- Title: CHILE: Chile now boasts the world's largest swimming pool
- Date: 3rd February 2008
- Summary: VARIOUS OF KIDS PLAYING IN POOL GENERAL VIEW OF POOL FROM ABOVE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN POOL
- Embargoed: 18th February 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Chile
- Country: Chile
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Travel / Tourism
- Reuters ID: LVA5CP8DSXCV6BT5GQ3V1SP971GB
- Story Text: A Chilean resort's kilometer-long pool is the world's biggest.
At San Alfonso del Mar resort on the Chilean coast, the phrase 'a couple of laps in the pool' takes on a new meaning.
Consecrated by the Guinness Book as the world's largest swimming pool, a lap at the resort's pool is over a kilometer in water as deep as 35 meters and is better done on one of the resorts sailboats or kayaks.
Sigfrido Grimau, the administrator at the posh resort that spreads out along Chile's coast some 135 kilometers west of Santiago, spoke with Reuters recently about the pool's massive dimensions.
"This pool won the Guinness Record based for its size. It has a capacity of 250 million liters of water, which is equal to 6,000 pools of medium size, and is 1,136 meters long as recognized by the Guinness record," Grimau said of the sprawling seaside pool.
A Chilean biochemist named Fernando Fischmann, the head of the company Crystal Lagoons, designed the pool utilizing a technology that recycles seawater to keep it clean.
Grimau said the chemicals traditionally used in maintaining pools are drastically cut back thanks to Fischmann's design.
"The maintenance of this lagoon is done by a patented technology from Crystal Lagoons. It consists of the application of certain products and components that are ecologically compatible and it uses an amount of product 100 times lower than traditional pools," Grimau said.
Grimau added that the project in Chile has helped draw attention to the company, which is negotiating with Argentina, Panama and Dubai to build similar pools.
"This has provided a foothold for international recognition.
Various developers from all over the world have approached Crystal Lagoons to ask for help in executing possible projects of this nature," he said.
While some might question the logic of putting such a pool next to the ocean, Chile's beaches are notoriously dangerous, with rough waves and strong rip currents. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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