Trevelin

Trevelin means mill town in Welsh, after the first flour mill set up here in 1891, and a later mill, built in 1918, still stands at the centre of the village as a museum, a reminder that the Welsh colony that settled the Chubut coast pushed inland to this green Andean valley in the 1880s. The village keeps that inheritance in its chapels, its tea houses serving Welsh tea with black cake, and a small museum in the old railway station. Since the 2000s it has gained a second identity: commercial tulip fields planted by a local family flower for a few weeks each spring in broad blocks of colour with the Andes behind, drawing visitors from across the country. Waterfalls, a national park and the Chilean border lie close by.

History

The town played a large part in the Welsh settlement of Chubut and is named after its first flour mill, Los Andes, set up in 1891 by John Daniel Evans, known as El Baqueano for his expeditions in search of new land; in 1884 his horse Malacara had saved his life by leaping down a ravine when his party was attacked by men of the chief Foyel, and the three Welshmen with him were killed and buried at what is now called the Valley of the Martyrs. On 30 April 1902, during the border dispute between Argentina and Chile, the Limits Commission met in School No. 18 here, with Sir Thomas Holdich as British arbiter, and the people of the area, both Mapuche-Tehuelche and Welsh, voted to remain in Argentina (Wikipedia, Trevelin).

Highlights

• The tulip fields - blocks of colour in bloom for a few weeks each October.
• The old flour mill - the 1918 mill preserved as a museum.
• The tea houses - Welsh tea and torta negra in the village.
• The green valley - farmland and mountains around the settlement.

When to go

October for the tulips, which flower for roughly two to three weeks and whose exact timing shifts each year with the weather. December to March for the valley, waterfalls and Los Alerces. Winter is cold and wet with little open.

Before you go

The tulip season is short and unpredictable, and arriving a week off means bare fields. The village itself is small and quiet, with tea houses keeping afternoon-only hours. Facilities are limited compared with Esquel.

Nearby

Esquel lies north; Los Alerces national park and the Chilean border are west.

Key facts