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There's Umina and there's Umiña

Umina Tennis and Sporting Club's address is Umina Sports Oval, Melboune Avenue, Umina NSW.

However, the Umiña Tennis Club is half a world away on the other side of the Pacific, in Ecuador, South America.

Umiña (spelt with a tilde over the n, indicating that it's pronounced oo-mean-yah) is a suburb of the port city of Manta, just a few kilometres south of the equator.

Photographs show remarkable similarities in the appearance of the two Uminas.

An Ecuadorian real estate agent advertises a lot "in the Umiña neighborhood, the best district of Manta, with 24 hour security and only 200 metres from the sea".

A photo of the building site, with bright blue sea in the background, could easily be mistaken for our Umina.

The Hotel Maria José webpage says: "When you visit Ecuador don´t forget to visit the city of Manta, full of magic, with beautiful beaches and a busy nightlife."

On April 27, the newspaper El Diario de Manta reported (in a fine mixture of Spanish and English) the final of Surf Open Manta 2003: "Se corre en la categoría open, junior, bodyboard, y bodyboard junior."

The Peninsula's Umina acquired its unusual name from the aboriginal word meaning sleep or resting-place; Ecuador's Umiña was named in honour of an Aztec goddess.

"In the temple of Manta, Ecuador, was the altar of Umiña, the goddess of health," says one website.

"She was represented by a statuette made of emerald the size of an ostrich egg and cut to the shape of the upper part of a human figure."

Another South American country, Chile, also has a place named Umiña.

It's a small village perched high in the Andes, 3600 metres above sea level, not far from the coastal city of Arica, and is the site of a new dam being constructed to provide water for the city of Iquique.

Arica, "City of Eternal Spring," is at the northern tip of Chile on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

It enjoys a mild, dry climate and waters warm enough for swimming, making it a popular, year-round beach resort.

Arica's annual rainfall averages less than one millimetre and they have recorded 14 consecutive years without rain.

The town is justly proud of San Marcos de Arica Cathedral, designed by world-famous tower builder Gustav Eiffel.

Finally, the internet site www.umina com. isn't in Australia, Ecuador or Chile.

It belongs to Umina Brothers Inc., of Hueneme, California: "distributors of high quality fresh fruit and vegetables in the United States and around the world."

The company was founded in 1927 in New York by Bartola Umina and his three brothers, and is now run by Bartola Umina's grandson.

More details about Umina's South American namesakes can be found in an article in The World's First Multi-National e-Book, on the internet at http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/umina.htm

Eric Shackle, April 28