Laurence Wood (a friend from back in the UK) has a brother Jeremy who lives in Esquel. We had spoken to Jeremy on Skype earlier in our trip and he had given us several good travel tips for South America but this would be the first time we met him. Jeremy arrived at our apartment on our first night and took us back to his house for dinner - Not surprisingly he was very flamboyant and hosted an excellent evening. Cristina (Jeremy's wife) , their son Tomy - David, Yanni and Mike (Jeremy and Cristina's friends) were also there and made us very welcome……. In addition to a wonderful meal, we drank rather a lot of Malbec and left to go home sometime in the early hours.

Esquel was founded by Welsh settlers in the late 1800s and even today there is a strong Welsh identity in the area and its neighbouring town Trevelin. The traditions of the Welsh language is maintained and it is strange to find Argentinians with names like Jones, Morgan and Hughes. Jeremy is very involved in preserving the Welsh identity and runs a company dedicated to that ideal - He is truly Mr Welsh Patagonia.

A group of horsemen (Los Rifleros) set out in October 1885 to follow the Chubut river west and, just over a month and 700 kilometres later reached and ascended a high ridge a few kilometres south of what is now Esquel, and then descended into a foggy valley. The following morning, they saw spread out before them the most beautiful and fertile valley, set before an indescribably breathtaking backdrop of snow-clad mountains. Cwm Hyfryd (Beautiful Valley), as the exultant Welsh Riders called it, is now where Trevelin (the Town of the Mill) is located, which name reflects the successes subsequently enjoyed by the settlers in becoming one of the major wheat-growing areas in the whole of Argentina. This success continues to the current day, with tulips being exported to Amsterdam and cherries to Marks and Spencer!

(Extract from Jeremy's website relating to the founding of Esquel and Trevelin)

On the next day we met David at 11:00am at "Mari Castana" (a really nice local café) as our heads were beginning to clear. He took us on a trip through a "secret valley" well off the beaten track to his home in Trevelin - The scenery was incredible and David was very knowledgeable about the area and its history, which added a depth to the trip we would not have experienced on our own. We had lunch at David's house and made our way back to Esquel in the late afternoon by a different route.

Day two we had an early start with Jeremy, who we met at "Mari Castana" along with a young Welsh girl called Amy, who was volunteering in the local Welsh Language school. We all set off in Jeremy's 4x4 and spent the entire day discovering areas seeming only known to Jeremy; we did not meet any other vehicles for most of the day. JW showed us some incredible scenery and wildlife accompanied by history and stories from the surrounding area. JW explained that of all the wonderful stuff he told us only 80% was true, so we were never sure when he was "blagging" but the entertainment value was 100% throughout.

Jeremy and Cristina invited us for dinner again, this time with Amy and once again we had an excellent night, partly fuelled by excesses of Malbec.

We stayed in Esquel for almost a week and enjoyed every minute, largely due to Jeremy, Cristina and Tomy.

All good things come to an end and we met Jeremy, Chistina and Tomy for lunch at "Mari Castana" on our final day. They drove us to the bus station and it was with more than a little sadness that we said goodbye and boarded our bus for the 24 hour journey to El Calafate.