Tongoy, Chile
Encyclopedia
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an coastal town in the commune of Coquimbo
Coquimbo
Coquimbo is a port city, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo lies in a valley south of La Serena, with which it forms Greater La Serena with more than 400,000 inhabitants. The commune spans an area around the...
in Elqui Province
Elqui Province
Elqui Province is a province in the Chilean region of Coquimbo . The provincial capital is the city of Coquimbo. The province has an area of , and has 365,371 inhabitants.-Geography and demography:...
, Coquimbo Region
Coquimbo Region
The IV Coquimbo Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions. It is some 400 km north of the capital, Santiago.The capital and largest city is La Serena, other important cities include the seaport Coquimbo and the agricultural centre...
. It is located 42 km (26 mi) to the south of Chile's second oldest city, La Serena, next to the spa of Guanaqueros
Guanaqueros
Guanaqueros is a Chilean town in the commune of Coquimbo, Elqui Province, Coquimbo Region. It is located 12 kilometers from Tongoy. It is a fishermen's cove, which spreads along the eastern rim of the Cerro Guanaqueros , and with its houses built facing to the north in the direction of the Pacific...
, on a rocky promontory
Promontory
Promontory may refer to:*Promontory, a prominent mass of land which overlooks lower lying land or a body of water*Promontory, Utah, the location where the United States first Transcontinental Railroad was completed...
opposite the Pacific Ocean, between the beaches of Socos (4 km) and Grande (26 km), to the north of the Talinay Mountain range
Cordillera de Talinay
The Cordillera de Talinay is a mountain range situated in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. The range consists of a series of hills and foothills spreading more than 40 km in a north-south direction from the coast, but which descend to meet the Limari river as it crosses Chile's Intermediate Depression...
.
Tongoy's geographical coordinates
Geographic coordinate system
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on the Earth to be specified by a set of numbers. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represent vertical position, and two or three of the numbers represent horizontal position...
are 30°15′27"S 71°29′33"W and, according to a 2002 census conducted by the National Statistics Institute
National Statistics Institute (Chile)
The National Statistics Institute of Chile is a state-run organization of the Government of Chile, created in the second half of the 19th century and tasked with performing a general census of population and housing, then collecting, producing and publishing official demographic statistics of...
, has a population of 4,435 inhabitants. Tongoy's residential areas are divided into two areas: the Peninsula, a zone of summer houses, called popularly "La Isla" ("The Island") and the Pueblo Bajo (Low Village), where the majority of permanent inhabitants reside.
Tongoy's most famous former resident is the late poet Víctor Domingo Silva
Víctor Domingo Silva
Víctor Domingo Silva Endeiza was a Chilean poet, journalist, playwright and writer. Victor Silva was of Basque descent by mother's side....
, referred to as "el poeta nacional" ("the national poet"). The house where he was born and lived is situated opposite the local school. A large public park named after Silva, is located in the highest area of the peninsula. The park offers a good vantage point from which to view the bay and surrounding areas.
History
Mapudungun
The Mapuche language, Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken in south-central Chile and west central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It is also spelled Mapuzugun and sometimes called Mapudungu or Araucanian...
means "hammer strikes".
The first inhabitants of the Tongoy area were the Diaguita
Diaguita
The Diaguita, also called Diaguita-Calchaquí, are a group of South American indigenous peoples. The Diaguita culture developed between the 8th and 16th centuries in what are now the provinces of Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja and Tucumán in northwestern Argentina, and in the Atacama and Coquimbo...
s and the Chango
Chango
Chango may refer to:People*José de Jesús Méndez Vargas , nickname El Chango, alleged Mexican drug cartel leader*Chango Spasiuk , Argentine chamamé musician and accordion player...
s. Over many years the Diaguitas exploited the rich copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
deposits of the region, mining, making tools and all manner of implements from the metal. They also were industrious farmers and developed agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
throughout the territory. The Changos, by contrast, were a nomadic fishing culture making their living from the ocean in distinctive rafts made with sea lion
South American Sea Lion
The South American sea lion , also called the southern sea lion and the Patagonian sea lion, is a sea lion found on the Chilean, Peruvian, Uruguayan, Argentine and Southern Brazilian coasts. It is the only member of the genus Otaria...
leather stretched over a wooden platform, which could transport anywhere between one to four sailors. The Changos fished exclusively with bone harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
s which they moored to their bodies with leather cords.
Until the mid 1970s it was possible to find arrowhead
Arrowhead
An arrowhead is a tip, usually sharpened, added to an arrow to make it more deadly or to fulfill some special purpose. Historically arrowheads were made of stone and of organic materials; as human civilization progressed other materials were used...
s and other artifacts of indigenous pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
; specially in the contiguous dunes of Playa Grande ("Great Beach"), in the direction of Puerto Aldea ("Aldea Port").
During colonial times, the Bay of Tongoy was place of welcome for hundreds of small fishermen, whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
privateers and, a place to anchor before or after passing the port of Coquimbo. Historical documents record that in 1687 the area was host to a battle between La Serena's militia against a group of disembarked buccaneer
Buccaneer
The buccaneers were privateers who attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
s who attempted to conquer the town. Legend has it that the area was a possible interment site of Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
's mythical treasure.
In 1835, the captain of the British Navy, Robert FitzRoy
Robert FitzRoy
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, and as a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate weather forecasting a reality...
, commanding the H.M.S. Beagle, made a complete survey of the bay.
Tongoy was an important port during the height of copper production from the mine of Tamaya, an ancient mine located 25 km to the north of the city of Ovalle
Ovalle, Chile
Ovalle is a city in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, founded in 1831 as a settlement of more than 113,000 people. The name Ovalle was chosen to honor to Chile's vice-president José Tomás Ovalle...
, near the slopes of the Andes mountain range
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
. On November 21, 1839, Chile's then President
President of Chile
The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...
, José Joaquín Prieto Vial decreed the port a puerto habilitado (qualified port). The following year, in 1840, regular shipments of copper and other minerals from the cove began to the provinces of Combarbalá and Limarí.
In 1850, under the auspices of Jose Tomás Urmeneta, a wealthy Chilean industrialist, Tongoy was provided with a railroad to bring mineral ore from outlying areas. During this same period, construction of a ships' wharf was initiated, as well as the construction of a large smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
oven by Enrique Barnes to extract copper
Copper extraction
Copper extraction techniques refers to the methods for obtaining copper from its ores. This conversion consists of a series of chemical, physical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other...
from chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
ore.
Modern times
During the 20th century, Tongoy became a popular coastal town. Much urbanization took place from 1955 to the present, with the addition of many stately houses, parks and a number of tennis venues. In the 1980s, institutional resort areas were constructed especially for the use of Chile's National Police Force (Carabineros de Chile) and Air Force (Fuerza Aérea de Chile).In 1982 a marine biology
Marine biology
Marine biology is the scientific study of organisms in the ocean or other marine or brackish bodies of water. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather...
laboratory was established on the peninsula which was underwritten and remains dependent on the Fundacion Chile
Fundación Chile
Fundación Chile is a non profit corporation created in 1976 through a joint agreement between the Chilean government and ITT Corporation. It is essentially a technological think tank that has worked successfully to foster Chilean business and industry growth through technological innovation and...
, a government-backed foundation launched in 1976 with the collaboration and funding of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
company, ITT
ITT Corporation
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control...
, which is dedicated to developing technological innovation and growth in Chile, as well as with the support of the association of local fishermen. The laboratory focuses on techniques in commercialized seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
productions.
At present Tongoy's economy relies heavily on the tourist industry and its related restaurant trade. Hotel complexes and tourist rentals complement the town's impeccable beaches and exquisite sealife. Tongoy is especially crowded during the southern summer (December, January and February) with visitors from nearby cities such as La Serena, Coquimbo and Ovalle, and also from Chile's capital, Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, which is approximately a 4 hour drive from Tongoy. Vacationers also visit from nearby Argentina—especially from the provinces of San Juan
San Juan Province (Argentina)
San Juan is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile at the west....
and Mendoza
Mendoza Province
The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
.
The majority of Tongoy's residents work seasonally, during the heavy tourist trade period occurring annually between January and February. Another large source of local employment is in the seafood factories which package and export a variety of fish and shellfish products, chiefly using sole
Sole (fish)
Sole is a group of flatfish belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name sole is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder...
, turbot
Turbot
The turbot is a species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is native to marine or brackish waters of the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.-Etymology:...
, Eastern Oyster
Eastern oyster
The eastern oyster — also called Atlantic oyster or Virginia oyster — is a species of true oyster native to the eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of North America. It is also farmed in Puget Sound, Washington, where it is known as the Totten Inlet Virginica. Eastern oysters are and have...
and macha (Mesodesma donacium a surf clam peculiar to Chile). The agro-industrial sector is concentrated in the Hacienda el Tangue area of Tongoy (250 inhabitants), next to the village of Puerto Aldea (50 inhabitants).
Puerto Aldea is the site of an ancient Chilean Navy
Chilean Navy
-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...
base. Today, UNITAS naval exercises, with the participation of the United States, are conducted at the location during spring months (UNITAS is a 1960 established, annual, multinational naval deployment exercise in which United States Navy vessels circumnavigate the South American continent, participating in maneuvers with local navies). The section is also home to a lighthouse, a new pier for local fishermen, and is known for the excellence of goatcheese produced by the locals. In 2002, destruction of land mines was carried out in the segregated naval area, in accordance with the Treaty of Ottawa.
Administrative designation
Prior to 1894, Tongoy was an autonomous commune, however in 1929 it was incorporated into the Department (an administrative division) of Ovalle. During the 1970s, during a regionalization redistrictingRedistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
campaign, Tongoy was integrated into the Province of Elqui, thus becoming part of the commune of Coquimbo. At present, Today Tongoy remains a part of the Coquimbo, and it is technically administered as a delegación municipal (municipal delegation).
Recent history
During January, 2006, Chile's undersecretary of Regional Development, Adriana DelpianoAdriana Delpiano
Adriana Delpiano Puelma is a Chilean politician and former Intendant of the Santiago Metropolitan Region...
, announced that "no veía con malos ojos a Tongoy como comuna" (he looked favorably on making Tongoy a discrete commune). Soon thereafter, Chile's President
President of Chile
The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...
, Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
announced a government project that would create the Commune of Tongoy, granting the Tongoy region long-sought autonomy by administratively separating it from Coquimbo.
Places of interest
- Playa Socos: a 4.8 kilometer beach of sparking white sand.
- Playa Grande: an extensive beach running 26 kilometers along Chile's coast.
- Humedales de Pachingo (also called Tongoy): an undeveloped area protected by the Chile's Ministry of National Assets as a government protected nature preserve under the international Ramsar ConventionRamsar ConventionThe Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...
. It is considered an excellent spot for birdwatchingBirdwatchingBirdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are...
. - Poet, Víctor Domingo SilvaVíctor Domingo SilvaVíctor Domingo Silva Endeiza was a Chilean poet, journalist, playwright and writer. Victor Silva was of Basque descent by mother's side....
's home, where he was born and lived for many years. - Víctor Domingo Silva Park: A large located at the top of the peninsula, from which grand views of the area are possible. In its highest part there is a statue of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus crowned by a cross.
- Hacienda el Tangue: a country estate collectivized during Chile's agrarian reform movement. It is administered by an efficient growers' co-operative and produces various cheeses, among other agricultural products.
- Puerto Aldea: A small, quaint village located to the south of Playa Grande.
- Bosque de Fray Jorge National ParkBosque de Fray Jorge National ParkBosque de Fray Jorge national park or Bosque Fray Jorge national park lies in the Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile. It is a UNESCO Biosphere reserve.- Geography :...
, which has been declared a World Biosphere ReserveBiosphere reserveThe Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.-Development:...
by UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. - Conchales de Pachingo: an area with abundant mollusc shells.
- Puerto Velero and Playa Blanca: hotel complexes and rental departments located at the head of Socos beach, which provide a variety of attractions and services for tourists.