Villa Pehuenia is a village and municipality in

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also meets La Pampa Province a ...

in southwestern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The town is located on the northern shore of

Aluminé Lake Aluminé Lake (Spanish: Lago Aluminé) is a large and deep lake located in the Andes in the western part of Neuquén Province, Argentina, near the border with Chile. Aluminé Lake is fed by the outflow of Lake Moquehue and is the source of the Al ...

and its economy is primarily based on tourism. The village is in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and is located about from the border with

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

via a highway through the Icalma pass. The town is named after the pehuén or monkey puzzle tree (

Araucaria araucana ''Araucaria araucana'' (commonly called the monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, piñonero, pewen or Chilean pine) is an evergreen tree growing to a trunk diameter of 1–1.5 m (3–5 ft) and a height of 30–40 m (100–130 ft). ...

), an endangered species found here at the southernmost limit of its range.

History

The

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

people moved into this region from Chile in the 18th century, absorbing the earlier

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

and dominating the region until the late 19th century. Logging was the industry that first attracted settlers of European origin. The village of Villa Pehuenia was not created until 1989 with a population at that time of 155 people. The population had grown to 1,611 in 2010, the increase attributable to the increase in tourism. The indigenous Puel people (of Mapuche origin) continue to maintain a community here.

Description

Villa Pehuenia sprawls over about of the northern shore of Lake Aluminé, but is concentrated on two narrow peninsulas extending out into the lake. Rising near the village is the Batea Mahuida volcano which reaches a maximum elevation of about north of the Villa Pehuenia. A small ski resort is operated on the slopes of the volcano by the Puel people."Villa Pehuenia.org", http://www.villapehuenia.org/bateamahuida/, accessed 16 Apr 2018

Climate

Villa Pehuenia has a

warm-summer mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, ''Csb'' in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system and Crlk (mild summers, cool winters) in the

Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC) or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC) is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köppen ...

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Neuquén Province Populated lakeshore places in Argentina