The 125th Anniversary Patagonia Heritage Tour
From the steppe to the Andes: the Boer and Welsh legacies in Argentina, 1902–2027. A fourteen-day journey to the descendants of the families who left South Africa in 1902 — and to the country they made their own.
- Buenos Aires2 nights
- Puerto Madryn2 nights
- Trelew & Gaiman1 night
- Comodoro Rivadavia3 nights
- Sarmiento1 night
- Esquel & Trevelin2 nights
- Bariloche2 nights
Why this journey, and why 2027
In 1902, in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War, families from the Transvaal and the Free State sailed across the South Atlantic to begin again in a country almost none of them had seen.
The first contingent came ashore at what is today Comodoro Rivadavia on 4 June 1902. Larger groups followed in 1903, 1905 and 1907. They settled the dry country inland — Manantiales Behr, Pampa del Castillo, Río Chico, Sarmiento — and they farmed sheep, because sheep were what that land would carry.
Their descendants are still there. They still gather. Some of them still speak Afrikaans, in a form that has drifted quietly from the language at home over five generations, and which you will hear across a table in Sarmiento.
The year 2027 marks 125 years since that first landing. We travel in early April to join the Colectividad Sudafricana del Chubut for their traditional April celebration — which in 2027 also marks the association's own 35th anniversary — and which they will hold with our group as their guests.
This is not a coach tour that stops to look at people. The community invited this visit and has helped shape it. Two days of the fourteen are given entirely to their hospitality, at their own club and in their own church, on their terms. The rest of the journey places that story in its landscape.
The journey, day by day
Fourteen days from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. Breakfast is included every day; the restaurants and tea houses named below are part of the programme, booked by us and paid for at the table.
- Day 1 · Sunday 28 March
Arrival in Buenos Aires
Your private transfer meets you at Ezeiza and brings you to our hotel in the heart of the city. The afternoon is free to rest. In the evening we gather for a welcome reception and set out, over a glass of Argentine wine, the history we have come to follow — including a short film made with the community in Chubut.
Cyan Américas Towers, Libertad 1070 — central, within walking distance of the Teatro Colón and the edge of Recoleta.
- Day 2 · Monday 29 March
Historic Buenos Aires and tango
A relaxed private tour: Plaza de Mayo, the cobbled streets of San Telmo, the painted houses of La Boca. Buenos Aires was the Boers' first port of call too — the families landed here from the Cape before sailing south to Chubut aboard the naval transport 1° de Mayo. In the evening, an Argentine asado with an intimate tango show.
Cyan Américas Towers
- Day 3 · Tuesday 30 March
South to the Patagonian coast
A morning flight to Trelew, then a short drive to Puerto Madryn on the shore of Golfo Nuevo. The afternoon is free to walk the seafront and feel the scale of the Patagonian sky. Dinner at Cantina El Náutico, a Madryn institution since 1963.
Dazzler by Wyndham Puerto Madryn, Boulevard Almirante Brown 637 — on the seafront, with the beach a few steps from the door.
- Day 4 · Wednesday 31 March
Península Valdés
A full day in the UNESCO World Heritage reserve, out to Punta Delgada and Caleta Valdés with a licensed local guide. The southern right whales will not be in these bays in early April — we would rather say so plainly than have you hope for them. What you will see are the great colonies of elephant seals and sea lions on the gravel beaches below the cliffs, Magellanic penguins, and guanaco and rhea on the steppe.
Dazzler by Wyndham Puerto Madryn
- Day 5 · Thursday 1 April
The Welsh valley
A short drive into the green thread of the lower Chubut valley — Trelew, Dolavon and Gaiman — where Welsh settlers arrived a generation before the Boers. We visit Gaiman's red-brick chapels and the regional museum in the old railway station, then take a proper Welsh tea at Ty Cymraeg by the river. Two migrant peoples, the same decade, very different answers to the same land: the comparison makes both stories legible.
Aguada Hotel, San Martín 101, Trelew — long-established, plain in style, warmly run, on the town's central corner.
- Day 6 · Friday 2 April
Route 3 south, and the first plaque
Roughly five hours south through open steppe on National Route 3. As the ocean reappears we stop at Rada Tilly to visit the monument De Sudáfrica a la Patagonia. Its engraved plaques carry the names of the original 1902 and 1903 families. For most travellers this is the moment the history stops being a story and becomes a list of surnames — some of which will be their own.
Austral Hotel, Moreno 725, Comodoro Rivadavia — comfortable and central, a short walk from the seafront, with its own restaurant.
- Day 7 · Saturday 3 April
A day with the community
The whole day belongs to the Colectividad Sudafricana del Chubut. We spend it with direct descendants of the pioneer families, at their own club and gathering places, and in Comodoro's historic neighbourhoods and the old Astra oil camp. Family photographs, documents and objects kept across five generations, and the stories that go with them. A shared table — melktert, koeksisters, food that has survived an ocean and a century.
What happens on this day depends on the community, not on us. That is deliberate, and it is the reason the day works.
Austral Hotel
- Day 8 · Sunday 4 April
The anniversary celebration
The morning begins with a bilingual commemorative service at the Iglesia Reformada of Comodoro Rivadavia — the congregation the Boer settlers founded themselves in 1912. In the afternoon the Colectividad receives us at its traditional anniversary gathering, which this year also marks 35 years of the association: community presentations, music, and a commemorative tea held in honour of the visiting group.
For most people who make this journey, this is the day they came for.
Austral Hotel
- Day 9 · Monday 5 April
Oil, deep time, and Afrikaans in the afternoon
We visit the National Petroleum Museum at the historic Pozo Nº 2 — it was the settlers' search for water that first pushed drilling into this ground, and in 1907 the drills found oil instead. Then inland to Sarmiento, heart of the Boer farming settlement: the fossilised trunks of the Bosque Petrificado, the deep blue of Lago Musters, and late in the afternoon, we hope, soetkos and conversation in Patagonian Afrikaans at Die Kleep, the koffiehuis founded by third-generation descendant Graciela Águila Hammond.
Hotel Los Lagos, General Roca 393, Sarmiento — a simple, friendly small-town hotel. We sleep here rather than drive back to the city, because the point of this day is to wake up in the country the pioneer families farmed.
- Day 10 · Tuesday 6 April
A working farm, and the road to the Andes
The morning on a working chacra belonging to a Boer-descendant family near Sarmiento — hosts whose great-grandparents opened these fields, still working them. Then the long crossing: some 430 kilometres west as arid steppe gives way by degrees to Andean foothills. Dinner in Esquel at Don Chiquino, known for homemade pasta and its Patagonian lamb lasagna.
Hostería El Coirón, Avenida Ameghino 1883, Esquel — a charming, spotlessly kept mountain hostería with warm staff.
- Day 11 · Wednesday 7 April
Trevelin and the Welsh mills
A short drive into the Welsh-settled valley of Trevelin, to the Molino Harinero Nant Fach — a fully working water-driven flour mill, and a direct counterpoint to the Boer farm we stood on yesterday. Time to explore the valley, then a traditional Welsh tea at Nain Maggie: chocolate sponge with coffee icing, and spiced Bara Brith.
Hostería El Coirón
- Day 12 · Thursday 8 April
Through Los Alerces to Bariloche
North on Route 40, but taken the slow way — through the heart of Los Alerces National Park. Here the dry country finally releases its hold: Valdivian forest closes in, the lakes turn glacial turquoise, and we stop to walk gently along riverbanks in some of the cleanest air anywhere.
NH Bariloche Edelweiss, San Martín 202 — in the centre of Bariloche, two blocks from the lake, with an indoor pool and some lake-view rooms.
- Day 13 · Friday 9 April
Bariloche
The classic Circuito Chico around the Llao Llao peninsula, with the chairlift up Cerro Campanario for one of the most photographed lake views in South America. The afternoon is free for Bariloche's alpine streets and chocolate makers. In the evening, a farewell dinner at the lakeside Cervecería Patagonia, and time together to look back at what the fortnight has held.
NH Bariloche Edelweiss
- Day 14 · Saturday 10 April
Homeward, or onward
A private transfer to Bariloche airport. Those returning home fly to Buenos Aires and transfer to Ezeiza for the evening international departure. Those extending their journey fly on to El Calafate or Mendoza.
Optional extensions — 3 nights each
El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier. South to Lago Argentino, with a full day at the glacier's walkway system, a few hundred metres from a wall of ice some sixty metres high. For most travellers coming this far, the one addition that needs no explaining.
Mendoza — wine, olive oil and the Andes. A day in the vineyards of Luján de Cuyo and a day on the olive oil route, with a garden lunch among the trees.
Both start from Bariloche on 10 April, are quoted separately, and can be booked by individual travellers rather than the whole group.
Price and what it includes
USD 4 375 per personsharing a double or twin room · single supplement USD 2 000 · based on 20 travelling participants
Included
- All accommodation as listed — 13 nights, bed and breakfast
- Internal flights Buenos Aires–Trelew and Bariloche–Buenos Aires
- All airport and hotel transfers, and a dedicated private coach with driver for the whole Patagonian route
- The guided Buenos Aires city tour and the full-day Península Valdés excursion with park entrance and licensed guide
- All entrance fees in the daily programme
- Two Laurik International coordinators throughout, interpreting in Afrikaans, English and Spanish
Not included
- International flights. Both LATAM Airlines and South African Airways fly non-stop from Johannesburg to São Paulo, with an onward connection to Buenos Aires; SAA also flies from Cape Town. As a guide only, return fares have recently been around ZAR 19 000 from Johannesburg. We are glad to help you book, or you may book independently. Our arrival falls over the Easter weekend, so book early.
- Meals other than breakfast, and all drinks. The restaurants and tea houses in the programme are booked by us and paid for at the table. Community meals in Comodoro and Sarmiento are the community's own hospitality.
- Travel insurance, visa fees, optional extensions, gratuities and personal expenses.
Reserving a place. A deposit of USD 1 000 per person confirms your place; the balance is due by 14 February 2027. Places are strictly limited to 20 and allocated in order of confirmed deposit.
Contact us
The simplest way to ask a question is to send a WhatsApp message. We answer in Afrikaans, English or Spanish, whichever you prefer.
Message us on WhatsAppSend an email
Hendrik J. Jordaan
Laurik International, Buenos Aires
consultancy@laurik.com.ar
+54 9 11 6274 5888
Laurik International has been building bridges between South America and Southern Africa since 2005 — agri-tours, heritage journeys, and the long relationships that follow them. We are not a travel agency. We are the people who know both sides of this story, in both languages, and who will be standing beside you when you meet the families in Chubut.
Terms and conditions
1. Nature of the programme
This is a guided group tour organised by Laurik International, Buenos Aires, which acts as organiser and coordinator and contracts hotels, transport operators, restaurants and other suppliers on behalf of participants.
2. Group size
The tour is designed for a maximum of 20 participants and requires a minimum of 20 to operate at the quoted price. Should the group not reach the minimum, Laurik International will either offer a revised price or refund all deposits in full, at the participant's election.
3. Prices
Prices are quoted per person in United States Dollars and are based on costs, exchange rates, taxes and supplier tariffs current at the date of quotation. Prices remain subject to adjustment until the tour is confirmed and full payment received. Any increase in third-party costs — including airfares, fuel surcharges, government taxes, park and museum tariffs, or material currency movements — may be passed on, with prompt notice.
4. Accommodation
Hotels are named as our intended properties. Where a named hotel becomes unavailable, we reserve the right to substitute accommodation of a comparable standard in the same locality. Prices are based on two people sharing; single accommodation is available at the supplement stated.
5. Meals
Breakfast is included daily at all hotels. No other meals are included. The restaurants, tea houses and community gatherings described are part of the experience we have designed, and our coordinators arrange reservations and accompany the group, but the cost of these meals and all beverages is payable by participants directly. Community meals hosted by the Colectividad Sudafricana del Chubut are offered by the community itself and are not a commercial service of this tour.
6. Itinerary changes
The published itinerary reflects our intentions and is not a contractual guarantee. Laurik International reserves the right to alter the order of visits, substitute activities of equivalent interest, or amend the routing where necessary or advisable for reasons of safety, weather, road conditions, supplier availability, flight rescheduling, or the wellbeing of the group. Patagonia is a region of long distances, gravel roads and changeable weather, and some flexibility is inherent in travel of this kind.
7. Community events
The commemorative service and anniversary celebrations in Comodoro Rivadavia are organised by the Colectividad Sudafricana del Chubut and its associated congregation, not by Laurik International. Their programme, timing and content remain at the community's discretion and may change. Participants attend as invited guests and are asked to respect the community's wishes regarding photography, recording and privacy.
8. Force majeure
Laurik International shall not be liable for any failure or delay in performance, nor for any resulting loss or expense, arising from circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including without limitation: acts of God; extreme weather; fire, flood, earthquake, volcanic activity or other natural disaster; epidemic, pandemic or public-health measures; war, civil unrest, terrorism or threat thereof; strikes, industrial action or transport disruption; road or park closures; airline schedule changes, cancellations or insolvency; border closures, entry restrictions or changes in visa requirements; and any act or restriction of government or public authority. In such circumstances we will make every reasonable effort to provide suitable alternative arrangements, but any unrecoverable third-party costs remain the responsibility of the participant.
9. Travel insurance
Comprehensive travel insurance is a condition of participation, covering medical treatment and hospitalisation, emergency evacuation and repatriation, trip cancellation and curtailment, and baggage. Proof of cover must be provided before departure.
10. Health and fitness
The tour involves walking on uneven ground, gravel paths and boardwalks, some long road days, and altitude changes in the Andes. Participants should be in reasonable general health and mobile without assistance. Please advise us in advance of any condition, mobility limitation or dietary requirement.
11. Passports and visas
Participants are responsible for a valid passport with sufficient remaining validity and blank pages, and for any visa or transit visa required for Argentina and any country of transit. We are glad to advise, but cannot accept responsibility for entry being refused.
12. Cancellation by the participant
Cancellations must be received in writing. The deposit is non-refundable once suppliers have been confirmed. Cancellation charges thereafter are 50% of the tour price. Participants are strongly encouraged to rely on their travel insurance for recoverable cancellation costs.
13. Not included
International airfares and associated taxes; travel insurance; visa fees; meals other than breakfast; all beverages; optional excursions and extensions; laundry; telephone, internet and other personal expenses; gratuities; and anything not expressly listed as included.
14. Wildlife
Wildlife sightings cannot be guaranteed. Southern right whales are not present at Península Valdés at this time of year; elephant seals, sea lions and Magellanic penguins are ordinarily to be seen, subject to natural variation.
15. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Argentina.