Bustamante one year later.

After almost exactly a year, I returned to Bustamante. I found last year that this location is a staggering point for shore birds starting in their migration to the northen hemisphere. Sure enough, sandpipers and others were congregated in great numbers feeding and resting waiting for the night to fly out.

Bustamante remains a quiet place, ideal for doing nothing. It used to be a busy hacienda back in the XX century when kelp was gathered from the bay and processed to obtain algin, a product used in the cosmetic and food industry. This suddenly ceased in the early 1980's due to an oil spill in the bay. When I returned this year, the kelp has recovered and the operations resumed in a small scale with workers returning to the previous empty apartments.

Although this may be my wrong perception, the fauna seems to be more acclimatized to humans and not as weary as they used to be. For the first time I was able to approach the martinetas without them running away; not only that but they appeared to be more numerous.

The wildlife photo opportunities this year were limited this year due to the high winds; as high as 120 Km/hr for a couple of days. I spent most of the time in the cabin but one day I ventured out. I went to the "Playa de las Roquitas" (little rocks) and did some HDR photography; I just kept myself low among the rocks avoid the wind gusts.

One day while waiting in the cabin for better weather, I heard a noise coming from a nearby trash can and went to investigate. The noise maker was a young skunk that could not climb out of the metal can and was trapped inside. I decided to be his freedom fighter and tipped the can over to allow for his escape. The skunk walked out and to show his gratitude, turned his rear towards me and raised the tail to spray me aromatic perfumes...I ran in time. No good deed goes unpunished!

One day I went to the "Isleta de los Pinguinos" to visit the nesting colony,it was as I saw it last year. I stayed a short time and mostly observed their behavior; how many pictures of a penguin can one have? But there was a family of caracaras with young ones learning to fly that offered me a great opportunity for doing fly photography

Matias, one of the owners of the estancia, is not only interested in the local wildlife but has intimidate knowledge of their activities. He directed me to a peregrine falcons nesting area in the walls of a canyon. I went and proceed to walk in the ridge of canyon looking at the opposite wall for the raptors. I was in the wrong ridge, as I paused and glanced down, and there it was, so close that I my lens could not focus on it. An opportunity of a lifetime just flew way. Instead I got a consolation image, that of a fabulous sunset like no other.

In the way back to civilization, my photo mentor, Mariano, took me to one of his secret places. A canyon with sandy and gypsum walls where the barranqueros or burrowing parrots nest. They are very leery of people since they are captured for the illegal animal trade that is adversely affecting their populations; you can read more about this at http://www.orn.mpg.de/masello/PAGES/home-englsih2.html. Wish I could have spend more time with them.

Bustamante, Argentina

Lorenzo Soriano (1901-1987) arrived in Bahia Bustamante in 1953 after searching all over the Patagonian coastline to start a seaweed farm. It grew into several buildings including a school, a bodega and a church as well as accommodations for the workers. The seaweed harvesting operations ceased back in the 1990s but one of his sons converted the place into an ecological hacienda in 2004. Some of these facilities were upgraded and converted into cottages for the tourists.
Arrived in the evening at the administration building where a lady greeted us and started running looking for Sol? What did she mean? I turned out that Sol was not the Sun, but the young lady that seems to be everywhere and doing everything. She runs the place along with Nicolas. Sol takes care of housekeeping and the restaurant while Nicolas entertains the guests with nature tours, horse back riding as well as the boats excursion.

We settled (I went in this adventure with two photographer friends, at least they think they are) in one of the cottages that included a kitchen, dinning area, rooms with 3 beds and a bathroom. It was clean and neat and the only limitation it that electricity ran from 8-12 PM. This was not much of a hindrance since I have time to recharge the camera batteries, left early in the morning, and did not return to it until sunset. In the morning we were welcomed by a gorgeous sunrise.

There are roads in Bustamante but they are not marked so other than the directions provided by Nicolas we were on our own. The first morning we ended up at Penguin’s island. It is separated by a tidal basin from the mainland but luck had it that the tide was receding, so I waited for about ½ hour and walked to the island. It is low lying covered by shrubbery where the penguins have their underground nests.

We continued to explore the various trails the rest of the day. Late the first evening we ran into a fox family with 4 young ones. They have discovered what was I told a hairy armadillo but they did not seem to know what to do with it. These were very curious and allowed me to get some great images.

The last full morning we drove up to the Bahia del Medio, which turned out to be the best place for photographing. Most other places in the morning in Bustamante one finds himself facing east in the morning and shooting against the sun. In this location one can have the sun in the back having the sun falling directly into the wildlife. Here we found 3 dead pilot whales as well as a large kill of langostinos that covered the entire shore like a red carpet.

There were numerous shore birds such as American, Blackish and Magellanic oystercatchers; the later was a new species for me. Numerous flocks of plovers and sandpipers busily feeding for their upcoming migration north; these were not concerned with my presence. I wonder if I will see some of these waders in the shores of Virginia in the spring. The one below is a mystery; is it a Baird’s or a White Rumped Sandpiper?

One afternoon Nicolas took us in a boat to the bird and sea lions island. Amazingly when we approached the later, they stampeded towards the shore to welcome the visitors creating a dust cloud in their hurry. One came close to the boat for a closer look.

While visiting the sea lions, there were steamer ducks battling each other. Quiet a vicious fight, they grab each other by the bills and don’t let, quiet a battle until a referee appears and breaks the fight.

Although I had been many places, Bustamante is really a diamond for those interested in nature and photography in a pristine location. I visited other areas in Argentina last year and in this trip, so far this is my favorite place and in my opinion, more rewarding than the Peninsula de Valdez further up the coast.

Passage to Argentina and Chile

After almost a month of roaming the two largest Spanish speaking countries in South America,
I find myself recovering at home. Fortunately, I departed Santiago, Chile just the Thursday night before the earthquake. Some of those buildings I photographed in the city and now damaged as I had seen in the news. Wondered what happened to those fellow travelers who were headed for Easter Islands the next morning.

I started the trip by flying into Buenos Aires where I spent a few days and was amazed as to the construction activity going on compared to what I saw there year before in May. From there I flew to Trelew in the province of Chubut for my major destination at the Peninsula de Valdez, site of one of the largest national parks in Argentina. It was a desolate area mostly like a steppe of low rolling hills covered by low brushes and short grasses as seen above with steep cliffs making the beaches difficult to access. Most of the coastal area of this province has the same topography. My major purpose to go Valdez was to photograph orcas attacking sea lions on the beaches. Unfortunately I arrived a few weeks ahead of time and to access the areas where these activities take place, a permit must be obtained; an excuse to return next year.

From Valdez I drove down the coast to Bustamante, an isolated hacienda that back in the XX century started as a center of aquaculture where algae was collected and processed for food and pharmaceutical uses. Now it is a developing ecotourism center and the old housing for the workers has been fitted as cottages for tourists. It is a vast pristine area not yet widely known but I am sure it will become a center for nature lovers.

From Bustamante I roamed up the coast back to Trelew and visited the port of Camarones where I had the best seafood meal of the whole trip in an old gas station transformed into a restaurant by a couple of young entrepreneurs. Farther up the coast I ended up a Punta Tombo, the largest pinguinera in Argentina and perhaps the world. What an experience seen about 250 hundred thousands of Magellan penguins nesting over the hills along a small bay. No need to see another penguin for the rest of my life,a false statement, they are so cute and friendly.

From Trelew I flew to Calafate, where again I had visited in May of the previous year. In such a short time it has lost is quaint ways and is overcrowded with sprawling new real estate developments and hotels. Progress has paved the road to Perito Moreno glacier. After a couple of days here I departed for Chile.

I arrived in Puerto Natale which I visited in the last decade and rented a vehicle to go to Torres del Paine, probably my most favorite site in the world due to its massive granite towers, ice flows and glacial lakes.

I returned with 330 GBs of data or more specific about 24,000 images. Why so many? I took a lot of multiple photos for HDR images all over as well as wildlife. The trip went well when it came to transportation and accommodations but suffered photo equipment as well as some photographer’s failure. During my previous long trip to Africa last summer I ran out of storage space for the images but this time, one camera died and suffered from faulty exposure as well as the traditional autofocus problems. More to come from this wonderful trip.