Villa Las Estrellas
Villa Las Estrellas is a Chilean civilian settlement on King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It consists of some dozen prefabs but is a vital service hub for all the bases on the island. It has an airport, and its waters (though lacking harbour facilities and shelter) are usually ice-free, so it's also a transit point for people and supplies further afield. This page therefore covers the entire island.
Understand
King George Island (named for Britain's King George III) is known by Argentina as Isla 25 de Mayo, by Chile as Isla Rey Jorge and by Russia as Vaterloo (Ватерло́о). The island is 95 km long but the town, airfield and bases are concentrated on its western Fildes Peninsula, which is ice-free. As well as making it easier to construct facilities, the peninsula's unusual habitat is of scientific interest, as there's tundra vegetation, and fossils and other rocks can be seen which are inaccessible under ice elsewhere.
The town's description as "civilian" is contentious, as it implies that everything else nearby is military, which is forbidden under the Antarctic Treaty. So too is the term "Chilean": that country owns, staffs and manages various assets here, and applies its own laws to them, but under Treaty may not be said to govern a territory. The same is true for the several other nations stationed on King George, and Argentina's "civilian" Esperanza Base on the mainland is in a similar situation. Children have been born in both settlements, and it's possible to see cynical reasons for this, as somehow advancing a territorial claim. But it is of genuine scientific value to observe how ordinary civilians get by in such a harsh, remote place: the plumbing, the child-rearing, the same old diet, the interpersonal tensions, it's all good practice for Mars. In 2018 Bellingshausen base was the scene of this continent's first known attempted murder. In the Antarctica-based TV detective series that has yet to be made (all monochrome ice and rock scenery to noir effect), the problem of confused national jurisdictions will be a recurring plot theme.
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Get in
By plane
There is no routine scheduled service, but (subject to weather and demand) Aerovias DAP fly day-trips and overnight excursions from Punta Arenas at the south tip of mainland Chile. The aircraft is a King Air 300: it's pressurised and has in-flight catering but no toilet, and on these trips is limited to 5-6 passengers. Flying time is 3 hr 30 min each way, day trippers spend five hours on King George Island before flying back; overnight trippers stay in set-up tents. Prices for 2020 are US$5500 pp day-trip, $6500 overnight, which includes accommodation in Punta Arenas either side of the trip.
Several companies fly visitors here to transfer to cruise ships.
1 Teniente R. Marsh Airport (TNM IATA) is one km northwest of town along a dirt track. It has a single gravel runway of 1290 m.
Get around
The town is flanked to the south by Profesor Julio Escudero base and to the north by Bellingshausen base; the Orthodox church is 200 m away on the hillside. A dirt track connects town and airport, and stretches along the shore south 2 km to Chang Cheng base. North it stretches 8 km to Artigas base then strikes inland for one km before petering out in the icy wastes. Bases further out are reached by sea. Never venture anywhere on the island by any mode of transport without taking advice on whether your intentions are sensible, and letting folk know when you've arrived / returned safe.
See
- 1 Holy Trinity Church (Церковь Святой Троицы). Small Orthodox church, a 15 m-high traditional wooden building of Siberian pine. It opened in 2004 and is staffed year-round by monks from Trinity Lavra of St Sergius north of Moscow. In 2007 Antarctica's first church wedding was held here.
- There's also a Roman Catholic church in the village. It's quite simple and modern.
- A statue of Admiral Bellingshausen was unveiled at the Russian base in 2020, 200 years after he sighted the Antarctic mainland. He was probably the first person to do so and live to tell the tale: earlier explorers had only sighted the islands, leaving it undecided whether a continent lay further south or just sea-ice.
Do
- Send a postcard stamped with a genuine Antarctic postmark. The village has an official Chilean postal office, which franks the mail before sending out.
- Tune in: local FM Radio Sovereignty on 90.5 MHz provides music and information to all the bases, plus community radio which includes home-sourced entertainment. The town's 2.5 meter dish picks up Televisión Nacional and Universidad Católica Television from Santiago.
- Run a marathon: the Antarctic Marathon has several times been held on the island. The event has now moved to the mainland, but there's nothing to stop you running it yourself here: two complete there-and-backs of the dirt tracks will tally the full distance. The record time is 3 hr 34 min 12 sec and the oldest finisher was 84.
Work
- See Antarctica#work for how to get hired - this isn't the sort of place where summer-break students can drop off the bus and look for "Help wanted" signs along Main Street. Bases on the island are:
- - 1 The town is part of Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base (Chile). It's flanked by Professor Julio Escudero (Chile) and Bellingshausen (Russia).
- - 2 Chang Cheng (meaning "Great Wall", China) is 2 km south of town.
- - 3 Artigas (Uruguay) is 8 km north of town.
- - 4 King Sejong (South Korea) is 10 km east by boat on the Barton Peninsula.
- - 5 Carlini (formerly Jubany, Argentina) is another 10 km by sea further east, under the stout stump of "Three Brothers" mountain. In 2013 the base hosted Antarctica's first rock concert, headlined by Metallica. Actually they were the only act to show up.
- - 6 Admiralty Bay is a three-pronged fjord inlet another 25 km east, with the world's most southerly lighthouse. Here are Macchu Pinchu (Peru), Henryk Arctowski (Poland, and named for the explorer who coined the concept of the "wind-chill factor") and Comandante Ferraz (Brazil) - this base was destroyed by fire in 2012 but re-opened in 2020. Captain Pieter J Lenie or "Copacabana" is a US summer station near Arctowski.
- - 7 Eco-Nelson is on Nelson Island across the narrow channel from town. It's privately run by a Czech explorer and not sponsored by that government.
Buy
- Terka Kraken is a supermarket at Great Wall base, open M Tu 09:30-18:00, W F 11:30-19:00.
- Locals sometimes sell souvenirs eg handicrafts. It's just private one-to-one sales, there's nothing so grand as a "Souvenir Shop".
Eat
There is a grocery store.
Drink
Never drink alcohol until you are safe indoors.
Sleep
Hostería Estrella Polar (Hostel Polestar) in Jan 2020 is closed. Tourists either stay on their ship, or camp in pre-arranged tents, while the bases have their own bunkhouses not available to tourists. And this is not a place for wild camping.
Connect
The local school has three computers equipped with satellite Internet connections, and the Chilean telecommunications company Entel PCS has a mobile phone antenna on-site. A coin-operated payphone is also located in the centre of town for the inhabitants of the sector.
Go next
You can't travel independently, so you'll go wherever your tour party or expedition is heading. King George as one of the most northerly Antarctic islands is often the first or last stop on an Antarctic cruise: these may venture further south along the Antarctic Peninsula, and northbound may swing by some of the Subantarctic Islands and Falklands on the way back to South America.