Explore The Silver Coast
You’ll find much about Puerto Plata to enjoy, particularly its nightlife. Its core, the Old City, or Zona Colonial, borders the port to the east, a narrow grid of streets that was once the most stylish neighbourhood in the country. Around the original town sprawls a patchwork maze of industrial zones and concrete barrios known as the New City, formed over the past century with the growth of the town’s main industries apart from tourism, namely tobacco, sugar and rum. More relaxing than either the city or Playa Dorada is Costambar, a quiet gated maze of townhouses and condos just a short RD$50 motoconcho or taxi ride away from the Parque Central while a little further west you’ll find the huge and much-advertised Ocean World, an aquamarine park home to dolphins, seals, sharks and more, whose new marina is one of the largest in the Caribbean and a major stop on the cruise-ship circuit.
The city’s Fortaleza San Felipe is the only impressive vestige of colonial times in one of the oldest European settlements of the New World. More prominent, if not quite as atmospheric, are the scores of often rather dilapidated Victorian gingerbread mansions that make an outdoor museum of the Old City. Along the Atlantic Ocean is its famous Malecón, a 2km promenade best experienced on a weekend evening when its discos, outdoor bars and bonfire beach parties spring to life. Other sights of interest include the Museo de Ámbar, with an impressive display of prehistoric insects trapped in the translucent sap, and the cable-car ride to the summit of Mount Isabela de Torres, the flat-topped behemoth that lords over the city from the south.
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Isabela de Torres Cable Car
Isabela de Torres Cable Car
Puerto Plata’s crowning attraction is the suspended cable-car ride (daily 8.30am–5pm; adults RD$350, children under 10 RD$200; t 970-0501) that goes to the top of Mount Isabela de Torres. The entrance is at the far western end of town past the port, just off the Circunvalación Sur on Camino de los Dominguez, a RD$50 motoconcho- or US$15 taxi-ride away. It’s definitely not to be missed; the views of the city on this 25-minute trip to the top of the 800m peak are stupendous. At the summit a statue of Christ the Redeemer, a slightly downsized version of the Río de Janeiro landmark with its arms spread out over the city, crowns a manicured lawn. Also on the grounds are a botanical garden, a pricey café (Tues–Sun) and a souvenir shop. The mountain is now a protected national park, covered by rainforest on its far side and inhabited by 32 species of indigenous bird. Don’t wander too far beyond the area marked off for tourists, as Mount Isabela is in the process of splitting in two. The brown splotch along its face, visible from the city, is a landslide created by the split, and there are a number of deep fissures at the summit.
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The Río Damajagua waterfalls
The Río Damajagua waterfalls
Just outside the town of Imbert, around 15km southwest of Puerto Plata, you can visit and climb (and sometimes even slide down) a stunning series of waterfalls along the high, early course of the Río Damajagua (daily 8.00am–3pm; RD$280–$490, including guide; w www.27charcos.com). The 27 natural, boulder-strewn cascades snake down the side of a mountain wilderness, the water crashing down at breakneck speed. It’s a wet, challenging and extremely rewarding hike up, with a great hilltop view at the end. If not part of an organized tour – most of the operators in Puerto Plata, Sosúa and Cabarete offer the trip – pack your swimsuit and make sure you’re wearing robust footwear before heading southwest from Puerto Plata along the C-5 until you see the Damajagua sign 3km south of the Imbert Texaco station. From here a road leads east for 500m to a visitor centre where you pay the admission fee, meet your guide and pick up the life-jackets and mandatory safety helmets. From here, it’s a 20min hike to the falls. Each individual cascade has its own feature. Some have pools for swimming or ladders for climbing up, while others have natural chutes waiting to be slid down. The climbs can be pretty steep and the flow of water fierce at times, particularly after heavy rains, and you should exercise extreme caution at all times. Children under 8 eight are only allowed to tackle the first cascade.
The visitor centre, which has an attached restaurant, is a sign of the site’s growing popularity and importance to the local tourist industry. Now designated a national monument, the falls have become an almost obligatory stop-off for the region’s all-inclusive tour operators. The revenue generated has allowed the authorities to upgrade the paths linking the falls, several of which have been turned into nature trails. The surrounding community has also benefited with a percentage of each admission fee set aside for local development projects.
You can easily do the cascades as a day-trip from Puerto Plata – take one of the frequent Javilla Tours buses to Imbert then hop on the back of a motoconcho; alternatively a taxi will set you back US$60, including wait time.
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Puerto Plata expats
Puerto Plata expats
The worst questions you can ask an expat in Puerto Plata are often “Where are you from?” and “Why did you move here?” Milling among the tour operators, itinerant sailors, timeshare salesmen and retirees are a number of questionable characters, colourful in the extreme, many on the run from the law for tax evasion, insurance fraud and various other white-collar offences. The Caribbean adjuster for Lloyd’s of London claims that at any given time you’ll find some of Interpol’s most-wanted wandering the streets, and a British crew filming a documentary on English expats said that every time they turned on the camera inside one popular watering-hole, a half-dozen people ran for cover. The fugitives tend to attract a bewildering variety of law enforcement officials, including undercover FBI agents, Canadian Mounted Police, international spies and insurance detectives. It lends an eerie film-noir feel to the town, augmented by the narrow streets lined with slowly decaying nineteenth-century warehouses.
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Puerto Plata festivals
Puerto Plata festivals
Puerto Plata holds the usual Dominican festivals, a fiesta patronal – this one in honour of patron San Felipe on July 5, featuring large crowds drinking and dancing along the Malecón – and Carnival, in February, when hundreds of townspeople parade around in full regalia and thwack passers-by with inflated balloons. Perhaps better than either of these, however, is the renowned Merengue Festival – which typically sees parties right along the Malecón – usually held during the third week of October, though the exact timing varies slightly from year to year. A cultural festival, involving all sorts of music and dancing alongside art and craft exhibitions, takes place annually in the third week of June round the fort and central plaza.
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Climbing Mount Isabela
Climbing Mount Isabela
Climbing Mount Isabela de Torres is a challenge that some can’t resist. Iguana Mama (t 571-0908, w www.iguanamama.com), an adventure outfit based in Cabarete, runs twice-weekly (Mon & Fri) hiking excursions to the top that take off from Puerto Plata (US$88); you then take the cable car back down. If you want to make the trek on your own, there’s a well-marked path on the opposite side of the mountain, starting at the pueblo El Cupey. Head east on the C-5 to the junction of the Carretera Turística and turn right. Just beyond the intersection is a marked dirt road leading to the pueblo – an isolated outpost tucked between two mountains. It has few facilities, though a couple of local farmers rent out horses and guides for the ascent. The Isabela hike is an arduous 4hr trek up the 820m mountain through a canopy of rainforest; start early to maximise your chance of a clear view from the summit. If lucky you may catch sight of the endangered Hispaniola parrot or the red-tailed hawk. There’s also a small system of Taino caves with petroglyphs near the summit, an hour’s hike west off the main path. Look for a guide in El Cupey if you want to see them.
Another great hike from the town is the trail that leads away from Mount Isabela up to the Río Camú and La Cueva del Gallo, an underground river cave several hundred metres long that traverses the side of the mountain to the south of El Cupey. Just 3km from the pueblo, it’s a less rugged hike than the Isabela trek and can be done in half a day.
