We arrived in the small town of Trevellin in the late afternoon, and had a hard time finding a place to rest the horses. In the north of Argentina and all of the other countries I crossed, when I arrived on the outskirts of a new town or city, someone always stopped me to offer a place to stay, food, a BBQ, alfalfa for my horses… In some places, grown men would fight to see who would get to host me. Well in Southern Patagonia that changed. Toti and I spent two hours trying to find a place to rest the horses in Trevellin. When we finally got a hold of the fellow who ran the rodeo grounds, he came, opened the gate for us, and left. No BBQ, wine, mate or chat.
We started to understand that people weren’t rude or mean here. They were simply more introverted. Colder.
But the lack of attention, allowed Toti and I to explore the small town and learn about its rich history! At the local museum we learned about how welsh settlers arrived in this rich Valley in the mid to late eighteen hundreds! They wanted to start a colony of Welsh settlers outside of England where they were treated as a second class.
The museum was built in an old mill, and told a lovely story of how the Welsh settlers, unlike many of the colonizers who arrived in the new world, had an amazing relationship with the Natives in this area. They helped one another and lived in complete peace.
After the museum we drove to the grave where Malacara is buried. Now this story is nothing short of spectacular! In 1883 John Daniel Evans, a Welsh explorer, rode out of Trevellin with a group of men from the community to discover new fertile lands in the cordillera. A year later, on March 4, 1884, Evans and his crew ran into a Native Tribe that thought the Welsh men were spies for the Argentine military. The tribe killed all of the explorers but Evans and three of his mates. They tried to escape but eventually only Evans was left alive. With the natives about to catch and kill him as well, he kicked his horse Malacara up who jumped a 4 metre high canon!
Malacara not only made the impossible jump, he galloped all the way back to Trevellin saving the life of Evans!
It was amazing standing over the tomb of this great horse and imagining this insane feat.
