Villa Puerto Edén is a Chilean hamlet and minor port located in Wellington Island, in Natales commune, ÃÂltima Esperanza Province, Magallanes Region. It is considered one of Chile's most isolated inhabited places together with Easter Island and Villa Las Estrellas. The village is known for being the home of the last Kawéshkar people. Owing to the large tidewater glaciers caused by the regionâÂÂs super-high precipitation, it is only accessible by sea, on the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt in the north, or Puerto Natales in the south. There is also a monthly boat from Caleta Tortel.
The population is 176 (2002 census). Owing to the extraordinarily humid climate the village has no roads, with only pedestrian boardwalks connecting the houses and shops. A weekly transport boat takes local fish and shellfish products (the latter mainly mussels) to markets. Margarita Vargas López, a member of the Chilean Constitutional Convention, was born and raised in Villa Puerto Edén.
Puerto Edén well known for sightings of the green-backed firecrown (Sephanoides sephaniodes). Furthermore patagonian sierra finches (Phrygilus patagonicus), austral thrushes (Turdus falcklandii), ringed kingfisher (Megaceryle torquata), and black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax)<nowiki/>are common.
Regarding flowering plants hardy fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica), Coicopihue (Philesia magellanica), and Chilean holly (Desfontainia fulgens) are present everywhere.The hardy fuchsia in particular attracts both the green-backed firecrown and the âÂÂgiant bumblebeeâ (Bombus dahlbomii). Finally, the Chilean sundew (Drosera uniflora) on the plateau is also worth mentioning.
Villa Puerto Edén has an extremely wet subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc) and is widely reputed to be the place in the world with the highest frequency of rainfall, though according to Guinness World Records the highest frequency of rain in a year occurred at Bahia Felix, a little further south, with only eighteen rainless days in the whole of 1916. The annual rainfall is almost exactly equal to that of Little Port Walter in the similarly wet Alaska Panhandle, but is more evenly spread across the year, with a minimum average monthly rainfall of as against in Little Port Walter.