Arecibo, Puerto Rico
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Template:Infobox City Arecibo is a municipality in Puerto Rico. Settled by the Spanish around 1556, it was the island's third Spanish settlement, after Caparra (which later became San Juan), and San German. It is named after the Taíno Cacique Xamaica Arasibo, who ruled the Taino yucayeke (town), then named Abacoa. Arecibo was officially founded as a city by the Spanish crown in 1616, under the governorship of Captain Felipe de Beaumont y Navarra, when the King of Spain granted the land (and the Tainos living there) to Lope Conchillos.
Arecibo is also known as the Villa del Capitán Correa after the Puerto Rican hero Captain Antonio de los Reyes Correa, who as a member of the Spanish Army defended Arecibo from a British invasion led by Admiral Whelstone in August 5, 1702.
Arecibo is located on the north coast of the island of Puerto Rico, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of San Juan, or approximately a 1-hour trip by car.
It is known for the nearby world-famous Arecibo Observatory, which boasts the largest single telescope ever constructed. While the observatory exists to support scientific studies, a number of Hollywood movies have been filmed there, most recently GoldenEye and Contact. The radiotelescope was used in 1974 to send the Arecibo message to space.
Also nearby (Template:Coor dm) is a facility for launching sounding rockets. Since 1966 many rockets of the Nike Apache, Nike Javelin, Nike Iroquois, Nike Tomahawk, Black Brant, Taurus Orion, and Terrier Orion types have been launched from this facility.
Arecibo has a small noncommercial airport, named Antonio Neri Juarbe Airport, which has not had airline flights in about two decades. Arecibo's main shopping malls are Plaza del Atlántico and Plaza del Norte.
Arecibo is the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arecibo.
Sports
Arecibo used to have two professional sports franchises, the Lobos de Arecibo in baseball and the Capitanes de Arecibo in BSN basketball. The Lobos won the 1983 national baseball championship and the 1983 Caribbean World Series, the only time the franchise won both titles. At that time, they had MLB prospect Dickie Thon, then also of the Houston Astros, on their roster. Thon then suffered a life-threatening and career-affecting eye injury during an Astros game in 1984. The Lobos ceased operation a decade later.
The Capitanes have not had much luck in their basketball tournaments, but in 2002, they started to turn things around, reaching the semifinals. However they lost the series to the Vaqueros by losing 4 straight games, after having a 3-0 game lead in the series. The Capitanes won the National Superior Basketball championship on 2005 beating the Vaqueros of Bayamón in 4 games. This was the first championship in 46 years.
External links
- Arecibo Web, detailed information about Arecibo, in Spanish
- Arecibo Observatory Home
- Satellite photo of the Arecibo radiotelescope, with info
- Rocket launches from Arecibo
- University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo campus
- Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo campus
- Arecibo photos
- more Arecibo photos
- more Arecibo photos
