Honduras Travels

by Richard Stern

I visited the port city of La Ceiba (population around 150,000) on the Caribbean coast of Honduras for a week in February with a team of non-birders to do some medical work at a clinic in the village of El Cacao, about 45 minutes by van along the coast to the west. I live in Nova Scotia, eastern Canada, and have birded elsewhere in N. America, Europe, and 2 previous visits to Central America. The area was devastated by Hurricane “Mitch” in 1998, but has made a remarkable recovery.

It’s no longer possible to get a cheap rate to fly to Honduras.

The upcoming holiday season has Honduran residents abroad looking for cheap tickets to return home. Unfortunately, the experts in booking, explain that the best way to obtain a good rate is buying ahead of time, and planning. A representative from Continental Airlines, Carolina Heyer, stated that three months ago, the cheaper seats were sold out, and 90 percent of the seats already occupied.

Recommendations

The Honduran president of the Association of Airlines of Honduras, Armando Fúnez, recommends purchasing tickets online for the best rate.

The retro-looking buses slowed to a stop on the dirt road outside of our motel, La Casa de Café. With my day pack on my shoulder and suntan lotion slathered on my nose, I climbed into one of the vans.

As our Honduran driver, equipped with a Colgate baseball hat, maneuvered us through the center of Copán, Honduras, we passed people selling tortillas and trinkets on the sidewalks outside of restaurants and novelty shops. After a five-minute bumpy ride, the vans deposited us at the welcome center at the ruins of Copán.

Hola Amigos

I have finally started to make my way south and am currently in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. So I have finally left Guatemala for good. I ended up spending a lot more time there than I had originally planned. I guess that means that I enjoyed my time there more than I was expecting to.

It has actually been a little bit of a slower couple of days since I last wrote. I spent 2 nights at a farm that I had heard really good things about in a town called Poptun. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that good and I just didn’t a good feeling from the other travelers there. So I just sort of hung out, got a lot of reading went for a sort hike, and then got out of dodge.

Right now writing you from an internet cafe from the island of Utila on the Bay Islands group in the carribean ocean! Hurricane Gamma was right over us last night and it has been very windy and rainy for 3 days now. Tonight will however be the last night of stormy weather, and tomorrow it’s supposed to calm down alot. Maybe we might even see the sun (my tan from Puerto Escondido is now completely gone).

The ride here took 14 hours, starting in Antigua in Guatemala at 4 o’clock in the morning, and having two stops on the way (Copan and San Pedro Sula in Honduras). Managed to sleep most of the way.

There is no passage between El Progresso, Tela, and La Ceiba due to the damage caused by the rivers Guaymón and Leán.

| | | | | | Serving the City of Falls Church and Northern Virginia
Falls Church News Press, VA - 22 hours ago Arriving in Honduras it was discovered that a good portion of the bags had not Several members of the team drove the two hour drive from Comayagua, where the

Hostel: Tegu Airport Backpackers

Rating: 5

Address: From TGU - Tegucigalpa’s Toncontin International Airport, 600 meters east and about 400 meters south. TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS

Phone: +1-610-602-5023

Email: tegubackpackers@yahoo.es

Getting There: Just email them first, and they will send you a map and directions on how to get there. It’s only about 10 minutes walk from the airport, or you can take a taxi in a couple of minutes.

Price: $12 per person twin share. Includes great service and breakfast, and includes internet and bottled water.

Great place to rest up and catch my breath! 5/5 rating

In a Honduras town, two moms and four kids learned a little Spanish — and a lot about trust.

By Steve Hendrix

The last shred of the bubble popped on their eighth day in Copan. A couple of suburban American mothers, walking up the street in this hilly mountain town in western Honduras, saw a motorscooter taxi careen by in the usual helter-skelter way. These red tuk-tuk cabs are the transit water bugs of Copan, scuttling around town, picking up passengers and depositing them a few blocks away for a handful of lempiras. Sometimes entire families of five or six would jam into the three-wheeled carts for a bouncing ride over the cobblestones. But in the back seat of this one were just two tiny blond heads, instantly recognizable to the surprised moms as their own youngest children, a couple of pre-kindergarten tourists on their own in Central America.

At the Rotterdam Hotel I met two Canadians, Cindy and Drew, who were heading for the Utila ferry early the next morning. We all shared the cab which turned out to be the smartest move for the price to the ferry docks is fixed. Whether your one or five the trip will run you 6US, which for here is pretty steep.