The Island

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flighter
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The Island

Post by flighter »

No, not the movie and the the possibility of the quite scary future.

Let me explain a bit first:

Out of curiosity, some time ago I was searching for a private islands available for sale. many are way too expensive for an individual or a small group of ordinary people, but there are some that are, at least financially, affordable. One of them is Isla Huerta, at the far south of Chile.

You can find a lot of details about the island here:

http://huertaislandsell.com/fotografias.htm

So, my dream was to gather enough interested people, raise enough money, buy the island and make something with it.

The island is completely undeveloped, pristine nature. Highest point on the island is some 130 meters above the sea level, making it safe even in case of tsunamis. There is no infrastructure whatsoever, and especially no electric power, or telephone lines. My guess is that, due to the size of the island, there should be at least one source of fresh water. There should be no large animals on the island either, and the average temperature there doesn't make it suitable for snakes.

There is a huge number of Lenga trees, and the exploitation is permitted since it is outside the Natural Reserve protected area.

All that would make the island in question a perfect place to build a small community of either permanent residents or people wishing to have a vacation home in a really different environment, far from any beaten path.

The island belongs to the region in which the capital (and the nearest city to the airport) is Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas has many daily flights to the rest of South America, and sometimes to the rest of the world too. There is a large university in the city, proper hospital, shopping centres and just about anything else one may need.

When it comes to the internet, a main CHilean internet backbone is passing through the city so getting any bandwidth should not be a problem. The only issue is, the island is some 100 km from the city, but that could be solved by installing a radio relay on top of the nearby hill, and connect the island that way.

On the mainland, there is some road relatively close to the island, and that would be a perfect landing spot, to make a jetty and so on.

Electrical power is available on the mainland, but it is unclear to me how close to the island.

Same stands for the telephone lines, but my guess is, it could be solved the same way as the internet connectivity.

The island has few perfect spots to build a jetty, and at least one spot to make a landing strip on the water, shielded from high waves.

In theory, a short landing strip could be built on the island itself, but my guess is it would be too expensive. Of course, a helipad is always a possibility.

Since the island is totally undeveloped, it would require a signifficant number of quite heavy machines to be transported to it for the construction or some roads, excavation etc.

Generation of power on the island could be achieved in several different ways. There is no enough sunny days to make it cost efficient, but there is certainly enough wind to generate all the electric power the community would need.

If the decision is made to bring the electric power from the shore, the nearest spot on the shore is approx. 2 kilometers from the island, but it is unknown to me if the electric power is available there, or up to 30 kilometers away.

Gas pipelines do not exist in the area, so the only way to bring the gas (for cooking, for instance) would be by ship.

The soil on the island looks like quite stable to me, so building any sort of buildings should not be a problem.

I would love to have a properly build, middle sized, house made almost entirely from wood... :)
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Re: The Island

Post by flighter »

Talking of that... I can't remember if there was any mention of any tribe from the polar regions of Pandora...
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Re: The Island

Post by flighter »

If done over the water, Punta Arenas is reachable within 8 hours. If combined water & road, it would be, my guess is, around 3 to 4 hours in good weather conditions. By air, one hour by a plane, a bit more by helicopter or ultra-light aircrafts. Heavy/bulky supplies would be transported by water, so the only concern is medical emergencies.

For those coming from Europe, it's a long, time and money consuming journey...

Average ticket from Frankfurt for November-December season costs about 1400 EUR and takes anything between 25 and over 30 hours (from the first takeoff th the landing at final destination, so add 2-3-4 hours extra). Bringing a lot of bulky items from the country of origin would, over such a long distance, be costly, so my guess is people would simply buy stuff locally.

If you people are theoretically interested (a little dreaming doesn't cost anything, lol) I could make a financial breakdown of everything needed locally, from labour, over materials, to supplies in the end...
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