White Bay

     

     In Auchmuty-Whitelocke World (AWW), White Bay is a major port city near the southern end of Plate Province, with a population of 470,000.  Founded in 1828, its port has imported immigrants, and exported agricultural products and petrochemicals.  In fact, White Bay is the centre of Argentina's petrochemical industry.  South America’s largest naval port is located near White Bay, in a location called Port Lumley.  In 1970, White Bay hosted the Commonwealth Games.  Known in Spanish as Bahía Blanca, it is 654 kilometres from Buenos Aires.  The local area code for calling is 0291 (formerly 091), within the +54 country code.   

     The populace in White Bay is overwhelmingly angloparlant – close to 75% in fact, owing largely to the fact that there were very few Spanish-speakers in the southern Plate to begin with when the area started receiving British settlers.  The rest is either Spanish-speaking (just over 3%) or those whose mother tongue is neither Spanish nor English (mostly immigrants who gravitate to the English side).  While Protestantism is the single-biggest religious representation in White Bay, there is also a substantial Catholic community as well as smaller Jewish and Orthodox Christian populations.  The people in White Bay are called White Bayers in English, and bahienses in Spanish.

     Transportation is plentiful in the White Bay area, both in going to/from it and within it.  White Bay is served by the regional airport, the bus station, and Rock and South Station train stations.  Public transit within White Bay includes a city bus network.

     White Bay isn’t too pretty of a city, being a port by nature, but it nonetheless has some things to do.  The main cathedral is Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican).  The Port Museum is probably the number one place to see in the city; it serves as a tribute to the immigrants who have passed through.  Other sites include the Municipal Theatre (including the Historical Museum), the Contemporary Arts Museum, Parish Square (next to the town hall, cathedral, court, and library; with an artisans’ market on weekends), and Victoria Market (with houses built in the late 1800s for British and other railway workers; used to be the export market for wool and hides).  A major shopping mall in the area is the White Bay Plaza Shopping Centre, with the Sunrise Promenade Shopping Centre being another one.

     Some of the celebrations in White Bay include the Digital Arts Festival, the Tango Festival, the White Bay Fringe Festival, and the Shakespeare Festival.  There is also the World Music Festival, as well as the renowned White Bay Celtic Festival. 

     The top sports in White Bay are cricket and rugby.  The cricket team is the Threshers, while the rugby team is the Olympus Club.  White Bay is also the basketball capital of Argentina; the team there is the Athletics.

     The city does not have too large of a financial sector, being much smaller than, say, Buenos Aires.  But it does house the White Bay Chamber of Commerce, which serves as a stock exchange as well as a chamber of commerce.

     White Bay is fortunate to be served by a good number of hospitals.  Among the leading ones, while Hospital Municipal is predominantly Hispanic, White Bay General Hospital, the Sir Arthur Creek Cancer Centre, and the King George Memorial Children’s Hospital all service the much larger Anglo population.  A bilingual hospital is Hospital Privado del Sur.

     The primary newspaper in White Bay is the English-language New Province. 

     As far as education is concerned, there is plenty of it in White Bay in English, but not enough in Spanish.  The most important angloparlant private schools are Southern  Plate  Academy and the Sacred  Heart  School.  Likewise, higher education is mainly in English; the universities include the University of White Bay and the bilingual University of the South.  White Bay also has one campus of the National Technological University of Argentina.  The English liberal-arts college in White Bay is Brennan  College.

     Luxury hotels in White Bay include the Windsor Hotel, the Argos Hotel, and the Austral Hotel.

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Nearby

     Just east of White Bay lies the coastal town of Mount Pleasant, known for its fossils along the beach (which is white sand), and for its prominent lighthouse and shady campsites, plus an artisans’ market.  Cold South Atlantic winds make sunbathing undoable compared to further east along the Plate coast.

     North of White Bay, at the foot of the southern Plate sierras, lies the pretty town of Tornquist, named for 1800s-businessman Ernest Tornquist.  Nearby is where Tornquist used to live (including a replica of a Loire Valley chateau), along with Ernest Tornquist Provincial Park (that includes White Bay Peak and the Bull Cave).  Around that area is the La Ventana Range, with the highest point being Mount of Three Peaks, at 1239 metres; that sierra also has some herb plantations.

     Much of the information on this page, especially about the tourist attractions, shopping, hospitals, theatres, and hotels, is derived from the Lonely Planet Guide to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, Lonely Planet Publications, 4^th edition, 2002, and other sources, and is altered for AWW conditions.

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