Eco Lodge/Wilderness Adventures
Argentina
Important: THE LODGE IS CLOSED FROM MAY TO SEP. DONT APPLY FOR THESE MONTHS. ITS OUR WINTER TIME AND WE DONT HAVE AN OPERATION RUNNING. ALSO: WE DO NOT, AND WILL NOT, ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FOR LESS THAN 25 DAYS. WE WILL NOT MAKE ANY EXCEPTION.
We will privilege curious, outdoorsy, adaptable, intuitive and experienced people. If you have NO experience with gardening, plants, animals, please do not apply. We are not a teaching institution. We REALLY need the helping hand.
Described by The New York Times as ´Argentina's Private (and Secret) answer to The Galapagos´, Bahia Bustamante is a seaside Lodge surrounded by 360° of pure nature, located in Patagonia, in an area recognized by its relevant biological biodiversity. Only in a few places in the world its possible to find such a number and diversity of seabirds and marine mammals, which is why it has been included in ´Patagonia Austral´ National Park & ´Blue Patagonia´ UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is also an IBA (Important Birding Area).
We are a Lodge with 25 years of operations and 11 cabins for guests. Several activities of wildlife exploration in 60 kmts of seaside coast.
WWOOFERs are welcomed since 15 years ago (only from October to April), and thanks to these collaboration exchange we have been able to make the best of our veggie production and hens and eggs breeding. Wwoofers also enjoy the paradise where we live in and aquire language skills and conservation concepts as well as some organic farming experience.
We have space for up to 5 wwoofers per month in single or double rooms with shared bathrooms. We offer 3 meals (simple cooking, not gourmet), washing machine, wi fi, nature experiences, and free pass to fabulous beaches.
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
We expect 5 hours of work per day. Divided in 2 turns. 6 days a week.
Working days start very early in the morning. If you are not a morning person, this is not your place.
WE are a place of work. Our staff works on a very intense pace, many hours a day. We are a place of nature and contemplation. Silence and respect are the premise. So we will not accept wwoofers who are looking for late nights , drinking, parties or loud reunions in rooms or common room. We also prefer non smokers.
If you are looking for a place with a social experience with drinking, parties, music and loud fun....PLEASE do not apply here.
Organic methods: No agro.toxics used. No chemicals used at all.
We work with composting, horse manoure and purins.
Certifications: We dont sell our food. Its grown to provide the restaurant of the lodge.
Current projects: We have a Biodynamic Veggie Garden and a vineyard to care for. It involves composting, watering, removing weeds, planting and harvesting. The space is around 1,500 sq meters so we need to cover a big area with fruit trees, red berries, and all sorts of veggies. WE APPRECIATE ACTIVE and COMMITTED PEOPLE WHO LOVE PLANTS.
We have a chicken coop to care for. We feed them twice a day, change their water and collect eggs. We need help to care for them.
Internet access available almost all day
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Poultry farming
Sheep or goat farming
Beekeeping
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Beer, cider, wine, or juice making
Methods or systems
Biodynamic agriculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Production farm
10,000
Hectares
|
24,710.5
Acres
Astrid
Member since 2018
Languages spoken:
English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Response time: typically within 2 days
Argentina
Bus from Comodoro Rivadavia or Trelew Cities in Chubut Province (DON OTTO Line) to Garayalde Gas Station in Route 3. Communicate day and time of arrival and we pick you up on the gas station to take you to the farm.
Reviews
Manon
France
•
May 2025
Expérience dépaysante à Bahia Bustamante! Le littoral est très beau, et les animaux grouillent ;) surtout les guanacos ! Mais également pingoins, maras, tatous...
Les habitations sont spartiates mais mimis et surtout individuelles (grand luxe dans le monde des baroudeurs ;) ) . Vous pourrez allez faire des ballades le long de la plage lors de vos temps libre, admirez les couchers de soleil.
Il faut bien penser a acheter ce dont vous avez besoin au préalable (pour le petit dej, les gouters... des apéricubes?) car AUCUNE possibilité d'aller faire des emplettes une fois sur site (très isolé, donc à moins d'avoir un hydravion?).
Si vous venez prendre des vacances sans trop travailler, ce n'est pas l'endroit. Car en contrepartie d'etre logés et nourris, il vous faut bien aider ! Les poules et le jardin n'attendent pas.
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Simon
France
•
May 2025
We spent 3 amazing weeks in Bahia Bustamante, thank you Astrid!
We saw some recent negative comments and strongly disagree. If you come with unrealistic expectations or aren’t open to the experience of volunteering in a remote area, stay at home. Don’t be stupid, and you’ll have an unforgettable time.
Work:
Tasks included caring for the vegetable garden, plants, and chickens. If you’re enthusiastic, Astrid gives you more variety—kitchen help, cleaning, vineyard work, even helping with dogs. We were lucky to join the vine harvest, which ended in a special celebration. Days were diverse and flew by. Work hours were typically 8–10 am and 4–7 pm.
Place:
Bahia Bustamante is stunning, with plenty to explore—nature walks, the lodge, and amazing excursions (which Astrid made sure we joined—thank you!).
Accommodation:
Volunteers have private rooms (!!) with a sink and desk, and shared warm-water bathrooms. Common areas are super welcoming.
Food:
The food is AMAZING—no cooking required! Warm meals at lunch and dinner, breakfast with bread and jam. There's also a fridge and kitchen if you want to store extras.
PS:
One of the personal highlights was the wonderful staff—we made real connections. Their kindness made our stay even more special.
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Imogen
United States
•
April 2025
Our stay at Bahía Bustamante was truly extraordinary and we can’t recommend it enough! Astrid was an amazing host and was very communicative about our responsibilities, needs, etc. She has fair expectations about the work and always tried to create fun experiences for us in our free time. She was also very understanding and accommodating when we had to change our departure date due to travel logistics—just be sure to communicate in advance.
Our room was perfectly comfortable and had everything we needed. When the weather got colder, Astrid made sure we had floor mats and enough blankets. The food is good and we were well fed, but we would recommend bringing some snacks—especially for the morning because breakfast is not served—you can always ask the kitchen for ingredients and cook something yourself.
While we knew Bahía Bustamante would be stunning, we were consistently blown away by the vastness of the surrounding nature. There really is nothing like it and you will find new beauty in the land every day. In addition to having a great group of wwoofers during our stay, the full time staff is incredible and we definitely made some friends for life. Thank you Astrid and Matias for everything—we had the time of our lives and already miss it so much!
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Mina
France
•
April 2025
Bahia Bustamante is a unique place, surrounded by wilderness, directly on the ocean and with an extraordinary wildlife. Since there is no access to a city or anything but nature, I would recommend to stay ideally up to 3 weeks. The staff is wonderful and welcoming and will make sure you can enjoy the excursions on the sea and the peninsula.
Regarding the accomodations, rooms are small and very simple, but you will spend your time outside anyways. In response to some other comment about the food, I would say it is true that this part of the stay could be improved : there are only 2 meals a day to share among 20 people, which some days was not quite enough considering that we are active. We eat mostly meat and carbs but very few vegetables or fruit, which on the long run can be tiring for the body too. It is definitely a problem of supplying and organization rather than a lack of respect or care for our well-being, but I think it’s important to mention especially for people for whom food might be more of an issue.
Other than that, I truly felt at peace in this place, made some friends, learnt about plants and spanish. If you are a nature person you will truly come out of this experience grateful and reconnected to earth :)
Thank you Astrid and Mathias for this beautiful opportunity <3
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Reply from Astrid
Dearest Mina, we loved having you! You are the sweetest girl. I was just sorry to not having able to spend more time with you due to my trip.
As per the food issue, I am surprised you mention just 2 meals. We give you breakfast , lunch and dinner with available snacks at all times (cookies, jam, bread, fruit from the farm). Plus, the fact that we mention everyone that Pablo, our Operations Manager, is there to help at all times. Anyone who needed more food, or even produce to cook whatever you want, you just had to ask him. The problem is he said no one never asks for anything. January, when you came, is abundant of veggies in the garden also, which you can all harvest. Yet not many do this. It is also a busy busy time for us, and both staff and volunteers are more than what we often have. More mouths to feed, but also more active hands to resolve problems. It just takes dialogue. Im surprises NO ONE ever mentions food scarcity when being here. Or requests anything. Yet writes about it later in the reviews. Its funny. Cause we believe problems can be solved immediately. We are here for that, to be able to collaborate on a full enjoyable experience.
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Sierra
United States
•
April 2025
My time at Bahia Bustamante was very short. I was supposed to stay a month and a half but because of the conditions I chose to leave after a week.
After arriving I was very surprised with the conditions of the kitchen area for the volunteers/workers. It was very run-down, considering how nice the other parts of the "lodge" were for the guests. There was no hand soap in any place. I asked one of the men in charge and he said it was not normal to provide handsoap but he would bring me some. He never brought it, this is a necessity and i found it very hard to believe they run there operation in this way.
Most of the work at the farm consists of taking care of the chickens, small work in the garden but mainly I would say 50% or more is watering around the garden and lodge. Astrid has a good idea of what she wants done everyday and how she wants it done. It was pretty tight & sometimes a very stressful environment as I witnessed her yelling or speaking very rude to other volunteers. It was hard to see. Although, she was very nice to me. I was uncomfortable most of the time.
The excursions that Astrid set up for us to go on were amazing, this made my trip to Bahia Bustamante better. I got to see the penguins & go on a boat tour as well. This was very beautiful way to explore this place & also beach days with other volunteers.
I ultimately left because one day we didn't get a lunch. Which I will say, Astrid didn't agree with but the whole operation needs more structure.
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Reply from Astrid
Sierra spent only 3 days with us. Sadly at the same time as Haley (the most conflictive wwoofer we had in 15 yrs) and seems to have agreed w/her to do a negative review on us. Wording is quite the same, yet:
a) Both say they saw me yelling and that is untrue. They want to hurt me for some reason. I really never saw Sierra feel uncomfortable. She was one of the most enthusiastic, joyful girls we had around. Really outspoken, she never kept anything to herself.
b) Sierra describes tasks as being almost just watering. Is 3 days enough to judge ? We plant (she did), harvest, weed, water, make wine, cider, harvest honey, design, etc. And, a garden in a dessert does need watering in the middle of summer.
c) Most volunteers have commented that, within Argentina, we offer 1 of the best infrastructure they´ve seen. Rooms and Kitchen and common rooms are built within a historic town. Refurbished 5 years ago, and soon to be refurbished again. Because we are located in a far off place we have the permanent challenge of working on infrastructure, as natural elements are challenging with the buildings.
d) The "soap-gate" she speaks about: there was a box of soaps and shampoos for all to help themselves with in common room, yet she had´nt seen it.
Sierra was very focused on food. And had a heated discussion with our cook out of a misunderstanding. I was on her side, & worked with the staff to fix this. She left the next morning saying it was all OK, yet she still wished to leave.
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Juliette
Germany
•
April 2025
Our three-week WWOOFing stay at Bahia Bustamante in March was a unique and rewarding experience. This remote Argentine coastal farm offers stunning landscapes, abundant wildlife (sea lions, penguins, guanacos, and more), and a deep connection to nature. The contrast between the Atlantic Ocean and the arid desert landscape is fascinating.
Work was accessible to all skill levels. About 60% involved watering plants, essential in this dry climate. Other tasks included caring for hens, weeding, composting, and occasional help in the kitchen and laundry (10–15%). The schedule was fair: five hours per day, six days a week. Learning was mostly hands-on, with limited structured teaching.
The food was very good—hearty meals featuring sheep meat, pasta, rice and amazing bread (little fresh vegetables and fruits). Accommodations were comfortable, with private rooms and shared sanitary facilities maintained by volunteers. The atmosphere was welcoming by the staff and other volunteers.
Astrid, who manages volunteers, was well-organized and arranged memorable excursions. However, her on-site communication was direct and sometimes blunt, with little introduction to the location or farming methods. A more open teaching approach would enhance the experience.
March was a great time to visit, with warm sea temperatures and the unique experience of grape harvesting. This stay is perfect for nature lovers who enjoy remote locations and hands-on learning. We highly recommend Bahia Bustamante!
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Reply from Astrid
Thank you for your nice words Juliette!!! You were a great addition to the team. I would like to clarify a few things: I am one of the owners of the property. My role is not just "managing the volunteers". As I explained on your arrival: We are a few people running this huge place, and we have a with a HUGE amount of work. When I see WWOOFERs that take their contribution in a very "light" way, and who dont fully understand the agreement, I feel its unfair. I was blunt because on your first days.... well... not you, but Raphael was not quite committed to the agreement. Yet you were willing to work for him. I didnt find this fair. As I explained, we are not a teaching institution. We are here because we need the help. I take a good number of hours to teach very basic easy things. It takes just a bit of intuition and good will to understand them. Most of the volunteers do. Its a lot of work to repeat how to be efficient and practical, over and over again. It took me a few days to understand it was best to give you structure. And then I was very happy with all the value you added.
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