Everyone In Entire Town Needs To Have Their Appendixes Removed

Depending on where you live, you might have to follow certain local rules. Perhaps a homeowners association requires you to keep your grass cut or park only in your driveway, but if you want to live in one town, you and everyone in your family have to follow a much more extreme rule - you have to have your appendix removed.

That's what any resident of Villas Las Estrellas must undergo, no matter their age, but it's for a good reason - the town is one of very few in Antartica. There are only a few doctors and no specialist surgeons there, and because the closest major hospital is 625 miles away across the Southern Ocean, as a precaution, anyone staying in town for long-term must get the operation. Becoming pregnant is also discouraged. In addition, dogs aren't allowed because they could spread diseases to the local wildlife.

Currently, about 100 people live there, mostly scientists and personnel with Chile's air force and navy, but many of them have brought their families along with them. There is a post office, a small school, a bank and other necessities to make people feel comfortable in the area, where the yearly temperature averages 27.8 degrees. However, it can go down to -50° or colder, like -170°. In fact, it gets so frigid that residents are required to stay indoors during the cold season because they could freeze to death.

Life in Villas Las Estrellas can be fun though - penguins, which have never been hunted by humans there, come up to the area without fear. It's also an experience unlike any other, plus there is plenty of skiing and snowmobiling to keep you busy (if it is "warm" enough).