Puerto Williams remembers Cicely, the fictitious town where the endearing Doctor en Alaska took place. The 110 chapters of this series from the United States talked about the life and anecdotes of Joel Fleischman, a New York doctor, Jewish and quite straight, forced to work in a remote, magical and, at times, surreal village. The series, actually shot in the state of Washington and not in Alaska, had a third title for the Latin American market: The Last Frontier. This is the feeling that comes to Puerto Williams by plane or boat. They are the only means to do so, since it is located on Navarino Island, territory belonging to the region of Magellan and Chilean Antarctica.
“This is a very special place. In addition to having a unique beauty, on the same day you can experience the four seasons of the year here”, another doctor comments to La Vanguardia, this one for real: Jorge Flies, a family doctor who was mayor of the region in 2014 at the request of Michelle Bachelet. It is special, yes, and has been for some time. A legal change (or trick) put her on the map with all the honors some time ago. According to the latest official census, there are 1,868 people in Puerto Williams: 1,039 men and 829 women, who live in 662 homes. In administrative terms it is a locality, but the National Institute of Statistics changed its category in 2019 to make this small town the southernmost city. The victim was none other than Ushuaia, in Argentina.
Despite the fact that it does not reach 2,000 inhabitants, the state body changed the category of Puerto Williams from town to city by applying an exception: urban centers that, presenting less than five thousand inhabitants, comply with the political-administrative characteristic of being a regional capital or provincial, they will also have this consideration. The decision leaves neighboring Ushuaia, with 82,000 inhabitants, as the second most southern city in the world, a title now held by the small Chilean city.
The geographical fact is indisputable: the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands is 10 kilometers further north than the capital of the Chilean Antarctic province, which overnight and without any increase in its census, it went to sleep as a town and rose the next day as a city.
“Being isolated in such a remote and beautiful place sounds idyllic, although there are also many disadvantages for those who live here. With the development of communications and improvements in the quality of life, everything changes for the better”, says Flies, who works and lives in the capital, Punta Arenas, although he continuously visits the different communes of the region, such as Puerto Williams.
Flies became regional governor in 2021 by universal suffrage. He won the election by a wide margin and since then he continues to pilot a development program that he started 10 years ago: 37 projects to develop the region and make this end of the world not so much thanks to goals such as the decentralization of the state , the arrival of fiber optics, the opening of research centers and the development of expedition tourism with very high purchasing power, aware of the area in which it travels.
The trips of the governor and the inhabitants of the entire region are made easier thanks to the regular flights of Aerovies DAP, an airline founded in 1980 by the Pivcevics, a family of Magellan businessmen of Croatian origin who are determined to develop the region in fields such as ‘agriculture, livestock, construction and transport. Currently, and despite having an extensive fleet of aircraft, DAP still keeps in flight its symbolic first aircraft, a 19-seat, 44-year-old De Havilland Twin Otter that was once the first private aircraft to reach Antarctica . “It is a magnificent twin engine and the one that most frequently covers the line between the regional capital and Puerto Williams. In terms of capacity and characteristics, it is the ideal model for flying in the area”, says Rodrigo Pozo, in charge of flight operations for this airline.
With the Yaghan ferry, which takes 32 hours to reach the capital, and the BAe 146 reactors, the Twin Otter is the link between this place and the rest of the world.