Amapala
Encyclopedia
Amapala is a municipality
in the Honduran
department of Valle. It is formed by El Tigre Island
and its satellite islets and rocks in the Gulf of Fonseca. It has an area of 75.2 km² and a population of 2,482 as of the census
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.
Beginning in the late 19th century, Amapala was gradually replaced 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). It was intended to be the capital of the Republic of Central America
in the late 1890s.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the Honduran
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
department of Valle. It is formed by El Tigre Island
El Tigre Island
El Tigre is an island located in the Gulf of Fonseca, a body of water on the Pacific coast of Central America. The island is a conical basaltic stratovolcano and the southernmost volcano in Honduras. It belongs to Valle department...
and its satellite islets and rocks in the Gulf of Fonseca. It has an area of 75.2 km² and a population of 2,482 as of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
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.
Beginning in the late 19th century, Amapala was gradually replaced 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). It was intended to be the capital of the Republic of Central America
Republic of Central America
The Greater Republic of Central America was a short-lived union between Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, lasting from 1896 to 1898. It was an attempt to revive the failed Federal Republic of Central America earlier in the century....
in the late 1890s.