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Talcahuano
Talcahuano is a municipality and port city in the Bio-Bio Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepcion conurbation.
Geography
Talcahuano is located in the south of the central zone of Chile. Together with ten other municipalities, it forms part of the Province of Concepcion, which in turn is one of four provinces that forms the VIII Region or Bio-Bio Region.
The municipality of Talcahuano has an area of 148.29 km and, according to the 2002 Census, has a population of 250,348 inhabitants. With a population density of 1,873 inhabitants per square kilometre, it is the seventh most populated city of the country.
History
The official foundation date of Talcahuano is November 5, 1764 when Antonio Guill y Gonzaga declared an official port. However, Talcahuano began to appear in history books as early as 1544 when Genoese captain Juan Bautista Pastene discovered the mouth of the Bio-Bio river while exploring the coast in his ships San Pedro and Santiaguillo.
The city is named after an Araucanian chief, Talcahuenu, who inhabited the region at the arrival of the Spanish. In Mapudungun, the language of the indigenous Mapuches, Talcahuano means Thundering Sky.
The port was well known to American whaleships of the early 19th century. They often put in for fresh water, food, and various forms of entertainment for the crews.
Economy
Talcahuano contains Chile's main naval base which is home of the historical relic, the Huascar, a Peruvian ironclad ship which was captured in 1879 during the War of the Pacific. It is also the base of the Chilean submarine fleet and the ASMAR shipyard.
Culture
Sports
Talcahuano entered football history when Ramon Unzaga Asla, a player for the local club Estrella del Mar, invented the famous bicycle kick (also known as "chilena") there in 1914.
Te city is home to Club Deportivo Huachipato, a football club in Chile's [[Liga Chilena de Futbol: Primera Division|Primera Division]], playing at Estadio Las Higueras.
In Literature
It featured prominently in Miles Smeeton's book Once Is Enough, a sailor's classic.Once Is Enough, by Miles Smeeton. International Marine Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-07-141431-2
Is mentioned by the character Charlie Marlow in Joseph Conrad's book Lord Jim.
External links
http://www.talcahuano.cl
Satellite view of Talcahuano (Google Maps)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Talcahuano
