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Puerto Plata
Puerto Plata
Municipality
	San Felipe de Puerto Plata
	View from the air of Puerto Plata and the Isabel de Torres mountain
	Coat of arms
	Puerto Plata
	Coordinates: 19°48′N 70°41′W / 19.800°N 70.683°W
Country	Dominican Republic
Province	Puerto Plata
Founded	1502
Municipality since	; 1844
Municipal Districts	Yásica Arriba, Maimón
Area
• Total	210.7 km2 (81.4 sq mi)
• Urban	31.96 km2 (12.34 sq mi)
Elevation	8 m (26 ft)
Population (2014)
• Total	128,240
• Density	610/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
• Urban	118,496
Demonym(s)	Puertoplateño (female, puertoplateña)
Time zone	UTC-4 (AST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (AST)
Distance:	69 km (43 mi) to Santiago; 215 km (134 mi) to Santo Domingo

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.^[4]

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 2014, a total population of 128,240: 63,564 men and 64,676 women. The urban population was 92.4% of the total population.^[1]

Geography

San Felipe de Puerto Plata has a total area of 210.7 km² (81 sq mi) (without including its municipal districts), about 11.7% of the total area of the province of Puerto Plata.^[1] The city is at an elevation of 8 m (26 ft),^[3] and at 215 km (134 mi) 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 5 km (3.1 mi) 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 799 m (2,621 ft) 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).^[4]

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).^[5]

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is 1,926 mm (75.8 in). The month with the most precipitation on average is December with 307 mm (12.1 in) of rainfall, followed by November with 283 mm (11.1 in).

The driest season is summer. The month with the least rainfall on average is July with an average of 78 mm (3.1 in) and the second is June with 82 mm (3.2 in).

Puerto Plata is in a warm region; the average temperature for the year is 25 °C (77.0 °F). The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of 27 °C (80.6 °F). The coolest month on average is February, with an average temperature of 22.5 °C (72.5 °F).

Climate data for Puerto Plata (1961–1990)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	27 (81)	27 (81)	28 (82)	29 (84)	29 (84)	31 (88)	31 (88)	31 (88)	31 (88)	31 (88)	29 (84)	28 (82)	29 (85)
Daily mean °C (°F)	23 (73)	22.5 (72.5)	23.5 (74.3)	24.5 (76.1)	25 (77)	26.5 (79.7)	27 (81)	27 (81)	26.5 (79.7)	26.5 (79.7)	25 (77)	23.5 (74.3)	25.0 (77.1)
Average low °C (°F)	19 (66)	18 (64)	19 (66)	20 (68)	21 (70)	22 (72)	23 (73)	23 (73)	22 (72)	22 (72)	21 (70)	19 (66)	21 (69)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	209 (8.2)	162 (6.4)	134 (5.3)	160 (6.3)	168 (6.6)	82 (3.2)	78 (3.1)	88 (3.5)	97 (3.8)	158 (6.2)	283 (11.1)	307 (12.1)	1,926 (75.8)
Source: Climatemps.com^[5]

Administrative division

The municipality of San Felipe de Puerto Plata has two municipal districts:^[6]

Municipal districts of Baní
Code	Municipal district	Population (2010)
180102	Yásica Arriba	8,791
180103	Maimón	21,725

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Consejo Nacional de Población y Familia. "Estamaciones y Proyecciones de la Población Dominicana por Regiones, Provincias, Municipios y Distritos Municipales, 2014" (PDF) (in Spanish). Retrieved 2014-02-02.
↑ "Expansión Urbana de las ciudades capitales de R.D. 1988-2010. Informe Básico" (PDF) (in Spanish). Oficina Nacional de Estadística. April 2015. p. 34. Retrieved 21 November 2016.^{[permanent dead link]}
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 De la Fuente, Santiago (1976). Geografía Dominicana (in Spanish). Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Editora Colegial Quisqueyana.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 Noboa Warden, Margarita (2000). Puerto Plata: La Reina del Océano Atlántico (in Spanish). Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Editora Búho. ISBN 99934-0-143-9.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 "Puerto Plata Climate & Temperature". Climatemps.com. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
↑ "División Territorial 2015" (in Spanish). Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE). October 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2016.