Placetas

Placetas is not a metropole but with 72,000 people, it can sustain a more diverse social life than the smaller towns encountered on the route. With several private and state-run restaurants, a hotel or two, and neighborhoods to explore, it makes for a good lay-over town. It is known as La Villa de los Laureles for the various laurel trees throughout the city. The town dates from when Estaban was about eight years old., It was founded as a fortified town by people fleeing Guaracabulla during the Ten Years War (1868-1878). The first settlement in the area dates from around 1671 when a priest from Remedios built a church nearby, thinking that the population might want to settle further inland, away from the perilous pirate-infected northern coast. Today the town has enough history and infrastructure to offer a nice stop on the Camino.