Las Toninas is a town in

La Costa Partido Partido de la Costa is a partido on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. Overview The provincial subdivision has a population of about 60,000 inhabitants in an area of , and its capital city is Mar del Tuyú, which is from ...

of the

Province of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, Argentina.

Overview

Founded in 1960, Las Toninas was christened in honor of the

Commerson's dolphin Commerson's dolphin (''Cephalorhynchus commersonii''), also referred to by the common names jacobita, skunk dolphin, piebald dolphin, panda dolphin, or tonina overa (in South America), is a small oceanic dolphin of the genus ''Cephalorhynchus'' ...

(known locally as a ''tonina''). The shore had been the site of a shipwreck in 1883 of a commercial vessel registered in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, whose captain settled nearby and established the Estancia Los Ingleses. The shore at Las Toninas is distinguishable from its sister communities' by the extensive growth of

tamarix The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tam ...

bushes. These were used to create a

hedge maze A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. History Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mi ...

as a tourist attraction, and the 6,400 m² (16,000 ft²) maze is touted locally as the nation's largest. Las Toninas is also known as the "Fiber Optical Capital" in Argentina; because it is the single point where submarine optical fiber networks reach Argentina via several landing cable stations, by companies such as Level 3 (with its SAC ring), TIWS (Atlantis 2), Telecom-Antel (Bicentenario cable system), and Telefónica (SAM 1). The town was chosen because its coastline was not as rocky as others in the region.

Notes and references

Populated places in Buenos Aires Province Populated coastal places in Argentina Populated places established in 1960 Seaside resorts in Argentina {{BuenosAiresAR-geo-stub