Recently, President Danilo Medina visited Luperón in the company of a few Ministers and Public Works engineers.
Near this city you can still find the remains of the 'La Isabela' settlement.
Luperón is located just past Puerto Plata and the 'La Isabela' settlement is the first 'city' founded by Columbus in the new world.
It was Columbus's second trip to the Caribbean.
In September 1493 Columbus departed from Spain with 17 fully loaded vessels.
They took everything with them that they could possibly need.
There were 1200 men, including the impoverished nobles and semi-nobles, plus military men who could not take their careers any further in Spain.
On 19 November they landed along the Puerto Rico coast to stock up on fresh drinking water.
The ships then moved on to find the Spaniards that were left behind from the first journey, in the settlement 'Navidad' or 'Christ-mas' (now part of Haiti).
However, none of the 33 sailors left behind seemed to have survived.
The last one died just a few days before Columbus returned.
After this disappointment, and in fear of the hostile Indians, they decided to sail further to a safer place.
But the headwind meant that they travelled very slowly.
La Isabela
Their food and water supplies went bad so they were forced to go ashore.
After 21 days of struggling to get ashore in a bay near a freshwater river, Columbus decided to establish a settlement there.
Since it appeared that this would be a long stay they decided to set up proper settlement.
Large houses were built for the noblemen and a large number of barracks were built for the less fortunate.
A church was also built and a luxurious home was constructed and furnished for Columbus.
The first mass was read in church on 6 January 1494. This settlement was actually the first European city built in the New World.
Columbus named the new settlement after the Spanish Queen Isabela: 'La Isabela'.
Gold was eventually found in the mountains, but this was some distance away from La Isabela, so the citizens moved to the east bank of the Ozama River in August 1496 and settled at Nueva Isabela.
In 1502 this settlement was also destroyed by a hurricane, but was rebuilt on the west bank of the river: now called Santo Domingo.
La Isabela soon became a hiding place for pirates and other criminals.
In the 1950s dictator Trujillo ordered that the remains of La Isabela should be restored and made suitable for exhibition.
Unfortunately these orders were misunderstood and most of the remains of this first European city in the New World were swept into the sea by a huge bulldozer.
Now President Danilo Medina has promised that La Isabela will be restored to its former glory.
The project should stimulate tourism and employment for this region.