Bahía Bustamante

Bahía Bustamante began in 1953 as a company settlement for an unlikely industry: harvesting seaweed from this stretch of Chubut coast to extract agar and alginates, work that supported a village of several hundred with its own school, chapel and shop. The industry shrank, and the family that owns it turned what remained into a small lodge, keeping the old houses and the working sheep and seaweed operations alongside. The setting is the draw. The bay and its islands hold Magellanic penguins, sea lions, cormorants and dolphins, guanacos and rheas roam the steppe behind, a petrified forest lies inland on the property, and the coast is otherwise empty for many kilometres in both directions.

History

In 1953 Lorenzo Soriano, born in Baeza in Spain in 1901, came to this coast looking for seaweed to extract the colloid for his Malvik hairspray, made since 1947, and found a bay that locals called Bahía Podrida, Rotten Bay, for its piles of rotting seaweed. With his children he began harvesting it, and from two buildings by the sea they built a village with houses and rooms for more than 400 workers, a school, a church, a police station, warehouses, workshops and a store. Tourism was added from 2004, and in 2009 the bay became part of the Patagonia Austral Interjurisdictional Coastal Marine Park (Wikipedia, Bahía Bustamante).

Highlights

• The seaweed village - the old company settlement and its remaining work.
• The island wildlife - penguins, sea lions and cormorants in the bay.
• The steppe - guanacos, rheas and armadillos behind the shore.
• The petrified forest - fossil trunks on the property inland.

When to go

October to March, when the lodge operates and penguins are ashore; it closes for the winter. Wildlife is richest from November to February. Wind is heavy year-round on this coast.

Practical notes

This is an expensive, remote lodge, not a village you can drop into, and stays and excursions must be booked well ahead. Access is by gravel road and a long drive. Services are limited, phone signal is poor, and the appeal is emptiness rather than comfort.

Nearby

Camarones and Cabo Dos Bahías lie north; Comodoro Rivadavia is the nearest city south.

Key facts