Amapala is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Honduran department of

Valle Valle may refer to: * Valle (surname) Geography *"Valle", the cultural and climatic zone of the dry subtropical Interandean Valles of the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina * University of Valle, a public university in Cali, Colomb ...

. It is formed by El Tigre Island and its satellite islets and rocks in the

Gulf of Fonseca The Gulf of Fonseca (; ), a part of the Pacific Ocean, is a gulf in Central America, bordering El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The waters of the gulf are shared among all three countries. History Fonseca Bay was discovered by European ...

. It has an area of and a population of 2,482 as of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2001 (of which 4 people were living on Isla Comandante). Thanks to a natural deep channel, and despite lacking modern infrastructure, Amapala long served as the main Honduran port in the Pacific Ocean.

History

The name of the island on which Amapala is based is due to the fact that in the 16th century a group of pirates led by the pirate

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

operated on the island. He and his men were considered by the inhabitants of the area as wild and bloody beasts, so they called the island "Cerro de El Tigre". The name Amapala derives from

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

and means "close to amates". However, there is an alternate theory that states that it comes from the words "''ama''" (corn) and "''palha''" (hill) of the Goajiquiro dialect, and therefore would mean "hill of corn". Amapala was founded in 1838, and its port was opened and declared free in 1868. During the 19th century it exported large quantities of gold, silver and other ores, although its progress was retarded by the delay in constructing a transcontinental railway from Puerto Cortés. By the mid-1970s, Amapala was gradually replaced in importance by the port of San Lorenzo on the mainland. A description of the town in 1881 can be found in the book ''A Lady's Ride Across Spanish Honduras'' by Mary Lester (a.k.a. Mary Soltera). In 1895,

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

, Honduras, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

signed the Treaty of Amapala that established the short-lived

Greater Republic of Central America The Greater Republic of Central America (Spanish: ''República Mayor de Centroamérica''), later the United States of Central America (Spanish: ''Estados Unidos de Centroamérica''), originally planned to be known as the Republic of Central Ame ...

Demographics

At the time of the 2013 Honduras census, Amapala municipality had a population of 12,250. Of these, 74.16% were

Mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

, 22.81%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.55% Black or Afro-Honduran, 0.09% Indigenous and 1.39% others.

Climate

This area typically has a pronounced dry season. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Amapala has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

, abbreviated "Aw" on climate maps.

Economy

The community receives funds from former residents who have moved to other countries. most residents work as fishermen, while 300 have formal jobs.

Gallery

File:Puerto de amapala Honduras.jpg, Boardwalk, Puerto de Amapala File:Esquina de la plaza de Amapala.jpg, Building at La Plaza de Amapala File:Ninos en amapala Honduras.jpg, Shore at Amapala

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the Valle Department