Villa O'Higgins, Remote village in Aysén Region, Chile.

Villa O'Higgins sits at the southern end of the Carretera Austral near Lake O'Higgins and the Mayer River, surrounded by the mountains of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. The settlement spreads across rugged terrain where mountains meet waterways and glacier-carved valleys.

The first settlers arrived in 1914 when Chilean and European colonists moved to this frontier region, though the village itself was not established until 1966. This late development shaped it as one of the southern region's younger communities.

The name honours Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's independence leader, and the town keeps a frontier character: livestock and sheep farming remain the local base, alongside small-scale tourism. Visitors can watch wooden buildings going up, part of an effort by residents to give the village a timber architecture of its own.

Villa O'Higgins is reached by the final stretch of the Carretera Austral, completed southwards from Puerto Yungay in 2000. In summer a regular boat crosses Lake O'Higgins to Candelario Mancilla, from where a footpath leads to Argentina; bad weather can suspend the service for days. The town has an airport, guesthouses, campsites, shops and restaurants.

From here, travelers can follow a route to El Chaltén in Argentina that weaves together trekking, boat crossings, and bus rides across borders. This cross-border connection is one of the few ways to link two countries' landscapes in a single journey.