Choele Choel is the capital of the department of

Avellaneda Avellaneda (, ) is a port city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 342,677 as per the . Avellaneda is located within the Greater B ...

in the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Río Negro, and the most important settlement within the ''Valle Medio'' ("Middle Valley") agricultural area of the Río Negro River in

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

Overview

Choele Choel is located at the intersection of National Routes #22 and #250, around 1000 kilometres from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, 180 from General Roca, 193 from the Las Grutas beach resort, and 460 from Puerto Madryn. It has a population of 10,642 (). Its long-distance bus terminal is a common stop for buses going to both sea-side Patagonia (Puerto Madryn, Río Gallegos,

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

) and North-Andean Patagonia ( Bariloche, El Bolsón). During the 1990s, the airport used to serve regular flights to

, but currently serves only infrequent private charters.

History

Originally named '' Nicolás Avellaneda'', it was founded on July 9, 1879, by General Conrado Villegas. After a flood, the inhabitants moved to a place known as ''Pampa de los Molinos''. They would stay there until March 18, 1882, when the settlement was moved to its current location. The town acquired special importance during the Conquest of the Desert, when the border between the white man and the Native Americans was pushed south the shore of the Río Negro River. In 1883, a post office was installed in the town. Salesians arrived in 1890. The Provincial School #10 was created in 1904, and in 1917 the Library. Irish Argentine writer Rodolfo Walsh was born in the town in 1927. In the 1900s a group of Welsh settlers who were considering leaving Argentina were granted land in Choele Choel. Choele Choel is home to a sizable Russian community (some of them

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

). Besides the European

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

communities common to most of Argentina, the town received refugees from

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

in the 1970s.

Etymology

There are several versions regarding the meaning of ''Choele Choel'': it might be from the

Mapuche language Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the sm ...

, translated as "yellow flower race," or from the

Tehuelche language Tehuelche (''Aoniken, Inaquen, Gunua-Kena, Gununa-Kena'') is one of the Chonan languages of Patagonia. Its speakers, the Tehuelche people, were nomadic hunters who occupied territory in present-day Chile, north of Tierra del Fuego and south of th ...

("small river rolling-stones"). Another version translates it as "bark scarecrows."

Climate

Choele Choel has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BSk''). Winters are cool with a July mean of , with nighttime temperatures that frequently drop below and occasionally below on the coldest nights. Cloudy days are common during winter, averaging 7–9 days from June to August, although sunny days can occur as well. Spring and fall are transition seasons that feature warm days, averaging and cool nights, averaging although temperatures can reach as high as and low as during these seasons. Summers are hot, dry and sunny, with daytime temperatures averaging and cool nighttime temperatures, averaging . Precipitation is low, averaging which is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year.

Access

The points of access are through National Routes and . Choele Choel also has an authorised airport for small private planes and helicopter arrivals.

Activities

The most developed activities in this location are cattle breeding, agriculture, and manufacturing of raw materials such as tomatoes, apples, pears, strawberries, etc. into sauces and jellies.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Río Negro Province Populated places established in 1879 Cities in Argentina Old Believer communities