Contents
Page
Where is Patagonia? 2
Travelling to Patagonia 3
Travelling in Patagonia 4
What kind of place is Patagonia? 5
The weather in Patagonia 6
Animals of Patagonia 8
Farms in Patagonia 11
The food of Patagonia 12
Wales and Patagonia 14
A letter from Patagonia 16
Holidays in Patagonia 17
Vocabulary
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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.
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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.
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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
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Page 5
What kind of place is Patagonia?
Look at the map (page 2). Patagonia is divided into three parts.
1 The Andes mountains
2 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.
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The weather in Patagonia
It is summer in Patagonia in December, January and Febuary. It is winter in
Patagonia in June, July and August.
Patagonia summer winter
The 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 in Patagonia. 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.
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Dry
Patagonia is very dry. It rains a lot around the Andes but it does not rain a lot
around the Plain.
Place in Rain per year Temperature in Temperature in
Patagonia (mm) summer (˚C) winter (˚C)
Comodoro 260 mm 36˚ 6˚
Rivadavia
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!
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Animals of Patagonia
Magellan Penguin (Penguins)
Magellan penguins come to Patagonia in spring (late August/early September).
1. The penguin makes a nest.
2. The penguin lays 2 eggs.
3. The male and female feed the chicks for 29 days.
Seals
There are a lot of elephant seals on the cliffs around Porth Madryn.
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Whales
There are about 1,500 whales swimming in the sea around Porth Madryn.
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Guanacos
The guanaco is similar to a llama. 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 in Patagonia. They are very small and have three
toes on each foot.
They run fast to look for food.
1. The hen lays her eggs.
2. The cockerel looks after the eggs.
3. Sometimes, the cockerel looks after the eggs of more than one hen.
4. 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.
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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 lobster too.
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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!
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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’m 11 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 the camp (a big sheep
farm) with Taid and Nain and have an asado together. 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.
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Page 17
Holidays in Patagonia
Come on holiday to Patagonia!
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