What Kind of Place Is Patagonia?5
Contents
Page
Where is Patagonia?2
Travelling to Patagonia3
Travelling in Patagonia4
What kind of place is Patagonia?5
The weather in Patagonia6
Animals of Patagonia8
Farms in Patagonia11
The food of Patagonia12
Wales and Patagonia14
A letter from Patagonia16
Holidays in Patagonia17
Vocabulary
Page 2
Where is Patagonia?
Patagonia
Wales
Patagonia is not a country.
Patagonia is a region.
A region is a large stretch of land. One part of Patagonia is in Argentina, and one part in Chile. Patagonia is in South America.
Page 3
Travelling to Patagonia
By aeroplane
People fly to Buenos Aires airport in Argentina. Buenos Aires is the capital city of Argentina.
Then, they fly from Buenos Aires to Patagonia. There are two airports in Patagonia – Esquel and Trelew.
Page 4
Travelling in Patagonia
Some people travel by bus from Buenos Aires airport to Patagonia. It is a very long journey.
The journey from Buenos Aires to Trelew takes 20 hours!
Not all the roads are very good because sometimes there is no tarmac, only gravel.
Picture 1: new road
Picture 2: old road
Page 5
What kind of place is Patagonia?
Look at the map (page 2). Patagonia is divided into three parts.
1 / The Andes mountains2 / The Plain
3 / The coast - Atlantic
The Andes
Here are the Andes.
The Andes are very high mountains.
There is an active volcano here. There are trees and lakes and glaciers here.
The Plain / The desert
This is the Plain.
It is dry and flat.
The coast
This is the coast. There are high cliffs and big sand dunes here.
Page 6
The weather in Patagonia
It is summer inPatagonia in December, January and Febuary. It is winter in Patagonia in June, July and August.
Patagonia / summer / winterThe Andes / very hot / cold, very wet, snow
The plain/desert / hot and dry / very cold, some snow
The coast / hot / cold and wet
In summer it is hot and very sunny inPatagonia. But it is cold at night. In winter it is cold and wet. It snows too.
Strong winds
Patagonia is very windy in spring. There are strong winds of 120 km an hour on the Plain and the coast sometimes.
Page 7
Dry
Patagonia is very dry. It rains a lot around the Andes but it does not rain a lot around the Plain.
Place in Patagonia / Rain per year (mm) / Temperature in summer (˚C) / Temperature in winter (˚C)Comodoro Rivadavia / 260 mm / 36˚ / 6˚
Esquel / 640 mm / 28 / 3
Futalefu / 1250 mm / 20 / 1
Paso de Indios / 175 mm / 37 / 8
Trelew / 190 mm / 38 / 10
Trevelin / 750 mm / 27 / 4
The land on this farm is very dry!
Page 8
Animals of Patagonia
Magellan Penguin (Penguins)
Magellan penguins come toPatagonia in spring (late August/early September).
- The penguin makes a nest.
- The penguin lays 2 eggs.
- The male and female feed the chicks for 29 days.
Seals
There are a lot of elephant seals on the cliffs around Porth Madryn.
Page 9
Whales
There are about 1,500 whales swimming in the sea around Porth Madryn.
Guanacos
The guanaco is similar to allama. They stay in large groups. They are very shy animals.
Don’t get too close to the guanacos because they spit.
Their spit stinks!
Page 10
Ostriches
There are special ostriches inPatagonia. They are very small and have three toes on each foot.
They run fast to look for food.
- The hen lays her eggs.
- The cockerel looks after the eggs.
- Sometimes, the cockerel looks after the eggs of more than one hen.
- Sometimes, there are 20 eggs in one nest!
Page 11
Farms in Patagonia
Many people in Patagonia keep sheep and cattle.
There are a lot of enormous sheep farms in the Andes area.
There are a lot of cattle farms on the green lowlands of the Camwy valley and the coast.
Page 12
The food of Patagonia
Meat and pasta are the traditional foods of Patagonia.
Lamb is the traditional meat of Patagonia. They grill the meat for hours over a fire. People eat venison and wild boar too.
The people of Patagonia like asado. An asado is a barbecue. They cook many different meats on the fire. The people of Patagonia have an asado at weddings.
Asado – cooking a whole lamb’s carcass
People eat crab and trout in Rawson and Porth Madryn. People eat mackerel, tuna and lobstertoo.
Page 13
The small town of Gaiman is famous for its teahouses. The teahouses sell delicious cakes such as Welshcakes and bara brith. They also sell cream cakes made of milk jam. There are pancakes with sugar and rum on the menu too.
The people of Patagonia like to drink green tea called mate in a special cup with a straw. They drink the tea without milk or sugar.
Page 14
Wales and Patagonia
Because many people from Wales moved to Patagonia in 1865, there are Welsh signs there.
Page 15
About 5,000 people speak Welsh in Patagonia.
And many people are learning Welsh!
Page 16
A letter from Patagonia
Michael D Jones Street
Gaiman
Patagonia
January 2010
Dear friend in Wales,
My name is Ana Lyn Hughes. I’m11 years old. I live in Gaiman with my mother (Gladys), my father (Billy), Lisa, my sister who is 8 years old and Martin, my brother who is 6 years old. I have a dog called Gelert.
I speak Welsh and Spanish. I went to the Welsh nursery school in the town.Now, I go to Gaiman Primary School. We speak Welsh and Spanish in school. Spanish is the language of the high school.
The summer holidays are in January. In the holidays I swim in the sea at Rawson and Porth Madryn. We go to Esquel too to see my grandparents. We stay on thecamp (a big sheep farm) with Taid and Nain and have anasadotogether. There is no television but I like to go there.
It is very hot here now. I enjoy swimming in the river Camwy because the water is cold.
Dad works on a big sheep farm looking after the sheep. My mother is a teacher in the Music School in Gaiman.
Do you want to be my penfriend?
’Bye
Ana Lyn
P.S. Here are some pictures of Gaiman.
Page 17
Holidays in Patagonia
Come on holiday to Patagonia!
1