Honduras

My Honduras travel summary:

Visited: January 1997, various times: 2018 – 2021

Length: 21 days

Capital city: Tegucigalpa

Population: 10.25 million (2021)

Honduras travel blog reading time: 8 minutes

• Gaining entry into Honduras without a tourist visa.
• Visiting the historic Mayan city of Copan.
• Live concert with Garifuna music on Caribbean coast.
• Sleeping in the cheapest hostels ever, in Tegucigalpa.
• Scuba diving in Roatan.
• Numerous business trips and meeting with government representatives.

Honduras is located in the middle of the Central American isthmus. It borders on the west with Guatemala, on the southwest with El Salvador, and on the east with Nicaragua.

I visited Honduras several times for both pleasure and business. I explored ancient Mayan ruins, relaxed on the Bay Islands and met local entrepreneurs in Tegucigalpa. Each trip brought new discoveries, from historic sites to everyday life.

Honduras travel adventure was part of my American Big Tour across the Americas in 1996-97, which began in New York and ended in Buenos Aires 15 months later. I was already an experienced backpacker, able to communicate in Spanish by the time I crossed the Guatemalan border.

I applied for a visa at the Honduran Consulate in Guatemala City and was told to expect the answer in 30 days. Since I was staying in Antigua de Guatemala and had plenty of time to learn Spanish, I didn’t mind.

However, I was upset when my application was rejected. The consulate informed me that I would not be allowed to enter Honduras, even for a short visit.

Knowing how things worked in this part of the world, I decided to try my luck at the border, hoping to get through the checkpoints or pay bribes if necessary. Honduras was the only way to continue my Central American trip without flying to El Salvador or Nicaragua.

I travelled the final stretch from Guatemala to the Honduran border in the back of a pickup truck with local farmers and two backpackers. Unlike me, they didn’t need a visa to enter Honduras.

I knew little about Honduras before my visit. The only place I couldn’t miss was Copán, a highlight of ancient Maya civilization that ruled a vast kingdom in the southern Maya region from 300 to 900 AD.

Near the Guatemalan border, Copán was easy to reach by hitchhiking. I teamed up with the American and Spanish travelers, sharing a simple, clean and secure guesthouse room for just US$1.50 each per night. It was probably the cheapest accommodation of my life.

The next morning, our American-Spanish-Slovenian alliance visited the ancient Maya city of Copán. Too stingy to hire a guide, we joined organized groups occasionally or asked guards to explain some of the Maya secrets.

If Tikal was the ancient Maya equivalent of bustling, powerful New York, Copán was more like elegant and artistic Paris.

Compared to Tikal, Copán was relatively small, with 24,000 inhabitants spread over 24 km² around the central square. Its pyramids were smaller and the central square more modest.

Copán is especially important for two reasons:

•  Stelae: Many stone pillars dedicated to influential rulers remain in good condition. Their carved images depict the rulers, while hieroglyphs on the sides record important events from their lives.
• Hieroglyphic Stairway: More than 1,250 carved stone blocks form 63 steps, create the longest known hieroglyphic text from the Maya civilization. The collapsed staircase was reconstructed, but archaeologists could not determine the original positions of all the blocks. The inscriptions describe war, death and the worship of powerful rulers, adding to the mystery of Copán’s main attraction.

Like many Maya cities, Copán mysteriously collapsed in the 9th century. Population growth, poor soils, deforestation, droughts and floods contributed to its decline.

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980, Copán now faces threats from climate change, heavy rain and humidity. Some stelae are protected by roofs, while others have been moved to museums and replaced with copies.

Although Copán had the highest entrance fee in Central America, it was well worth it.

One of the highlights of my Maya route and Honduras’s main landmark was the last Maya city I visited on my journey through Central America.

The next morning, the strange American suddenly disappeared, but I met the Spaniard several more times during my 14 days in Honduras. In Trujillo, we nearly arranged a jungle trip to visit indigenous communities, but it eventually fell apart.

I continued my Honduras travel adventure towards the Caribbean coast and Tela. The drive was memorable, with kilometers of endless palm oil plantations along the road. Palm oil is widely used in cosmetics and food, but expanding plantations often comes at the expense of tropical forests.

There were no exciting things to do or interesting places to visit. Spending a few days relaxing under coconut palms and swimming in the warm Caribbean Sea was a good way to recharge before the next challenges.

I visited a small village where one of Honduras’s largest ethnic communities’ lives. The Garifuna were brought from Africa to the Americas as slaves centuries ago. They eventually gained their freedom but preserved their traditional way of life, culture and language.

I felt really weird when I met some people bigger than me again in Central America. They didn’t act friendly at all and didn’t care about curious gringos.

A live Garifuna music concert at night was a special experience. The vibrant rhythms, traditional drums and dancing made it one of the most memorable things to do.

Three drummers played traditional rhythms alongside unusual instruments such as turtle shells and simple rattles. Their songs and dances, featuring pronounced hip and buttock movements, entertained us late into the night.

Women wearing red T-shirts and colorful skirts sang and danced enthusiastically, creating a lively atmosphere. After a few beers, the audience was invited onto the improvised stage to dance to Garifuna music late into the night.

The capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, was not particularly attractive to visit. A few nicely landscaped parks, a large market, Chinese restaurants serving cheap food and a great movie schedule at the cinema kept me in the city for a few days.

Honduras’ political and administrative center impressed me with its long rows of shoe-shine stalls, where uniformed men earned a living on the streets. Union members proudly displayed their official licenses and happily served customers seated on elevated chairs.

About a fifth of Honduras’s population lives in Tegucigalpa, which basically consists of two cities: Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. The two cities merged in 1938 but remain divided by the Choluteca River. The Tegucigalpa side is significantly safer, although most cheap hotels are located in Comayagüela.

Compared to San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa was quieter and safer, with several important historical places to visit.

I only passed through San Pedro Sula to change buses at the local terminal. Instead of exploring downtown and looking for landmarks, I preferred reading the daily newspapers, with reports of murders, clashes between street gangs, bomb explosions and kidnappings. It seemed to be part of everyday life.

Although Honduras was one of the most dangerous countries in Central America, I had no bad experiences during my trip in 1997 or on later visits.

Between 2018 and 2021, I visited Honduras several times on business trips. Representing a Slovenian company, I explored opportunities to supply identity documents for Honduran citizens. I was received by senior officials of the Honduran Immigration Institute and driven around in an armored car by an armed driver.

Staying in five-star hotels and dining in luxury restaurants was a very different experience from backpacking, sleeping in dormitories and eating street food two decades earlier.

I had the chance to meet wealthy Honduran businessmen, middle-class government employees and bodyguards who carried weapons at all times. Observing different social groups and listening to their perspectives on the country’s overall situation and quality of life is always an enriching experience.

After completing my work commitments, I took a break on Roatán Island, where I fulfilled a long-standing dream of obtaining a PADI scuba diving certificate. Exploring the underwater world of fish, marine creatures and corals was thrilling at first, but after several dives, it began to feel repetitive, even among the colorful reefs of the Caribbean.

If I couldn’t feel the magic of the underwater world in one of the most breathtaking diving areas of the Americas, perhaps diving simply isn’t for me.

One of the advertising brochures about Honduras says: “Honduras offers tourists a great combination of cultural heritage, friendly people and natural diversity. These are just a few reasons why many Europeans have settled here forever.”

I don’t know how many Europeans currently live in Honduras, but I largely agree with the statement about what the country has to offer visitors. I will probably continue visiting Honduras for business and following its development as it becomes more tourist-friendly.

Infrastructure is improving, safety seems to be better under control, and new tourist attractions are emerging across the country.