San Felipe de Puerto Plata

The Dominican city of **San Felipe de Puerto Plata**, usually called just **Puerto Plata** is the head municipality of the Puerto Plata province, on the north (Atlantic) coast of the country.

## Name

The name **Puerto Plata** ("Silver Port") came from the name given by Columbus to the mountain just to the south of the city: _Monte de Plata_ ("Silver Mountain") because the mountain always had clouds on its top and not because there was the metal silver; that mountain now is called **Isabel de Torres** mountain (in Spanish, the complete name is _Loma Isabel de Torres_). Isabel de Torres was a lady who lived in Puerto Plata in 1605 and had a lot of land in the mountain.

The city was called first _Puerto de Plata_ but later it was changed to just _Puerto Plata_, the name that is still used

## History

Columbus visited the Puerto Plata Bay on 11 January 1493. The city was founded and built by Nicolás de Ovando in 1502. Soon it became the most important port in the northern coast of the Hispaniola island and, in 1508, the king of Spain gave a coat of arms to the city.

Because there were many pirates and other British and French ships along the northern coast of the island, a fort was built here by orders of Carlos I, king of Spain; its construction took several years and it was finished in 1577. Because at that moment the Spanish's king was Felipe II, the fort was named **Fuerte San Felipe** (in English, _Saint Phillip Fort_).

In 1606, those that were living in the towns of Puerto Plata and Monte Cristi were ordered by the Spanish king to move to the southeast of the island and to found a new town: Monte Plata. Puerto Plata and Monte Cristi were, then, destroyed. They were founded again in the 18th century with families that came from the Canary Islands.

## Population

The municipality had, in , a total population of 128,240: 63,564 men and 64,676 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

## Geography

San Felipe de Puerto Plata has a total area of  (without including its municipal districts), about  of the total area of the province of Puerto Plata. The city is at an elevation of , and at  to the north of Santo Domingo.

The _Cordillera Septentrional_ ("Northern mountain range") runs along the southern half of the municipality. There are only two roads that go through this mountain range. It rains a lot in these mountains.

The mountain "Loma Isabel de Torres" (the "Monte de Plata" of Columbus) is at about  to the southeast of the city of Puerto Plata. It stands alone even if it is part of the Cordillera Septentrional. On top of the mountain, there is rainforest because it gets a lot of rain there; it rains almost every day. That forest is now a national park. It is  high and there are two ways for getting to the top: by road or by a cable car (a type of car that runs on cables above the car).

There are many rivers in the municipality but, because the Cordillera Septentrional is close to the coast, they are all very short. The two most important rivers are Camú del Norte and Yásica. Two small rivers that are close to the city are San Marcos and Muñoz.

There are some bays along the coast. Two of them are the _Puerto Plata Bay_ and _Maimón Bay_.

### Climate

Puerto Plata has a tropical wet climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: **Af**) with no dry or cold season as it is constantly moist (rainfalls during the whole year).

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is December with  of rainfall, followed by November with .

The driest season is summer. The month with the least rainfall on average is July with an average of  and the second is June with .

Puerto Plata is in a warm region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is February, with an average temperature of .

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## Administrative division

The municipality of San Felipe de Puerto Plata has two municipal districts:

|Code|Municipal district|Population <small>(2010)</small>|
| --- | --- | --- |
|180102|Yásica Arriba|8,791|
|180103|Maimón|21,725|

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Puerto Plata
- **official name**: San Felipe de Puerto Plata
- **settlement type**: Municipality
- **image skyline**: Puertoplatafromtheair.JPG
- **image caption**: View from the air of Puerto Plata and the Isabel de Torres mountain
- **image shield**: Escudo del Municipio San Felipe de Puerto Plata.svg
- **pushpin map**: Dominican Republic
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision type1**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Province
- **subdivision name1**: Puerto Plata Province, Puerto Plata
- **established title**: Founded
- **established date**: 1502
- **established title2**: Municipality since
- **established date2**:
1844
- **parts type**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Municipal Districts
- **parts style**: para
- **p1**: Yásica Arriba
- **p2**: Maimón
- **area total km2**: 210.7
- **area urban km2**: 31.96
- **elevation m**: 8
- **population total**: 128240
- **total type**: Total
- **population urban**: 118496
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: Puertoplateño (female, puertoplateña)
- **timezone**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset**: -4
- **timezone dst**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset dst**: -4
- **blank name sec1**: Distance:
- **blank info sec1**: to Santiago de los Caballeros, Santiago
 to Santo Domingo