Stop 1 · Peru
Iquitos
The largest city not on an island that is unreachable by road; access is by river or air. The Casa de Fierro (1890) is attributed to Eiffel. The rubber boom ran roughly 1880–1912; Belén is the floating district.
Towns with no road connection to the outside world
Five settlements — from a village of 176 to a city of half a million — that you can reach only by water or by air, because no road has ever been built to them and in most cases none ever will be.
The five stops
Stop 2 · Chile
Puerto Edén
On Wellington Island in Aysén region; population about 176; annual rainfall 5,745 mm. Home of the last Kawésqar community. The Navimag ferry between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales calls here.
Stop 3 · Tristan da Cunha (UK)
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas
Founded in 1816 by Corporal William Glass; population 221 (2026); 2,434 km from St Helena. The 1961 eruption evacuated the island to Calshot until 1963. It is named for the Duke of Edinburgh's 1867 visit.
Stop 4 · Greenland (Denmark)
Ilulissat
Greenland's third-largest town, on the Ilulissat Icefjord (UNESCO 2004), fed by Sermeq Kujalleq. Knud Rasmussen was born here in 1879. No road connects any Greenlandic town to another.
Stop 5 · United States
Juneau
Alaska's capital since 1906; founded 1880 after Joe Juneau and Richard Harris found gold with help from Chief Kowee. It sits below the Juneau Icefield; Mendenhall Glacier is 20 km from downtown. Access is by air or sea only.
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