22 articles
Antigua Guatemala
Antigua Guatemala (La Antigua Guatemala), colonial city in Sacatepéquez, Guatemala; former capital founded 1543, ruined by the 1773 Santa Marta earthquakes, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, known for Barroco antigueño architecture and Holy Week.
Belize City
Belize City, Belize's largest city (65,222 people), principal port, and former capital until 1970, sits at or below sea level at the mouth of the Belize River, exposed to coastal, riverine, and rainfall flooding and major bridge and highway reconstruction.
Belmopan
Belmopan is the inland capital of Belize in Cayo District, built after Hurricane Hattie wrecked Belize City in 1961, inaugurated 1970, incorporated as a city in 2000, known as the garden city.
Cobán
Cobán, Guatemala: capital of Alta Verapaz department, founded peacefully by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas as Santo Domingo de Cobán, titled Ciudad Imperial by Charles V; Q'eqchi' Maya majority, cloud-forest climate, German coffee and cardamom heritage.
Danlí
Danlí, El Paraíso, a Honduran city and municipality founded in 1667 as San Buenaventura, a city since 1843, with about 226,000 inhabitants and a coffee- and tobacco-based economy.
David, Chiriquí
David, Chiriquí (San José de David), capital of Chiriquí province, western Panama; founded 1602 or 1732-1736; district of 156,498 people (2023); services-based economy, 58.7% tertiary.
Guatemala City
Guatemala City (Ciudad de Guatemala, Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción), Central America's largest metropolis and Guatemala's capital, founded 1524 at Iximché, relocated to the Valle de la Ermita in 1776 after the Santa Marta earthquakes; 22 zones, Kilómetro Cero grid.
La Ceiba
La Ceiba, Honduras: Caribbean port city and capital of Atlántida department, founded c. 1835, banana port of Standard Fruit, now ecotourism hub near Pico Bonito, home of the May carnival, about 229,000 people.
Liberia, Costa Rica
Liberia, Costa Rica, called la Ciudad Blanca, is the capital of Guanacaste province, founded as El Guanacaste in 1769, a former Nicaraguan-linked villa annexed in 1825, gateway to Guanacaste tourism via Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport.
Managua
Managua, capital of Nicaragua, chosen as a compromise between León and Granada; destroyed by the 1931 and 1972 earthquakes, rebuilt as a decentralized 'deformed octopus' city with high seismic fault density.
Mixco
Mixco, Guatemala: municipality west of Guatemala City founded 1526 as Santo Domingo Mixco; Pokomam roots, Mixco Viejo conquest, 508,148 estimated 2026 residents, Mixco fault hazard.
Nicoya
Nicoya is a town and canton in Guanacaste province, Costa Rica, named for a Chorotega chief and the region's largest indigenous chiefdom at Spanish contact in 1519.
Panama City
Panama City (Ciudad de Panamá), capital of Panama, founded 15 August 1519 by Pedrarias Dávila as the first Spanish city on the American Pacific; destroyed by Henry Morgan in 1671 and relocated to Casco Antiguo; distinct from Panama City, Florida.
Portobelo
Portobelo (San Felipe de Portobelo), a Caribbean port town in Colón, Panama, founded 1597; terminus of the Camino Real and site of Spanish colonial trade fairs, 17th-18th century fortifications inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1980, in danger since 2012, home of the Black Christ pilgrimage and Congo culture.
Rabinal
Rabinal is a municipality in Baja Verapaz, central Guatemala, home of the Maya Achi people and their fifteenth-century dance-drama, the Rabinal Achi, recognized by UNESCO.
San José, Costa Rica
San José, Costa Rica: capital and core of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) in the Central Valley. Known for rapid 1975–2000 urban growth, a bus-only transit system converging downtown, a depopulating center, and museums like the National Theatre and Gold Museum.
San Miguelito, Panamá
San Miguelito is a district of Panama Province in the Panama City metropolitan area: 53 km2, 9 corregimientos, 315,019 residents (2010 census), created as a special district by Decreto de Gabinete 258 of 30 July 1970, with mostly informal housing and a planned MetroCable.
San Pedro Sula
San Pedro Sula, founded 1536 by Pedro de Alvarado as San Pedro de Puerto Caballos, is Honduras's second largest city and industrial capital in the Sula Valley, Cortés Department, near Puerto Cortés.
San Salvador
San Salvador, capital and largest city of El Salvador, founded 1528 and made a city in 1546; 316,090 residents, 1,143,000 metro, at 658 m elevation near the active Boquerón volcano.
Santa Ana, Santa Ana Department
Santa Ana, El Salvador: capital of Santa Ana Department, the country's second city (250,760 in 2024 census), founded 1569, coffee-era architecture, Ilamatepec volcano 2,381 m, home of C.D. FAS.
Tegucigalpa
Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras and its largest city, founded 1578 as a Spanish silver-mining settlement; made national capital in 1880 under Marco Aurelio Soto, joined with Comayagüela as the Distrito Central in 1937.
Villa Nueva, Guatemala
Villa Nueva, Guatemala: city and municipality in the Guatemala Department, founded 17 April 1763, south of Guatemala City; 114 km², 2018 census 433,734, industrialized since the 1950s.