beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...
and family
recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...
al and
tourist
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...
complex in the Punta Cucharas sector of Barrio Canas in
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...
. It was designed in the early 1960s by Luis Flores, an architect from Cayey, Puerto Rico. It is located on PR-2, Km 220.1, in the El Tuque sector of Barrio Canas in Ponce. The sector of El Tuque is considered Puerto Rico's largest populated sector. The beach opened on 17 July 1965.
History
The name ''El Tuque'' comes from the name of a farm of measuring 267.11
cuerda
The term "cuerda" (Spanish for ''rope'') refers to a unit of measurement in some Spanish-speaking regions, including Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Cuba, Spain, and Paraguay. In Puerto Rico, the term cuerda (and "Spanish acre"government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in the mid-1960s, as part of the central government's attempt to provide a network of such recreational facilities throughout the island. It included gazebos and fire pits near the beach, a restaurant, changing rooms with showers and lockers, a children's pool, and two adult Olympic-size swimming pools with snack bars. It was inaugurated on 17 July 1965.
Due to beach erosion that occurred over the years, a beach replenishment project then took place in 1979, but the sand added was darker than the original sand there and locals now consider the beach "dirty".
By the early-1980s, however, the area had fallen into disrepair, starting with the swimming pools and parking areas, for lack of proper maintenance by the Commonwealth Government. As a result, the beach opened only sporadically. Eventually the complex was permanently shut down in the late 1980s. The Municipality of Ponce, then obtained ownership of the property from the Commonwealth government via a transfer. About a decade later, in 1996, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...
picked up the El Tuque project again for purposes of re-furbishing the beach with new sand.
El Tuque Recreational Complex
In May 2002, a group of private investors became interested in the area and entered into a contract with the Puerto Rico central government to develop the area into a family and tourist recreational center. The investors spent $16 million to develop the area into the El Tuque Beach Entertainment Center. El Tuque Recreational Complex opened in the summer of 2002 and included an aquatic complex / splash water park with three pools with waves, high speed water slides, and water sports. Some of activities of the park were hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, whitewater paddling, snorkeling, and scuba diving. The aquatic park closed in 2007, the same year that an accident at the water park injured a park patron leaving him quadriplegic. The complex had a pub and a Quality Inn hotel located on the beach, within the recreational complex facilities. A nearby
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn by IHG is a chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson (1913–2003), who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee. The chain was a division ...
hotel that had opened a few years earlier, provides additional lodging facilities for beach-goers.
A second addition to the project, which opened in 2003, includes a new
speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida.
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta.
*Indianapolis Motor Spe ...
called the '' Ponce International Speedway Park''. It includes a drag-racing track and circuit track. The speedway drag-racing sections has both 1/4-mile and 1/8th-mile sections, and the full circuit is 1.52 miles long and incorporates 12 turns. A small
marina
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...
has also been added. Boating and
kayak
]
A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...
ing is promoted as part of the center's eco-tourism activities.
Solace by the Sea
In 2017, following Hurricane Maria (2017), Hurricane María, Grupo Misla Villalba, a group of local investors, remodeled the former Quality Inn Hotel, which had closed 2 years before, and opened a new hotel, named "Solace by the Sea" on 30 November 2017.''Inauguran hotel en Ponce.'' Telemundo Puerto Rico, 1 December 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2018.