Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Southernmost CIty in the World Gets More Southern


I posted a pretty cool travel story over on Gadling earlier today about a tiny town called Puerto Williams, located on a small island off the coast of Chile. The place is rapidly becoming a tourist destination thanks to the fact that it is the southernmost city on the planet.

Ushuaia in Argentina has long been recognized as holding that distinction, but adventure travelers are now headed to Puerto Williams thanks to the fact that it is less crowded and off the tourist track. It's hard to label the place as a "city" however, as it's much smaller than Ushuaia (which is in turn much smaller than Punta Arenas), and until recently the only way to get to Chilean island was on a once-a-week ferry. Now there are daily flights, albeit on small 20-seat planes, that shuttle backpackers and adventure seekers to Puerto Williams, which didn't even have a paved street until this year.

The original story can be found here and was published by the Times Online. Adventure travelers will no doubt have Puerto Williams on their radar soon enough, and will probably be fleeing Mongolia (the adventure destination of choice the past few years is seems) for this wild wilderness.

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