Puerto Deseado, originally Port Desire, is an attractive fishing port situated on an estuary at the mouth of the Rio Deseado in the north of Santa Cruz province in Argentine Patagonia. It was so named by English navigator Thomas Cavendish who sailed into the estuary in 1586 in his ship the Desire. Several other famous seafarers also dropped anchor here, including Captains Robert Fitzroy and John Byron.

A not-so-successful attempt was made by the Swift in 1770. Its wreck was discovered in the early 1980s and all the objects found on board are now on display at the Museo Regional Mario Brozoski. The town’s former railway station, an attractive Victorian building, houses the Museo de la Estacion de Ferrocarril. Nearby is the Vagon Historico, an old 19th-century railway carriage, now the tourist office.

The town is set amid beautiful coastal landscape which is abundant in marine wildlife. The Reserva Natural Ria Deseado is a deep-set valley some 40 km long. It is home to innumerable sea birds, including several different cormorant species and the Magellanic penguin, as well as colonies of sea lions and the playful black and white Commerson dolphin. Many boat companies operate trips around the estuary.

Some 90 km north of Puerto Deseado is Cabo Blanco, a rocky peninsula occupied by Patagonia’s largest fur seal colony and an old lighthouse. Nearby on Estancia La Madrugada, there’s another large seal colony while on land you are likely to see foxes, the ostrich-like nandue and the ginger-coloured guanaco. South of Puerto Deseado is Reserva Natural Bahia Laura, with prolific birdlife, and Isla Penguino, with a large Magellanic penguin colony. Some 250 km to the west is the Monumento Natural Bosques Petrificados, a fascinating desert of ancient fossilized trunks.