place, on one of the threesome’s visits, and how she marveled at her high lace-up boots.
We also reserved a late afternoon to partake in the te gales (Welsh tea), which is served in one of two traditional tea “houses”. We went to the one which has now been run by the great granddaughter of one of the original settlers, who along with her mother and brother make all the traditional cream and fruit cakes, along with the bread for the sandwiches and the fruit preserves. It’s a table with more food than either of us can handle, but which we fortunately could share, along with a very large pot of delicious tea. It actually served as our dinner for that day…albeit a bit early by Argentine standards. The tea room is decorated with newspaper clippings and old photos that add to the charm of the place, and help the history stay alive despite the distraction of the sweets.
All in all, a restful and recuperative week.
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