Puerto Deseado

Puerto Deseado, originally called Port Desire, is a city and a fishing port of 16,747 inhabitants (at the 2022 Census), which serves as the capital of the Deseado Department in Santa Cruz Province of Argentina, situated on the estuary of the Deseado River.

It was named Port Desire by the privateer Thomas Cavendish in 1586 after the name of his ship, and later became known by the Spanish translation of the name. Today, the straggly town has a couple of pleasant squares, a former railway station and two museums, one with a collection of indigenous artifacts and one at the seafront with relics from the sloop of war HMS Swift which sank in 1770, recovered after its wreck was discovered in the port in 1982. The coast boasts spectacular scenery and colonies of marine wildlife close to the town.