ChukieDiddieboppy

Greetings from Honduras.

It is my pleasure to present to you the following articles (and photos) of some of the most beautiful and pristime places in Honduras, Central America.

Things to do and places to go around Tegucigalpa this Easter week

Alex Jones/Honduras This Week
The afternoon mist setting over a trail in the La Tigra cloud forest.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras; 04.06.2007, Honduras This week - Digital Version. Almost half of the city’s population leave Tegucigalpa during Easter week, and the other half spend the days in a mixture of worship and relaxation. After Wednesday, most of the streets in Tegucigalpa will be deserted, as if a Sunday had been put on replay, right up until the end of the week, when all of the sunburned and bankrupted tourists come back to reality.

During this holiday, the public transportation system stops and the normally noisy and contaminated streets of the city become a quiet and peaceful place. One can literally lie down in the middle of the pavement and have a nap without the risk of being run over by a taxi cab.

Tegucigalpans have two reasons not to travel during this holiday. Firstly, not having money to travel, and secondly, having a strong Christian belief. They instead go downtown and become part of the processions that emulate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The abundance of free time and hot weather mean that people look for places to refresh. Here are some suggestions of what one can do.

The cheapest and simplest option is to take this opportunity and assist the variety of events prepared by the Caballeros del Santo Entierro, a catholic organization of men who, during Easter, dramatize Jesus Christ’s Passion night after night. Alternatively you could admire the artistic colored carpets of sawdust that the different parishes of the city design. They are visible in all their splendor for just a few hours before the processions pass over and destroy them.

The main hotels in the city offer one day packages that include pool and food for a reasonable price - some also include live tropical music. People can arrive at the hotel pools from 9.00am and stay until 5.00pm. Good buffet food is offered in the packages and most of them have professional lifesavers on duty.

For those with a vehicle at their disposal, Tegucigalpa also offers many nearby destinations to spend the day.
For example, on the Road to Valle de Angeles you can find:

Santa Lucia is a little town located 11 kilometers to the east of the city. After a short ride along a curvy road you arrive in a small village with cobble stone streets, surrounded by green forests of pine. Here you can relax by the lagoon and enjoy some fine restaurants.

However the main attraction is the old church of the Black Christ, one of only four in the Americas. Inside is the image of Santa Lucia with her eyes on a plate. The story tells that a woman offered her eyes as a Christian sacrifice. In response she was made into the saint of the blind. In front of the church there is an impressive and unique view of almost all of Tegucigalpa. Public transportation to Santa Lucia can be found in front of the San Felipe Hospital in Tegucigalpa for a reasonable price.

Valle de Angeles is 21 kilometers east of Tegucigalpa. Many locals are specialized in handicraft, and there are also several nice restaurants with both typical and international food. In addition there are a selection of bars and art galleries. Surrounded by pine tree woods and located in a former mining region, it is a nice place to spend a day or two with some well maintained and comfortable hotels.

El Mineral de San Juancito and El Rosario can be found 12 kilometers along the road past Valle de Angeles. Towards the mountain of La Tigra there is this beautiful little town (San Juancito) with signs of a past gold fever. Today, however, it is just a ghost town with views of oxidized metal roofs, denoting a forgotten history of gold and a later sad presence of indifference.

La Tigra is a national park with a wide diversity of wildlife, including the quetzal, and an imposing cloud forest. At the entrance of the park you find a welcoming and spacious hostel that also rents affordable bungalows (if you pretend to be Honduran). From there you can explore several interesting trails, ask at the hostel for more information.

Three kilometers further into the mountain is El Rosario. This is the place where the Rosario Mining Company had its headcounters and coordinated the mineral business of the region. Abandoned buildings and offices complete an interesting image to contemplate.
Cantarranas, or San Juan de Flores is located 41 kilometers from Tegucigalpa on the same road. This town has a notable Spanish influence in its architecture, and also offers the best typical sweets of the whole country. It is famous for its festival of typical foods, held in March every year, where you can try food from all regions of the country. One of the major sugar cane factories, known as Ingenios, is located just outside Cantarranas, and possesses one of the best agricultural lands in the country’s central region.

The road to San Pedro Sula
17 kilometers along the road to San Pedro Sula, at the refreshing Balneario de San Matias one can, for an affordable price, spend the day swimming in a river with a beautiful water fall, nice natural pools and a little cafeteria.

Bosques de Zambrano is 34 kilometers to the north of Tegucigalpa. There is a private park, with two swimming pools (one covered with a roof), sauna, gym, tennis courts and even a mini train for the little ones.

Parque Aurora, close to Bosques de Zambrano, is a nice place to spend a day and have a picnic next to pine trees and a beautiful lagoon where one can rent boats and later swim in one of the two pools of the park. For an amazingly affordable price you will definitely have lots of fun here with the mini-golf course and small zoo.

Road to Danli and El Paraiso
Moantaña de Uyuca is just outside the city and boasts one of the most admirable views of the Zamorano Valley. Here you find the Uyuca Reserve, one the oldest pine tree forests in central Honduras. It is protected by students of La Escuela Agricola Pan Americana, the most prestigious agricultural school of the Americas.

The school is located in the middle of the small valley of Zamorano and surrounded by huge mountains. Here there are pretty stone buildings with classical architecture. One can also observe all kinds of plantations and different kinds of animal species produced and studied by the students at Zamorano.

Guinope. The orange city, as it has been nicknamed by Hondurans, is a small town located one hour to east of Tegucigalpa. With nice weather, owing to its high altitude, a classical Spanish city layout and stretches of stone roads it is a pleasurable day out that takes you back to the colonial era.

The peaceful and quiet town of Yuscaran, next to the great and famous mountain of Monserrat, maintains its Spanish influence. This is particularly visible in the quality of the town’s central buildings.

Road to the south
Ojojona, located 22 kilometers from Tegucigalpa over the Cerro de Hule, has a nice fresh climate and many typical handicraft stores and factories. It also has one of the oldest Spanish capillas (small chapel) of the region, which has recently been restored.

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In Addition:

La Ceiba in preparation for Semana Santa


Courtesy of the Institute of Tourism
The church and the municipal building in downtown
La Ceiba.

The coastal town of La Ceiba is a hub for tourism in Honduras. Its cocoanut clad beaches, steamy jungle mountains and ‘tranquilo’ North Coast atmosphere distinguish it from its competitors, drawing crowds that exceed the town’s hotel capacity. La Ceiba’s Chamber of Tourism is keen to build on this success. In an ambitious project that will include the reopening of a bridge and a schedule of music and dance appropriate to the town’s Carribean links, Anaite Sebt, coordinator of this institution, hopes that in 2007 La Ceiba will produce one of the most memorable Semana Santas in the North Coast’s history.

“Tourism in La Ceiba has three essential components” Sebt stated, in explanation of La Ceiba’s attraction. “The green component, including the national park Pico Bonito; the beaches and the people.” La Ceiba has a diverse Latino and Garifuna ethnic mix. The fusion of cultures and geography has created a wealth of music, food and tradition that gives the town its distinct flavor.

Yet despite its natural charisma, La Ceiba’s tourism industry faces many tribulations. Considering its popularity, the town remains seriously underdeveloped. The demand for hotel rooms far exceeds the number available, policing is minimal and transport links desperately need improvement.

These are the things that Sebt hopes to change. “Already a project is under completion that will provide an additional 400 hotel rooms. Tourism police will be stationed on the beaches and the rivers, and the bridge that had been damaged recently due to heavy weather has been repaired and will be reopened.”

Tourism is admittedly an infant industry in Honduras. Unlike other Central American countries, like Costa Rica and Guatemala, Honduras has been slow to capitalize on the growing number of wandering foreigners, attracted to Central America’s natural beauty, turbulent history and warm, latino charm. Though spots such as Utila and Copan are known internationally, the greater part of Honduras remains relatively unexplored.

“The Chamber of Tourism in La Ceiba is only four years old.” Sebt continued. “Our initial challenge is to develop as an organization. We need to build unity in order to see things progress.” She hopes to see greater funding from the government, who she believes has thus far neglected La Ceiba. “We are also working with a Dutch NGO that aims to incorporate rural and micro communities into the tourist itinerary.”

And so far the prognosis is good. “Last year we had approximately 120,000 visitors in La Ceiba in Semana Santa. We expect this to increase by 10%.” Sebt is evidently proud of the statistics. “La Ceiba is fertile investment ground. We have no doubt that it will continue to grow in popularity in the future.

Natural, archeological and culinary treats at Lake Yojoa

Alex Jones/Honduras This Week
If accompanied by a guide, visitors can reach the cave behind the Pulhapanzak waterfall near Lake Yojoa.

Lake Yojoa’s name derives from the Word Yoco-ha in the Lenca language, meaning “accumulated water on earth.” Its origin is volcanic, as proven by the sediment and volcanic ash that are found in this region. It is the only natural sweet water lake that exists in Honduras, located between Comayagua, Cortes and Santa Barbara.


Another view of the Pulhapanzak Waterfall.

Lake Yojoa

Taking the road from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula will bring you comfortably alongside a long line of fish restaurants. This is your welcome to Lake Yojoa. The thing about these fish is that they are amazing. You eat them fried and with lime, tajaditas, pink cabbage salad and perhaps a chilled cerveza (provided you are the lucky one not driving). After making the entirely arbitrary decision of which restaurant to frequent in this economically bizarre line of eateries, you can drive on, well fed and entirely satisfied with the view. By this stage you will, without a doubt, be aware that you are embarking on a trip of supreme environmental eye candy.



The lake is a hub of life: from plants to fish to mammals to birds to insects. Lake Yojoa has a high biodiversity including 379 bird species, both migratory and native. In the past, bird watchers have spotted, in the space of only a few hours, 37 species in one tree. Fish species include Black Bass, Black Lobina and Tilapia, and also the native species Guapote and Dormilon. There are 21 endemic species of flora and fauna. Animal species include the otter, pichiches, ducks, raccoons, guatuza, lazies.



Lake Yajoa is surrounded by Cerro Azul Meáambar and Mountain of Santa Barbara, which provide 100% of the lake’s water. The Cerro Azul Meambar National Park sits to the east of the lake, with 478 square kilometers of protected wildlife, constituting a band between 415 and 2,080 meters above sea level. In the National Park of Santa Barbara you find the second highest peak of the country, the Cerro Maroncho with a height of 2,744 meters over the sea level. The area boasts sections of humid tropical forest, pine forest and cloud forest - you can imagine the amazing variety of animals that have accordingly set up camp here.


Taulabe caves near lake Yojoa.

As well as being a stunner for those who enjoy living things, it is also a must for those historians and archeologists amongst us who like their entertainment to be long dead. Los Naranjos, certainly inhabited by the Lencas, may previously have been home to various Maya communities, we don’t really know. It has mounds very similar to those that can be found in Copan, only smaller and not yet excavated. There is a small museum and a forest trail that takes you on an exploration around the area.

Mosquito repellent is an absolute must here, though that shouldn’t put you off…it is not often you get to walk around places with such amazing insect life and, aside from the well defined and wide path, only occasional huddles of human influence - of which some sort of Lenca mound is one.


Ernesto Lopez/Honduras This Week
John Chater at El Cortijo del Lago taken his guests on a tour around the lake.

Many artifacts such as jewelry and dolls were discovered in the area when a hydroelectric canal was built in 1960. Studies then began in the late 70’s and 80’s by two American archeologists who agreed that it was populated during the pre-classic, classic, and post-classic periods. The early structures are influenced by the Olmeca culture, one of the principal meso-american cultures.

After this the Lencas came to the area. The area was inhabited from around 800 BC. However, the town reached its peak between 400 BC and 550 AD. The main structures are from that period: late pre-classic to early classic. Then during the post-classic period, 950-1250 AD, the site began to decline.

When I was visiting I spoke to a man living in the area, who expressed a near certainty that there are many unexplored ruins around the lake. So maybe there is a chance this Semana Santa for one of us to become the next Catherwood or Stevens and discover another Copan?

Pulhapanzak works out as the local beach. It is a series of natural pools around an impressive waterfall. People swim in the pools and if you are careful it is perfectly safe. However disregard can be very dangerous here, as in some areas the currents are strong. The park is popular among local tourists, particularly from San Pedro Sula, and there is also an eatery.


Alex Jones/Honduras This Week
Mound in eco-archeological park Los Naranjos.


The caves of Taulabé can also be visited when staying around the lake. These are incredibly underrated, rarely visited by Honduran tourists and practically never visited by folk from around the world. However, the heavy humidity and heat within their depths all add to a simply surreal experience. There are some very noteworthy formations, ranging from six foot angels wings to dubious maps of Honduras. But perhaps what was most memorable to me about this place was the first class pulperia just outside, serving quesadillas to rank alongside any quality restaurant.

Yuscarán and Yeguare use tourism to build future

Louise Wallace/Honduras This Week
Paper mache figures represent Yuscaran’s vibrant culture.

Situated 30 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, the region of Yeguare has been, until recently, a tourist wasteland. While local towns Santa Lucia and Valle de Angeles absorbed day trippers from the country’s capital, foreigners have by passed the region, skipping to such tourist power houses as Copan and the Bay Islands. It is not that the area is not attractive. On the contrary, a geographic diversity that includes fresh, green mountains and dry, golden planes give the region a natural magnificence that should surely appeal to visitors. So too does the region have an interesting and distinct set of traditions that stretch back to the country’s colonization. However, its people suffer from poverty levels that are among the highest in the country. This has brought the accompanying ills of poor education, lack of aspiration and under development. Quite simply, the region has lacked the educational and financial resources to build a sustainable tourism industry.

This is a problem that international agricultural school Zamorano has recognized. Thus Zamorano has pledged to turn the situation around. While poverty was responsible for the underdevelopment of tourism in the area, it will be the development of tourism that will help bring the area out of poverty. The plan is simple - to work with local families and businesses, from rose sellers and owners of the local “comedor” to the owners of the coffee plantations and the farmers. “Our objective is both to show these people what they can offer in terms of tourism and how to go about it and to show the people of Tegucigalpa and beyond the qualities that the region has to offer” José Antenor Romero, representative of Zamorano agricultural school stated.


Louise Wallace/Honduras This Week
The town’s attractions make for sustainable tourism.

The town of Yuscarán in Yeguare is one such “pueblo” that has already benefited from Zamorano’s attention. Journalists are greeted on arrival by a colorful procession of dancing ghouls and enormous paper mache statues that demonstrate the level of creativity and enthusiasm the town’s inhabitants have invested in the project. There is a town square where families relax in the Yuscarán’s fresh, warm climate; a pretty colonial church and also a museum that offers charming colonial relics.


Excellent Honduran food is served in “Comedor Lita,” utilizing the age old culinary skills that the community has thus transformed into a ladder out of poverty. Children accompany tourists, proud to show what their town has to offer. They smile with heady excitement at their town’s growing prospects, yet still innocent to the fact that the tourism industry will secure them and their own children a future - a poignant fact considering the regions 40.9 per cent young population. Clearly the whole community is involved. “It is important that everyone is involved. If there is only one shop or one museum worth seeing, tourists will not come” Romero continued.

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Photo Gallery:


Honduras, Central America.

Currency:















Honduran currency: The Lempira.


View of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras.


Dolores Church in downtown - Tegucigalpa.


Internal view of the Dolores church in Tegucigalpa.


Hotel district in Tegucigalpa.


Photo provided by RACA (Raka).


Photo provided by RACA (Raka).


Top, middle and bottom photos, new condominiums in Tegucigalpa.
Photo provided by Chuckie.


Old historic or colonial district in Tegucigalpa.


Main colonial church in Comayagua - Former capital of Honduras. The church houses a 900 year old and still working clock.


Internal and partial view of working mechanism of 900 year old clock given to Honduras by Spain.




Top and bottom photos, partial views of Comayagua's central plaza.


Religious theme "rug" made of sawdust during Easter week in Comayagua.


Representation of the Mayan city, acropolis, of Copan.


Replica of the Mayan Temple of "Rosalila" at Copan's Museum of the Sculptures.


Another view of the Mayan Temple of "Rosalila"


Schematic representation of the location of the actual (original) templo of "Rosalila".


Imperial seal of the Mayan city of Copan carved in stone.


Enigmatic mayan sculpture in the main plaza of Copan ruins.


Another enigmatic mayan sculpture in the acropolis of Copan.


Vase in the form of a deer in the museum of the "Esculturas", Copan ruins.


Representation of sacrifice of a jaguar by Copan's High Priests.


CityHall building in La Ceiba, 3rd. largest city in Honduras (La Ceiba is a port city; population: 250,000).


Photo by GerValdez


Top and bottom photos, partial views of Puerto Cortes, the main honduran port on the Caribbean (population: 160,000).


The historic Amapala Port on the pacific coast, Gulf of Fonseca.
Photo by the Honduras Institute of Tourism.


The 751-ft. tall hidroelectric power station: "El Cajon" (Grl. Francisco Morazan) dam (Photo by Chuckie).


El Cajon Dam underground powerhouse.


Honduran cheerleaders during Independence Day in Tegucigalpa.


Roatan, The Bay Islands, Honduras.


Roatan.


Sandy beach in Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras.


Hotel room in Roatan.




Roatan


Hotel in Roatan.






Fantasy Island Hotel, Roatan.


San Pedro Sula, second largest city, 1 million, in Honduras (Tegucigalpa's population: 1,300,000)


Photo by GerValdez.


Top and bottom photos show new condominiums in San Pedro Sula.
By Chuckie as authorized photo recipient.

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Thank you.

04.06.2007

__________________
ChuckieDiddieboppy
Riverdale, BX., NYC.
*****Honduras, Cuna Del Maximo Paladin CentroAmericano, Francisco Morazan*****

paolo Agnelli

Thank you dear Chuck for your nice pics and for this absolutely wonderful free tour through your beautiful country.

__________________
Carlos Pavão sigue en Toronto

No es lo mismo estar dormido que estar durmiendo, porque no es lo mismo estar jodido que estar jodiendo. Camilo José Cela. Escritor y Premio Nóbel de Literatura

uA_TAGA

nice green beatiful country...
i wanna be there..
but i will travel there in future

__________________
LEARN REALITY ARMENIAN-TURKS 1915 EVENTS

ChukieDiddieboppy

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Hello my Colleague uA_TAGA.

Honduras is a small but beautiful and friendly country. We welcome everybody to visit. Any time you decide and be ready to drop by will be O.K.

By the way, whether your visit is for pleasure or business or both, Honduras is your country to visit. If you go, don't forget to take lots of pictures and share them with us in this Forum.

Thank you.

04.22.2007

__________________
ChuckieDiddieboppy
Riverdale, BX., NYC.
*****Honduras, Cuna Del Maximo Paladin CentroAmericano, Francisco Morazan*****

uA_TAGA

thnk u chuckvramirez ...
friendly country friendly person
i will take lots of pics...
but too times later ...
but i think honduras is realy authentic beatiful country...exciting ...

__________________
LEARN REALITY ARMENIAN-TURKS 1915 EVENTS