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Villa O'Higgins is a small town in the
Aysén Region
The Aysén del General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo Region (, , '), often shortened to Aysén Region or Aisén,Examples of name usage1, official regional government site refers to the region as "Región de Aysén"., Chile's official meteorological ...
of southern
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
, located 220 km south of
Cochrane and 550 km south of
Coyhaique
Coyhaique (), also spelled Coihaique in Patagonia, is the Capital (political), capital List of cities in Chile, city of both the Coyhaique Province and the Aysén Region of Chile. Founded by settlers in 1929, it is a young city. Until the twentiet ...
. Founded in 1966 and named after the Chilean independence hero
Bernardo O'Higgins
Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme (; 20 August 1778 – 24 October 1842) was a Chilean independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. He was a wealthy landowner of Basque people, Basque-Spanish people, Spani ...
, it is the capital of the
O'Higgins commune of
Capitán Prat Province.
Villa O'Higgins is connected to the rest of Chile by the
Carretera Austral
The Carretera Austral (CH-7, ''in English: Southern Way'') is the name given to Chile's Route 7. The highway runs south for about from Puerto Montt to Villa O'Higgins, passing through rural Patagonia.
Carretera Austral provides road access to ...
(Southern Highway) – the final 120 km of which were completed southwards from Puerto Yungay in 2000 – and is the gateway to the
Southern Patagonian Ice Field
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field (), located at the Southern Patagonic Andes between Chile and Argentina, is the world's second largest contiguous extrapolar ice field. It is the bigger of two remnant parts of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, which c ...
.
Facilities
The town has an airport, several guesthouses and campsites, a radio station, and a number of shops and restaurants. In the summer (Dec-Feb) a regular boat service takes passengers from Villa O'Higgins across the
O'Higgins / San Martín Lake to
Candelario Mancilla, from where it is possible to cross the border into
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
via a footpath (no road). In bad weather, the service can be suspended for many days.
Climate
Villa O'Higgins has an
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
''Cfb'') characterised by pleasant, though very windy, summers and chilly winters.
References
External links
Municipalidad de Villa O'Higgins(in Spanish)
*
ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/jorgeleoncabello/8227662401/ Jorge Leon Cabello's Flickr photos{{commons-inline
Geography of Aysén Region
Populated places in Capitán Prat Province