Puerto Plata (city)
Puerto Plata on the map of Dominican Republic
Puerto Plata ( silver port, the official name of San Felipe de Puerto Plata) is a city and administrative seat of the province of Puerto Plata in the north of the Dominican Republic. The city has about 130 000 inhabitants and is one of the most important ports in the Dominican Republic. Your name goes back to Christopher Columbus.
Geography
The area around Puerto Plata is covered by dense vegetation and very hilly. In the east, sugar cane is grown for local Rumfabrikation.
Attractions
In addition to the port of Puerto Plata is known for its tourist resorts located east of the town Playa Dorada and Costa Dorada. Overall, the city of Puerto Plata offers more than 10 000 hotel beds.
Puerto Plata has a cable car, which leads up to Pico Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plata, 793 meters high mountain. The lower station is in the southwest of the city center, near the road to Santiago de los Caballeros. Above is a botanical garden with a small replica of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
Shortly before the port is built in the 16th century small Fortaleza San Felipe, which served as a prison until the time of Trujillo's dictatorship and now houses a museum. There is also a Museum of Amber. In the city center of Parque Central is located with the church and a wooden pagoda. To the east of the city center stands on the road to the airport, the Brugal Rhum Factory, is produced in one of the three major rum brands in the country.
Except for the cable car, the fort " Fortaleza San Felipe " and the Amber Museum, there are few other attractions. The cityscape in the center is dominated by a few streets with colored Caribbean wooden houses - some with covered porch. The Calle Bellér has particularly many interesting houses. But even the oldest hotel in town is worth a visit. The promenade by the sea, Malecon, is pleasant through the shade of palm trees. At the western end of the Malecon is located below the fort a monument to the dead of the foothills Air aircraft that crashed in 1996 off the coast. The city is primarily shopping center for the region's population and thus has yet original character and is not dominated by tourist facilities.
Traffic
Puerto Plata Airport is located east of the city towards Sosua / Cabarete and just 15 km away from Puerto Plata in the village of La Unión.
About the bus station south of the center and the pan regional bus fleet of the company Caribe Tours and JAVilla Puerto Plata is connected with all major cities in the Dominican Republic. In and around Puerto Plata operates a dense network of inexpensive minibuses ( Guaguas ). Their " bus station " is located near the national bus station.
Environment
In the northwest of Puerto Plata lies the settlement of La Isabela, which was built as the first permanently inhabited settlement in the New World Columbus at the turn of 1493/1494. A few kilometers east lie the small town of Sosúa and the famous for surfing Cabarete.
Ascent by cable car to Pico Isabel de Torres
Find out more
On the way from Villa Montellano to Puerto Plata airport crashed on 6 February 1998, the Austrian musician Falco.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Eduardo Brito (1905-1946), opera and Zarzuelasänger (baritone )
- Ramón Díaz Freeman (1901-1976), composer, organist and bassoonist
- Vicente Grisolía (* 1924), Pianist
- Juan Lockward (1915-2006), singer and composer
- José de Jesús Lora (* 1923), Geiger
- Rafael Solano ( born 1931 ), composer and pianist
- Al Horford ( born 1986 ), basketball player