Sitting on the edge of an idyllic peninsula, time moves slowly here. It’s a place where residents will know your name and welcome you in. There is no busy town square or bustling streets in Bustamante, but instead the thrill of wandering at your own pace and finding your own way, meeting locals, or admiring the nearby Magellan Penguin colony.
Picture driving into a small dusty town and pulling up to take a walk into its centre. Once you are there, all you find is charming inhabitants waiting to help and say hello, coastal views all around, and a family-run restaurant where you can get a taste of local life. That’s the beauty and charm of Bustamante, in south Santa Cruz province. Here traditional shoreline houses and cultural heritage going back to the indigenous Tehuelche People all but plunge you into their way of life, a slower way of life that has been like this for generations. Bustamante draws you in with its quaint charms, from the friendly people to the families of nearby nesting marine birds who won’t even notice you’re there.
It’s true that Bustamante’s residents feel a connection to the surrounding landscape and wildlife, they are one. And while here you can become one of them, too, perhaps sailing to Malaspina Cove towards the Vernacci Islands and watching sea lion and seabird colonies, or visiting Penguin Island, home to a population of loveable Magellan Penguins. From the sea to the land, a nearby petrified forest or trek around the peninsula and Rock Canyon brings you closer to the spiritual essence of this natural wilderness. Or, to truly release yourself to the landscape itself, a dip in the natural ocean-facing pools is an experience not to be forgotten.
All of this, and more, makes little Oasis a well-kept, irreplaceable Patagonian secret.
