Honduras

We’ve been travelling around Central America and were most recently in Guatemala. We had a wee bout of illness there, but were due to move on to Honduras. So, still unwell, we had to gear up for a 3:30 am minibus that would take 7 hours to reach the Honduras border. Thank goodness for medication.

The town of Copán Ruinas, Honduras

We reached the border ok and crossed into Honduras with no issues. Our destination was only 15 minutes further on in the quaint town of Copán Ruinas in south-western Honduras. Driving through the town, we admired its colourful buildings and cobbled streets, and were looking forward to having a walk around to see more.

Our apartment (white) in Copán Ruinas, Honduras

We were dropped at the door of our Copán Ruinas AirBnB apartment, which turned out to be the best accommodation on our trip so far. Everything was clean and modern and our host was lovely. We were surprised it was so modern because Honduras is known as a poverty-stricken and dangerous country.

A street in Copán Ruinas, Honduras

Honduras has been inhabited since before the 1st century AD, and now-days it’s home to 9.8 mil people. It’s considered to be a developing country with over 50% of the population living in poverty. It’s seen plenty of troubles since independence from Spain in 1821, including civil war, large-scale natural disasters, and gang violence and organised crime on an unprecedented scale.

A street in Copán Ruinas, Honduras

Notwithstanding a government crackdown on crime in 2022, Honduras still has the highest crime rate in Central America and is often called ‘the murder capital of the world’. Aware of this, we felt that staying in Copán Ruinas was a safe first step into Honduras for us.

Ruins at the archaeological sites of Copán Ruinas-UNESCO, Honduras 

This charming little town of around 45,000 people is home to one of Central America’s most important archaeological sites, also called, confusingly, Copán Ruinas. The site has cultural, scientific, and historical significance for the Maya civilization and so is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Ruins at the archaeological sites of Copán Ruinas-UNESCO, Honduras 

The next morning, we jumped into a moto-taxi to visit the site. It’s nestled in a jungle valley and dates back to the 5th century when Copán was a powerful capital of the Southern Maya kingdom. But because of various wars, deterioration of soils and water, and a shrinking population, it became abandoned by the 9th century AD.

Leigh with a stelae at Copán Ruinas-UNESCO, Honduras

We found it quite appealing. While not as big as some of the other significant Maya archaeological sites we’d visited in Mexico and Guatemala, it has some wonderful structures and a lot of intricately worked stone stelae carvings and hieroglyphics.

Scarlet Macaws at Copán Ruinas-UNESCO, Honduras

One of the delights of our visit, was being greeted vociferously upon our entry, by a handful of Scarlet Macaws. These large (about 89 cm) colourful and exotic birds are considered endangered here, but rehabilitation efforts have seen many returned to the wild. It was a handful of those returned birds that have made Copán Ruinas their home.

 

Moto-taxi in the town of Copán Ruinas, Honduras

After a good look around Copán Ruinas, we found a moto-taxi to take us back to town which avoided a 20 min walk in the oppressive heat. Our next stop was Tela, around 6 hours north on the Caribbean coast; an ex-pirate haunt and now home to large botanical gardens and a huge beach. But intercity transport in Honduras is considerably lacking, so we hired a driver.

Wet road and small village en-route to Tela, Honduras

On the day of departure, it was raining heavily and had done so all night. Then while driving through a rural area, a landslide halted all traffic on the highway. So, our driver re-routed onto an unsealed and bumpy secondary road, then crawled along in his low-slung 2-wheel drive Toyota, while we wondered whether we’d get to Tela in daylight.

Men pushing our car out of the mud, Honduras

As we bumped along, we were thinking about how isolated we were in a violent country! In the meantime, the dirt road was becoming a mud road in the rain, and we inevitably came across an impassable pond of mud. We wondered how the driver was going to get us out, when men from all three cars behind us, banded together to give us a push, and we were free.

Car in front of ours stuck in the mud, Honduras

But it was short-lived. A bit further on, the mud was so deep that none of the cars could get through and turning around wasn’t an option. Then just when we thought we'd never get out of there, a guy produced a shovel and the men got to work and flattened the high points in the mud. After 2.5 hours all cars eventually made it through with a lot of joyful yelling and tooting.

Our crumbling beachfront hotel in Tela, Honduras

Over 3 hours later than planned and very tired, we arrived in the seaside town of Tela, only to find that our beachfront hotel had succumbed to the sea air and neglect and was a smelly, crumbling mess. We had no plan B, so unpacked and went to find dinner. Discovering a lovely cafe, we ate a delicious lightly fried whole fish each, which Leigh really enjoyed as her first full meal after being unwell.

Cleanest part of beach post-storm, Tela, Honduras

Tela beach was running a big sea when we arrived. But next morning, the weather had settled and we walked along the beach, horrified by the amount of plastic that had washed up in the big sea. We stayed only one night in Tela, and organised the same driver who delivered us there, to move us on, trusting he would not take any more shortcuts.

Our cabin at the Pico Bonito Lodge, Honduras

We headed to the Pico Bonito National Park in northern Honduras to stay at the Pico Bonito Lodge and Spa. It was a lovely place with cabins, a swimming pool and beautiful gardens. It was calming to be there after the horrors of the Tela drive and hotel.

Marg on our jungle walk in Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras

The next day, we went for a walk in the jungle of the national park. The heavy rain had also affected the park causing mudslides, so we couldn’t finish the loop walk that we’d started, but it was still good to get out and stretch our legs in such a nice environment. Later we sat with a cocktail, enjoying the antics of the tiny hummingbirds that buzzed about the place.

Our small Jetstream 41 aircraft to Tegucigalpa, Honduras

When it was time to leave, we flew south from nearby La Cieba airport on a tiny Jetstream 41 prop plane, to Tegucigalpa (aka Teguz), the capital of Honduras (pop 1.3 mil 2023). We weren’t sure about Teguz as it’s famous for its violent street gangs, but we had arranged an AirBnB in the ‘safest’ area and thought we’d be ok. And we were! We walked out for meals at night and felt quite safe.

Historic centre of Tegucigalpa, Honduras

While there, we walked into Teguz’s historic centre via the backstreets. It was an interesting 20-minute walk. The centre is small and grubby, but vibrant. Most people stared at us, being the only gringos about, but we would smile and say "buenos días" (good day) and they would break into a big smile. Sometimes they’d ask where we were from, and assumed it was the USA.

Historic centre of Comayagua, Honduras

We learned that around 50% of the Honduras population, live in isolated mountain communities. So while in Teguz, we arranged a driver to take us to three separate mountain towns. Our first stop was in the historic centre of Comayagua. We wandered around there enjoying the colonial architecture, and their Christmasy town square. After a coffee and cake, we moved on.

A ute instead of a bus in the hill towns of Honduras

Our next stop took us further up into the mountains where we had lovely valley views, crawled along partially unmade roads, dodged men riding horses and donkeys, learned how the locals use the back of trucks and utes to get around, and saw predictably, many road-side stalls. It was an interesting drive.

Women washing clothes in La Esperanza, Honduras

Eventually we arrived in the town of La Ezperanza. The driver took us to the local public baths, where we saw a cluster of women washing clothes in the natural spring that runs through the area. We asked if we could take a photo and they shyly agreed. Then we headed into the town centre seeing more colonial architecture, and had a nice lunch in a traditional restaurant.

Mural in La Paz, Honduras

Next, we headed to the village of La Paz, and after driving through the market, we found the centre which was full of absolutely wonderful murals. Then we headed back to Teguz. Because the towns were isolated, we had a long drive between each, making it a long day. But it was so thought-provoking seeing how the isolation had impacted on their clothing, eating establishments, housing, transport, etc.

Power line shoes - a death, a gang area or a drug street? Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Eventually it was time to leave Honduras. It had been an interesting place to visit but is certainly not for the faint-hearted. The government, in an effort to curb crime levels, has declared a state of emergency, rounded up many criminals, and built large prisons to hold them. But we were told that sadly, corruption and murder still mostly go unpunished. It may be the same in El Salvador, our next stop.

This post is the eighth in a series that tells the story of our travel in Mexico and Central America. The first post in the series can be found here.