Quilpué, Chile
| Quilpué | |||||
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| City and Commune | |||||
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| Nickname(s): "City of the Sun" (Ciudad del Sol) | |||||
| Coordinates (city): 33°03′S 71°27′W / 33.050°S 71.450°WCoordinates: 33°03′S 71°27′W / 33.050°S 71.450°W | |||||
| Country | Chile | ||||
| Region | Valparaíso | ||||
| Province | Marga Marga | ||||
| Founded | 1898 | ||||
| Government | |||||
| • Type | Municipality | ||||
| • Alcalde | Mauricio Viñambres Adasme | ||||
| Area | |||||
| • Total | 536.9 km2 (207.3 sq mi) | ||||
| Elevation | 141 m (463 ft) | ||||
| Population (2012 Census) | |||||
| • Total | 149,500 | ||||
| • Density | 280/km2 (720/sq mi) | ||||
| Time zone | CLT (UTC-4) | ||||
| • Summer (DST) | CLST (UTC-3) | ||||
| Postal code | 24300000 | ||||
| Area code(s) | +56 32 | ||||
| Climate | Csb | ||||
| Website | Official website (in Spanish) | ||||
Quilpué is a city and capital of the Marga Marga Province in central Chile's Valparaíso Region. It is part of the Greater Valparaíso metropolitan area. It is widely known as "City of the Sun" (Ciudad del Sol) and the urban part of it also comprises the town of El Belloto, an area that showed rapid growth in the late 1990s.
There are various theories about the origin of the word Quilpué. According to some, Quilpué means place where there are pigeons, arguing that pigeons were found abundantly in the area and that the name derives from the aboriginal words cullpo (dove) and hue (place). Other authors suggest that it means place of the stone lancet, because the Picunches (the indigenous Mapuche people) were experts in the manufacture of these items that were used for medical procedures. Numbers of these stone lancets have been found in the area's archaeological sites, as well as the original formation which was quarried for them.
Quilpué is called Ciudad del Sol because compared to Valparaíso, it has many more sunny days a year. It has metropolitan train, highway and bus connections to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso to the coast, and also towards inland cities. Since housing is cheaper in Quilpué, thousands of people commute every day to the coastal cities.
Quilpué is connected to Santiago through the Route 68, with an estimated travel time of 1.15h by car and 1.30h by inter-regional bus services, that departs and arrive mostly from Pajaritos metro and interchange station, west of the national capital.
Local attractions include a Zoo (only one of the Valparaíso Region), and the rural towns of Colliguay and the Marga-Marga Valley, both with facilities for camping and hiking.
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