Cities of Spanish South America

Oruro (city)

Oruro, city in western Bolivia, capital of Oruro department, founded 1606 as Villa San Felipe de Austria; 3,700 m Altiplano mining (tin) city, home of the UNESCO-listed Carnival of Oruro, distinct from the department of the same name.

Oct 22, 2026

Otavalo

Otavalo is a town and canton in Imbabura province in the northern Ecuadorian Andes, best known for its large indigenous textile market and Kichwa-Otavalo craftspeople.

Oct 22, 2026

Paita

Paita, historically Payta, is a Pacific port city in the department of Piura, northern Peru, founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1537 and long the main gateway to Lima.

Palmira, Valle del Cauca Department

Palmira, Valle del Cauca: Colombian municipality in the Cauca River valley, second city of the department, Agricultural Capital of Colombia, founded as Llanogrande (1680/1773), republican villa since 1824, sugarcane agroindustrial center.

Paraná, Entre Ríos

Paraná, Entre Ríos is the capital city of Entre Ríos province, Argentina, on bluffs above the Paraná River, about 470 km from Buenos Aires, linked to Santa Fe by a subfluvial tunnel, with 388,716 department residents at the 2022 census.

Pasto, Colombia

Pasto (San Juan de Pasto), capital of Nariño department in southwestern Colombia, founded 1537, sits at 2,527 m near Galeras volcano and hosts the UNESCO-listed Carnaval de Negros y Blancos each 28 December to 6 January.

Pereira

Pereira is a Colombian city founded in 1863 and named for Francisco Pereira Martínez. It is the capital of Risaralda, a commercial hub of the coffee-growing Eje Cafetero.

Piura (city)

Piura, capital of Peru's Piura Region, founded by Pizarro in 1532 at Tangarará and re-founded 15 August 1588 at El Chilcal; hot northern coastal city on the Piura River, prone to El Niño flooding and drought.

Popayán

Popayán, the "white city," is the capital of Colombia's Cauca department, founded 13 January 1537 by Sebastián de Belalcázar. Known for its whitewashed colonial center, UNESCO-recognized Holy Week processions, and Creative City of Gastronomy status.

Porlamar

Porlamar, from Pueblo de la Mar, is the largest city on Margarita Island, Venezuela, founded 1536; commercial hub of Nueva Esparta, shaped by the 1974 free port.

Portoviejo

Portoviejo (Villa Nueva de San Gregorio de Portoviejo), Ecuadorian city founded 12 March 1535 by Francisco Pacheco under Diego de Almagro; capital of Manabí province, 322,925 canton residents (2022), UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy since 2019.

Posadas, Misiones

Posadas, capital of Misiones Province, Argentina, on the Paraná River facing Encarnación, Paraguay. Founded as a 1615 Jesuit reduction, renamed in 1879; 318,861 residents (2010 census).

Potosí

Potosí, Bolivia: colonial silver city founded 1545 at Cerro Rico, world's largest silver deposit; UNESCO site 1987, in danger since 2014; mita labor, Casa de la Moneda, ongoing mine closures above 4,400 m.

Pucallpa

Pucallpa, capital of Peru's Ucayali department on the Ucayali River at 154 m, founded 1888 during the rubber boom, linked to Lima by the Federico Basadre Highway since 1942, a major Amazonian river port and commercial hub.

Puerto Cabello

Puerto Cabello, Venezuelan Caribbean port city in Carabobo state near Valencia; last Spanish royalist stronghold, taken by Páez on 8 November 1823; now Venezuela's busiest container port, run by Bolipuertos.

Puerto Montt

Puerto Montt is a port city in southern Chile, capital of the Los Lagos Region. Founded in 1853, it is the center of Chilean salmon farming.

Puerto Williams

Puerto Williams is a Chilean port town on Navarino Island in the Beagle Channel, reclassified as a city in 2019 and the world's southernmost city by Chile's reckoning.

Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas, Chile: capital of the Magallanes region on the Strait of Magellan, founded 1848 after Fuerte Bulnes; ~126,000 people, 17,846 km² commune, west winds over 120 km/h, duty-free zone, green hydrogen.

Punta del Este

Punta del Este is a resort city in Maldonado, Uruguay, where the Río de la Plata meets the Atlantic and one of South America's best-known beach resorts.

Quevedo

Quevedo, Ecuador: city and canton seat in Los Ríos Province on the Quevedo River, named for surveyor Timoteo Quevedo; cantonized 7 October 1943, agricultural and commercial hub, 150,827 inhabitants in 2010.

Quibdó

Quibdó, capital of Colombia's Chocó Department, is an Afro-Colombian river port on the Atrato River, departmental capital since 1947, with over 60% monetary poverty, UNESCO-listed San Pacho festival, and severe flood and earthquake risk.

Quilmes

Quilmes is a partido and city in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20 km south of the capital; 125 km², 633,391 inhabitants (2022). Founded as the 1666 indigenous Reduction of the Kilmes people, declared a city in 1916, home of the Quilmes brewery.

Quito

Quito, capital of Ecuador, founded 1534 on Inca ruins at about 2,850 m in the Andes; first city inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (1978), with Latin America's best-preserved historic centre and the Baroque school of Quito.

Rancagua

Rancagua, Chile, founded 1743 as Villa Santa Cruz de Triana, is the capital of the O'Higgins Region (257,744 people, 2024 census), known for the 1814 Battle of Rancagua, El Teniente copper mine, and the National Rodeo Championship.

Oct 22, 2026

Ráquira

Ráquira is a municipality in Boyacá, Colombia, known nationally as the country's artisan capital for its pottery and ceramics, a tradition dating to the Muisca people.

Resistencia

Resistencia is the capital of Chaco province, northeastern Argentina, founded by Italian (Friulian) colonists in 1878, named for Avalos's defensive palisade, declared National Capital of Sculptures in 2006, flood-prone Paraná floodplain city.

Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego

Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego: Argentine city and autonomous municipality on the northeast coast of Isla Grande, founded 11 July 1921; industrial capital under Ley 19.640, about 99,000 inhabitants, trout-fishing and Malvinas vigil capital.

Riobamba

Riobamba (San Pedro de Riobamba) is the capital of Chimborazo province, Ecuador, founded 1534 by Diego de Almagro as the first Spanish city in Ecuador, destroyed by the 1797 earthquake, and rebuilt from 1799 at the Llanura de Tapi as Ecuador's first planned city.

Riohacha

Riohacha (Wayuunaiki: Süchiimma), capital of Colombia's La Guajira department and northernmost South American capital, founded 1545 as a pearl-trade settlement; 177,573 municipal inhabitants, semi-arid Caribbean port city.