Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
364
Museo P aleontológico E gidio F eruglio (P aleontological Museum E gidio
Feruglio)
The MEF, as it is widely kno wn, is one of the best paleontological
museums in S outh America, a must for dinosaur fans. O pened in 2000, it houses an
amazing collection of fossils and dinosaur bones. I nside the museum (and visible when
you visit) is a working lab where a team of scientists studies and cleans fossils.Try to come
here during the week when the scientists are at work (Mon-Fri), and you'll get a sense of
how much they do to study just one fossil. An amazing skeleton of a titonausaur , which
walked on this land 70 million years ago, fills one room. Other rooms take you through
a chronological order of dinosaur discoveries over the years, from past to present. There's
also a good mo vie with E nglish subtitles sho wing sea fossils found in P atagonia. You'll
need about 1
1
/
2
hours to visit the museum. The lobby houses a gift shop and a snack
bar.
Av. Fontana 140.
&
2965/420012.
www.mef.org.ar. Admission $8 (£5.40). Daily 10am-6pm.
WHERE TO STAY & DINE
The most centrally located hotel is
Hotel Rayentray,
San Martín 101 (
&
2965/434702;
www.cadenarayentray.com.ar), just steps fr om the main plaza. The building is modern
on the outside and dated on the inside. t has 110 rooms that are comfortable but neither
luxurious nor elegant, and some complain it is too noisy . There's a small indoor pool,
massages available, a restaurant, and a bar. American Express, MasterCard, and Visa are
accepted. The cost is $88 to $120 (£59-£81) for a double.
The best
parrilla
in town is
El Viejo Molino,
Av. Gales 250 (
&
2965/428019
). In a
heritage building, the wood-fir ed grill offers up classics of sausages, beef , chicken, and
lamb. They also ser ve grilled v egetables and inter esting pastas. M ain courses cost $8 to
$15 (£5.40-£10). No credit cards are accepted. They are open fr om noon to 3pm and
from 8 to 11:30pm Tuesday through Sunday.
12
5
GAIMAN
17km (10 miles) W of Trelew
Just a 10-minute drive west of Trelew, you'll find the lush, green town of Gaiman, settled
in 1870 by immigrants from Wales. It's a pleasant place to take a walk and to admire the
very English-looking houses. Almost every house in this town of 4,500 residents is open
to the public in some way , as a teahouse, a small inn, or some other type of hospitality
center. People in Gaiman—many of them descendants of the original families such as the
Joneses and R oberts—are both ex ceedingly friendly and pr oud. They cling to their
unique heritage with the same sense of purpose that br ought their ancestors all the way
here more than 130 y ears ago. Gaiman is also kno wn for its singing choirs that blend
traditional Welsh tunes with Argentine folk music. Each O ctober, the to wn hosts the
Eisteddfod music and poetr y festival, which draws people fr om Wales and other Welsh
communities ar ound the world. S ome of the choirs per
form at the teahouses (see
below).
ESSENTIALS
Getting There
From Trelew, buses such as 28 de J ulio (
&
2965/472056
) depart regularly for Gaiman
from Plaza Roca. Fewer buses r un on the w eekends. The trip is about 25 minutes and
