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Stories, landscapes and an incredible fauna of the steppe and sea, between Camarones and Bahía Bustamante

2023-02-19T10:38:57.733Z


Algueros and fishermen, penguin colonies, colonies of birds and sea lions and even natural pools, on a unique coast.


It is 7:30 am on a sunny and serene January morning when we set off from Rada Tilly, the beautiful beach located 12 km south of Comodoro Rivadavia.

We cross the city along National Route 3 and, some 20 km to the north, passing the Astra neighborhood, we begin the zigzag ascent through the Ferrarys canyon, which ascends to 600 masl of Pampa Salamanca: the endless Patagonian steppe with Route 3

that It crosses it in very long straight lines

(quite deformed in parts, with deep tracks produced by the intense truck traffic).

After an almost obligatory stop in Garayalde, whose service station is like a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean for motorists, we leave the 3 to take the provincial route 30, which along 68 km descends from the plateau towards the

sea

.

Panoramic of Camarones, Chubut.

Photo Tourism Shrimp

There, as if embracing the sea, or embraced by it, is

Camarones

, a town that is something like a

hidden jewel on the Chubut coast

, halfway between Comodoro and Trelew, and that surprisingly combines great landscapes, an extraordinary variety of fauna and a rich and interesting history.

Whose beginnings can be dated back to 1535, when the Portuguese navigator Simón de Alcazaba y Sotomayor visited here and -on behalf of the Spanish Crown- wrote the founding act of the Province of Nueva León, to later order his troops to raise the foundations of a town, which did not prosper.

Today it is remembered by a monument with the profile of a fortress and a turret splashed by the waves of the sea.

For a town to develop here, we had to wait until the end of the 19th century, because around 1890 there were several ships -especially Spanish- that took advantage of the calm waters of the Camarones Bay to load and unload.

They brought essential general merchandise for life in a place so inhospitable at that time and

they loaded mostly wool, furs, hides

.

Casa de los Geranios, one of the pioneer houses of Camarones.

Photo PB/Travel

The town of Camarones was formally founded

in 1900

, and in the first decade of the 20th century the police station, the justice of the peace, the telegraph, and the primary school arrived.

A town with history

There are still several of those old pioneer houses, made of colored corrugated sheet metal, such as the beautiful

Casa de los Geranios

(1899), which, as a sign on the front explains, was initially an inn with a ballroom, before being acquired by the Tolosa-Sempreboni family.

Casa Rodal, built in 1920. Photo PB/Viajes

Or

Casa Rodal

, from 1920, belonging to one of the pioneer families, one of whose members ventured into sport fishing in the nearby Sara cove with a precarious wooden boat.

A true visionary: sport fishing is until today a very important activity in the area, which celebrates the

National Salmon Festival

(this year it will be between April 7 and 9).

And there is also, of course, the spectacular construction of sheet metal and a gabled roof of

Casa Rabal

, right in front of the pier, which since 1901 has been a general store and a bit of everything.

The neighboring sheds were many years a warehouse for merchandise that arrived at the port, and they also collected wool from nearby ranches to put them on the ships.

Casa Rabal is a general store that has been next to the port for 122 years.

Photo PB/Travel.

"Look, I'm going to show you something," Fabián Mairal tells me, today in charge of this bowling alley with 122 years of history -and stories-, where you can buy everything, from grass to espadrilles, souvenirs such as boleadoras

or

trinkets Chinese.

Fabián opens an old accounting book and between the "debit" and "credit" columns the signature "Mario T. Perón" appears: it belongs to the father

of Juan Domingo Perón

, who had arrived in this part of Patagonia as administrator of two ranches, the time he was Justice of the Peace in Camarones.

To commemorate those times when the child Juan Domingo Perón ran around these Chubut coasts, in 2008 he inaugurated the

Perón Family Museum

, in a sheet metal house that reconstructs the original, which caught fire.

The Perón Family Museum reconstructs the house where the former president lived as a child.

Photo PB/Travel

It exhibits photos, period furniture, personal objects, Justicialista iconography, official documents, and a letter that he wrote to Evita on October 14, 1945, in which he says: "I ask you to tell

Mercante to talk to Farrel so that they leave me alone." and

we both go to Chubut

.

This will end and life will be ours

.

It was barely three days before everything changed forever.

We left Rabal's house and while we contemplate the coastal promenade with its benches and lampposts, and the wharf today without activity, Fabián tells me part of the history of the town, of the seaweed and the wool, he points to the sea and suddenly asks: "Look Right there are the White Islands,

where the Villarino steamer sank

, do you remember?

I remember: the Villarino was the one who brought the remains of General San Martín

back to the country

from Europe in 1880, and who later dedicated himself to tirelessly traveling the coasts of Patagonia until his 101st trip to the south, in 1899, the rocks of the islands located just in front of Camarones ended their wanderings.

The monument that remembers the founding of the province of Nueva León in Camarones in 1535. Photo PB/Viajes

a unique coast

There is much more to see in Camarones, which deserves a longer visit, but also nearby, because the town is the gateway to the

Southern Patagonia Coastal Marine Interjurisdictional Park

, created in 2009 to protect a stunning landscape and, furthermore, delicious

And it is also part of the

Blue Route

, as this part of Route 3 came to be called, which travels through stories and landscapes of steppe and sea, between this sector of Chubut and the south of Santa Cruz.

Stories, landscapes, and fantastic fauna: from the steppe inhabited by guanacos, rheas and Moorish larks to a

unique coast on the Patagonian coast

, with a number of bays and coves, more than 40 islands and islets and waters that, as a result of currents They collect a large amount of nutrients here.

Guanacos on the way to Cabo Dos Bahías.

Photo PB/Travel

This brings together everything from anchovies or white salmon to fur seals, dusky and southern dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, orcas and a wide variety of birds, such as black-necked and imperial cormorants, southern gulls, giant petrels and the emblem of the coastal marine park: the

white-headed quetro

, a corpulent duck that is only

found on the coast of Chubut

.

That is why the 28 km route between Camarones and

Cabo Dos Bahías

is unmissable: it gives access to very picturesque and hidden beaches and coves, such as the very long El Arroyo beach and the Elola, Honda and caleta beaches, as well as Puerto Piojos and the coves Paton, Mejillón, Carolina and Sara, where there is a campsite with dorms and a restaurant, which is being restored and is a base for fishermen and sea lovers who go swimming or rowing in the calm waters of the cove.

This tour ends in the Cabo Dos Bahías protected natural area, with a

spectacular penguin colony

, due to its landscape of black and red rocks and its blue sea -scenario similar to that of the most famous Punta Tombo, about 93 km to the north in a straight line- and a long elevated walkway between the parking lot and a large viewpoint, under which penguins cross and take shelter from the sun as they come and go between their nests and the sea.

The elevated walkway at the Cabo Dos Bahías penguin colony.

Photo PB/Travel

In January there are the couples and their

newborn chicks

, which are distinguished by their cottony gray fur and take refuge from the sun and heat in their nests, under some bush and, many, under the same walkway, on whose sides there are several signs that They explain what we are seeing.

In front of the viewpoint.

with banks sheltered from the sun, Isla Moreno

rises

, separated from the steep coast by a narrow channel.

There is also a

3.5 km pedestrian path that leads to the end of the cape, and a path that ends in a

large panoramic viewpoint

towards the coasts, the islands and the sea.

From algae to tourism

We go back a few km along the coastal road to resume Provincial Route 1 -gravel in very good condition- and continue 80 km south, stopping every once in a while because herds of guanacos cross the route with their chulengos,

and

rheas

with their charitos

: the summer is family time in the Patagonian fauna.

The Bahía Bustamante lodge, in the middle of a unique nature.

Photo PB/Travel

At one point, Route 1 turns slightly to the right, but we continue straight, close to the sea, until we come to a gate with a sign hanging that says "visits only

with reservations

" and adds a cell phone number.

We have a reservation, and at the time of making it they gave us the key to the padlock: it works, we entered the lands of

Bahía Bustamante Lodge

.

We are received by Facundo Freire, the manager of the place, who always works with reservations.

"We rarely receive people who arrive without warning at the gate, but they can come in, get to know the place, tour it and, if there is availability, stay to enjoy the unique nights of this special corner of Patagonia

.

"

Vineyards by the sea in Bahía Bustamante.

Photo PB/Travel

Most of the visitors, in any case, come to Bahía Bustamante through receptive agencies, because

the majority are foreigners

, except on dates such as long weekends or holidays, when more Argentines arrive.

At this moment, for example, a group of 20 biology students from the United States is about to arrive, coming

to do their thesis

on these shores.

Many come from the United States, above all, says Facundo, since the publication of an article in the New York Times that defined Bahía Bustamante as "

Argentina's private (and secret) response to the Galapagos

", and which started a boom in foreign reservations.

Bahía Bustamante is now a wool production ranch and a lodge, but decades ago it used to be a town where

more than a thousand people lived

and, like any town, it had a school, police station, club, grocery store and houses, where The workers of a large seaweed lived: it was the

only town dedicated to the extraction of seaweed

in Argentina, founded in the 1950s by the Spanish immigrant Lorenzo Soriano and today in the hands of the third family generation, with Matías Soriano at the helm.

The workers' houses were conditioned as lodgings, with everything necessary but maintaining simplicity, to recall the environment in which those pioneers lived and because

the important thing here is outside

, in the steppe and the sea.

The steppe landscape at sunset.

Photo Bahia Bustamante Lodge

That is why the logic of the place is to stay, rest, disconnect -there is no cell phone signal, Wi-Fi only a few hours a day in the restaurant- to go out and explore: guests have a wide range of activities -to choose each

day-

to marvel and enjoy a unique natural environment and, at least until now, little known.

There is, for example, a

navigation to the nearby Vernaci islands

and their impressive variety of seabirds, at the mouth of the Malaspina cove;

tours in

4x4 + trekking

through the

Graviña peninsula

(a sort of “mini Valdés Peninsula”, due to the abundance of fauna on its coasts), through Cape

Aristizábal

, the

petrified forest

, the

rock canyon

and

Penguin Island

;

a

picnic

at the lodge, or a

historical tour

with an introduction to the seaweed industry.

The peninsula also stands out for its sandy beaches, its crystalline waters and its

large natural pools

, which in summer are transformed into swimming pools where you can take unforgettable dips with the landscape of red rocks and a blue sea in the background.

The natural pools of Bustamante Bay, ideal for a good dip.

Photo Bahia Bustamante Lodge

At sunset, the sun falls on the endless steppe and lights up the colors of the

vineyards planted on the seashore

, which are already bearing fruit in wines, which are not yet for sale.

Surely, soon it will be time to toast the end of a day of beautifully virgin and wild nature with a “sea wine” produced on the Chubut coast.

MINIGUIDE

How to get there


• From Buenos Aires to Camarones it is 1,605 km along national route 3 and provincial route 51 to Bahía Blanca, national routes 22 and 251 to San Antonio Oeste, RN 3 and rp 30 (all paved).


• The nearest airport is Comodoro (253 km from Camarones), served by Aerolíneas, JetSmart and Flybondi.

Roundtrip in March, from $17,890.

To Trelew airport (258 km), Airlines and Flybondi.

March, from $20,495.

Bustamante Bay Lodge.

Where to stay


• In Camarones, the Indalo Inn complex has a hotel, cabins and a restaurant.

At El Faro Casas de Mar, you sleep for two $11,000;

cabins for two, $22,000, for four, $26,000.


• At Bahía Bustamente Lodge, schedule three nights for two people, from $120,000 (meals included).


Where to find out


• camarones.gob.ar/turismo


• chubutpatagonia.gob.ar/destino/camarones


• www.argentina.gob.ar/parquesnacionales/marinocostero


​• bahiabustamantelodge.com

look too

The incredible photo of the "flying dolphin" in Puerto Madryn

Summer 2023: dolphin watching, snorkeling with sea lions and walks among penguins in Puerto Madryn

Source: clarin

All life articles on 2023-02-19

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