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The Malecón stretches most of the city's coast stretching from the only surviving building from the 1500's and considered the first stone fortress built by the Spanish in America, Fortaleza de San Felipe, all the way to a statue dedicated to the David, the original one in Rome (off the coast on an island and visible from the Malecón is a statue of the Ancient Greek god Poseidon). It was redesigned over a decade ago with new red sidewalks, a bike lane that is physically separated from the road, light fixtures, etc. Improvements were done to the various public beaches along the Malecón. Several thematic buildings were also built along several points on the coast for the enjoyment of visitors. Some historic buildings collide with the Malecón, such as the Logia Masónica (Mason Logic) which is a yellow building built there in the second half of the 1800's.
I meant to say it's the largest city on the north coast, because the largest city on the north of the island is Santiago de los Caballeros (Saint James of the 30 Gentlemen), which is inland on the other side of the mountains behind Puerto Plata and the largest Mediterranean city (surrounded by land) in the Caribbean islands.
At a couple of decades in the middle-to-late 1800's Puerto Plata became the richest town on the Spanish part of the island. It was mostly due to a tobacco monopoly which was in the hands of a few German immigrants (can still see some of their mansions in the old part of town, the Amber Museum is in one of them). The tobacco was actually grown in the central Cibao (where its mostly grown today), collected by German owned firm houses in Santiago, sent in mule caravans over the mountains to Puerto Plata, deposited in subsidiary firms that belong to the same ones in Santiago, later placed on a boat and shipped to Hamburg in Germany. There it was turn into cigars and distributed all over Europe.
In the middle-to-late 1700's the Spanish King also granted Puerto Plata (along with Montecristi) free trade for ten years, which resulted in a considerable increase of the wealth of the town. Also to help the Spaniard families from the Canary Islands that were settling in Puerto Plata and in the Cibao Valley (creating a white majority where they settled en masse, such as in much of the Cibao Valley, and increased considerably the white population in the Spanish part to counteract the spectacular population increase of the French colony to the west and what was considered the risk of the total lost of Spanish Santo Domingo. Most towns founded in Spanish Santo Domingo was done with several Spanish families from the Canary Islands. Most of the ones that were settled in the border region such as Hincha, Atalaya, Angostura, Las Caobas, etc left the area for other zones in Spanish Santo Domingo and other Spanish territories in America when the disturbances started in the French colony, but the effect of the Spanish Canarians is visible in everything of the Dominican Republic, even in the people as most Canarian families became mixed and today it is present in the mixed race individuals plus most of the white are of Canarian origin, especially from the islands of La Palma and Tenerife), the Spanish King gave incentives to encourage Dominican tobacco, which was deem to be as good as Cuba (the best in the world). Puerto Plata was the exit port for that merchandise heading for Seville, Spain. There it was converted to cigars and spread around Europe. That also increased the wealth of the town.
Panama City has one of the nicest malecóns in Central America. One of the nicer things of this malecón is that several places is devoted to several sports usually not seen in this type of place. Vasco Núñez de Balboa discovered Panama in the early 1500's. He sailed from Santo Domingo and became the first European to see and name the Pacific Ocean. Panama gain its independence in the early XX century with the decisive help of the USA. Until then it was one more place in Colombia.
Statue of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish conqueror of Panama and first European to see the Pacific Ocean. He named it Pacific because at that place it seem very peaceful.
Old Panama still retains many of its colonial buildings.
Punta del Este (Eastern Point) has a few Malecóns. The town is a summer resort very popular with Uruguayans, Argentineans, and Brazilians. The photos were probably taken during the winter months when its not only cooler, but visibly with a lot less people. The beaches also seem deserted, something not seen in the warmer months (the opposite months of the Northern Hemisphere).
A popular monument that defines Punta del Este.
The Conrad Hotel is not only a staple of Punta del Este, the structure too is very captivating.
At times there are beautiful natural scenery and landscapes between the beach and the Malecón (called Rambla in Uruguay).
The capital of the province of the same name has a very nice Malecón. It was redone a few decades ago and it still looks very nice.
The town was founded in the 1700's by families from the Canary Islands, but once the disturbances started in the French side around the 1790's and the Haitians entered the Spanish territory in 1801, most original residents left the town for Puerto Rico. In the 1820's the eastern part of the Samana Peninsula, basically starting where the city of Samana is located, was a chosen spot for African Americans from NY, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. While African American colonies that were created in Santo Domingo, El Seibo, Santiago, Puerto Plata, etc eventually melted into the Dominican population as each generation married Dominican husbands and wives, the eastern part of the Samana Peninsula was basically devoid of population allowing the African Americans from maintaining their colony without melting into the Dominican population. There are several tell tale signs that show the area as different from most areas of the DR. For one thing, its not a mulatto dominated society but rather a mostly unmixed black one (in many ways much more similar to many islands in the English Caribbean than in the DR), the last names of the people and businesses tend to be English (Smith, Duncan, Kelley, etc), Spanish influence in the local culture is very minimal which is a rarity in the DR, plates based on seafood are more traditional here (the insignia dish is fish in coconut milk), etc. The first Dominican Methodist church known as La Churcha in Samana is still there. While the English language is dying among the younger crowds as most want to be simply Dominican and are marrying Dominican families, among the older people English is still spoken. Keep in mind its the English that was common among African Americans in the USA of the 1800's. In the middle of the XX century dictator Trujillo was bothered that it was the only area of the DR that didn't feel like the DR and he needed to use a language that was foreign, thus he ordered all private schools in the area to be shut down (instruction was done in English and contained the African American children in their entirety) and replaced with Dominican government schools where the language of instruction is Spanish. To this very day much of the area feels different from the rest of the country. The natural beauty surrounding the town is spectacular and the Samana Peninsula has one of the thickest coconut palm groves in the world, even covering hills and many inland areas.
The current population in the entire peninsula (which encompasses its own province) is around 100,000 or about 1% of the DR population. Very small relative to the country, but in Samana and in the eastern part in particular the descendants of the African American immigrants from the 1820's are king.
Currently, the President of the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic descends in part from the African Americans that settled here.
The historic La Churcha, the first Dominican Methodist church built by and for the use of the establishing African American community from the USS is on the right. The main Catholic cathedral is the building with the two towers built very recently.
Napoleon Bonaparte had a plan to turn Samana into the new capital of the expanded French colony, but losing Saint-Domingue (Haiti) was such a major blow that he gave up that plan and even sold the massive Louisiana territory to the USA. Afterwards the Dominicans rose up to oust the French from the Spanish side of the island, causing the governor to commit suicide once he saw most of his men falling to the fury of the rising Dominicans and the added help from Puerto Rico. In the XX century some of his plans was built in Samana and can be seen, such as the pedestrian bridge that connects the city with two of the keys in the bay.
From January to March of every year humpback whales congregate around the Samana Peninsula, the largest of such congregation in the entire Atlantic Ocean. Samana Bay has several guided tours to see the whales when they are in season and the city is known for that.
The Malecón at Campeche is very nice. It has multiple monuments and traffic circles at several intervals. Typical of Mexico, the palm trees have part of their trunks painted in white. Overall the feeling is of a clean and beautiful place.
It's often said that former Governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro GarcÃa Padilla, after visiting Santo Domingo (he was vocally very pro-Dominican) and spending time there with his family on an official visit and vacation checking out mostly the Colonial City, he was so impressed with Santo Domingo's Malecón that afterwards encouraged the creation of several Malecóns in the neighboring island. Puerto Rico took more influence from the USA and despite having many towns along the coast, it didn't built Malecóns until relatively recently. Aguadilla is one of the beneficiaries of this initiative. It has one of the longest and beautiful Malecóns in Puerto Rico. Parts of it was still under construction when the photos were taken.
Then Governor Alejandro GarcÃa Padilla (the darker suit) during a visit to Puerto Rico by the Spanish King Su Majestad Felipe VI.
Coqui is a small frog native to Puerto Rico and at night can be heard in many places of the island with its distinctive singing of "coquÃ, coquÃ", hence the name. The frog is now present in some parts of the Dominican Republic and some parts as faraway as Hawaii, taken to those places by Puerto Ricans that mass immigrated in the early decades of the XX century. For many Puerto Ricans it was probably a partial back immigration to the Dominican Republic from a much older (century old) mass immigration from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico (for example, at that time Puerto Rico's first piano was brought by a family from Santo Domingo. In Puerto Rico is very popular among Puerto Ricans to refer to the DR as Santo Domingo, the colonial name of the Spanish territory and the name of the capital city). This immigration produced some notable people in the Dominican Republic, such as Pedro Mir (the greatest poet in the DR, born in San Pedro de Macoris and half Puerto Rican).
Parts of the Malecón was still under construction at the time of the photos.
The city of Manta has a relatively small Malecón and appears to be busy with traffic. In any case, it's a nice one with nice treatment of the infrastructure. It also has traffic circles with monuments in their center.
In many Latin American cities the only
Decent thing they offered for the entire
City was a malecón or pier.
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