Honduras recap

We are back in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. From here we will head to El Salvador bright and early tomorrow morning. Here is a photo recap of our time in Honduras:

This is the Parque Central in Comayagua, Honduras. Comayagua was the political capital of Honduras until the late 1500´s. The cathedral seen in the picture has an annex next door. This annex stored documents dating all the way back to the 1500´s as well as religious art and various other very important artifacts. A week before we arrived, a fire destroyed about 95% of the building and its contents. We saw where they were trying to salvage many of the documents, which appeared to be a frustrating and depressing task.


From there we went to Lago Yojoa, a nice and rather secluded lake in the middle of Honduras. We visited this nearby waterfall. This was the dry part. We were guided down by a local and were actually able to get behind the waterfall (a feat considering the massive amounts of water pouring from about 48 meters).


Neither of us have ever been interested in bird watching, but the guy with the huge beard (a beard I aspire to) was so enthusiastic about it that we couldnt help but become interested. He is a brit ex-pat living near the lake who knows his birds. I think for one to really enjoy nature, you need a Brit to tell you to look at the "immature yellow bellied warbler" (say it with a thick Brittish accent and you´ll see what I mean). The other gringos in the picture are two folks we met at the hostel who are doing 6 months in Central America.


The lake: (taking pictures of birds with our camera is a lost cause)



From the lake we went to Santa Rosa de Copan. A small mountain town with very little to take in aside from a huge cigar factory. Neither of us are cigar smokers, but it was fun to see how they are made from fermenting the tobacco to putting them into the boxes. About 50 different cigar companies contract with this factory, the most recognizable name being Romeo y Julieta (the non-Cuban R&Js so that they can be sent to the US). Sorry, no pictures allowed inside, we might steal all their trade secrets. Oh, everything is done by hand and we saw almost no machinery, which we thought made it much more interesting. Also about 97% of the workers we saw were women in the factory.


Our next stop turned out to be our favorite in Honduras. It was with a community called San Juan, not to be confused with the San Juan 1 hour down the road. This community collaborated with PEace Corps several years ago to develop community based tourism. This is essentially a way for a community to pool its existing resources in order to give travelers an authentic experience in their community and to aid in the need for additional money in the community. We arranged a home stay with a local woman and were able to arrange several other activities with community members. The people who receive tourists generally make double what they would generally make by allowing travelers in on what they might already be doing anyway or by sharing their local knowledge.
This is a family of artisans who work with clay. They generally make roof tiles by hand, but also make nice floor tiles and these two were mastering their dog making abilities. We got to work along side them a bit and learn how they make their products (apparently they did not fear us stealing their trade secrets). The mother told us she has eleven children and we saw that they are all very talented and contribute something to the family business no matter their age.


Me and the 13 year old making a tile. He could make about 15 of these in the time I made one.

Roasting coffee with Doña Soledad. She taught us how to roast coffee, and we got to drink plenty of it afterward.


You can only imagine how good this smelled.


Tracy and Juan in the cane patch on the way to the waterfall. Chewing raw sugar cane makes the hike all the better.


The canyon and waterfall were worth the three hour hike. It is the Canyon Encantado.


Tomorrow it is in to El Salvador. We will post photos from there in a week or so.