Honduras

Visited: January 1997, various times between 2018 and 2021

Length: 21 days

Capital city: Tegucigalpa

Population: 10.25 million (2021)

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

• Gaining entry into Honduras without a tourist visa.
• Visiting Copan, which hosts the longest written record from the time of Mayan civilization.
• Live concert with Garifuna music on Caribbean coast.
• Sleeping in the cheapest hostels ever, in Tegucigalpa.
• Scuba diving in Roatan (2018). Some of the best and most affordable scuba diving in the Caribbean.
• Numerous business trips and meeting with government representatives (2018 – 2021).

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, while on its north side lies the Caribbean Sea and, on the south, it has some shores along the Pacific Ocean.

With over 800 kilometers of Caribbean coastline, it boasts some of the most beautiful beaches on Caribbean islands. Five million inhabitants per 112,500 km2 means that Honduras has a very low population density per square kilometer and, thus, many unspoiled natural beauties.

I visited Honduras on various occasions for pleasure and business. Honduras was part of my American Big Tour around Americas in 1996-97, which started 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.

Following my application for a visa at the Consulate of Honduras in Guatemala City, I was required to wait a period of 30 days for the approval of the visa. As I was based based in Antigua de Guatemala and had a considerable amount of time to devote to learning Spanish, it didn’t bother me too much.

Nevertheless, I was really upset when I got a negative answer. An official from the Honduran consulate informed me that, regrettably, I would not be permitted to enter the country, even for a brief period.

By then, I was well acquainted with the system of life in this part of the world and decided to try my luck directly at the border, where I would try to find a way through checkpoints or, in the worst-case scenario, pay custom officers to do me a favor. The only way to continue my trip through Central America was through Honduras. I didn’t want to fly to El Salvador or Nicaragua, spending extra money.

I travelled the last part of the trip from Guatemala to Honduras border in the trunk of a pick-up truck together with a group of local farmers and an American and Spanish backpacker. Obviously, they didn’t need a visa to enter Honduras at all.

I didn’t know much about Honduras before the visit. I only had one place on my list that I shouldn’t miss in the whole country; Copan – a powerful city that ruled a vast kingdom within the southern Maya area in the great period from 300 to 900 AD.

Located near the Guatemalan border, Copan offers convenient access for transportation. Obtaining a lift in a pick-up truck proved to be quite simple. While driving, I agreed with the American and Spanish travelers to share a room in a simple guesthouse and spend the next two days together. We were all very skillful at bargaining, so we managed to convince the room owner to pay only 1.50 US$ each per night. Probably the cheapest place I stayed at in my whole life, but still decently clean and secure.

The next morning, the American-Spanish-Slovenian alliance visited the archeological city of Copan. We were too stingy to pay for a guide, so we joined one of the organized groups for moments or asked the guards who explained some of the secrets of the ancient Maya to us.

If Tikal is claimed to have been a modern New York, then Copan can be compared to today’s Paris.

Copan reached the peak of its existence in the classical period between 300 and 900 AD. Compared to Tikal, it was a relatively small town with 24,000 inhabitants occupying 24 km² around the central square. Probably this is one of the reasons why the pyramids are smaller and the central square modest.

Copan holds significant importance primarily due to two key factors:

• Many stelas dedicated to the most influential rulers are still in relatively good condition today. Stela is a high stone pillar with carved images of rulers on the front and back, while the sides describe with hieroglyphs important events from their lives.
• Hieroglyphic stairs – more than 1,250 hieroglyphic blocks connected in 63 stairs, measuring 20 meters long and 10 meters wide, represent the longest record of hieroglyphic text from the era of Mayan civilization. Unfortunately, the hieroglyphs cannot be deciphered today because all the stairs have fallen from their original position.

Archaeologists reconstructed the temple to its original form, but have no clue as to where the stone cubes were originally located. The hieroglyphic inscriptions are dedicated to war, death and worship of the most powerful rulers.

Like many other Mayan cities, Copan mysteriously collapsed in the 9^th century. Due to large demographic growth the inhabitants couldn’t produce enough food in rather poor fertile areas, which had previously already been severely exterminated for firewood and construction. This was followed by major natural disasters in the form of droughts and floods that reduced the population until the whole civilization slowly became extinct.

Copan was declared UNESCO World Heritage in 1980. Climate change, heavy rains and high soil moisture represent the biggest danger to the monuments. The decay of the material from which the stelas are made is especially noticeable. Some are covered with a roof and others were withdrawn to the museum and replaced with identical copies.

The entrance fee to visit the archeological city of Copan was the highest in Central America at the time: 10.00 US$, plus additional 5.00 US$ for the museum.

The next morning, the strange American guy suddenly disappeared, but I met the Spaniard several more times over the next 14 days of traveling around Honduras. In the seaside town of Trujillo, we had almost everything arranged for a few days trip to the jungle among the indigenous people, but in the end it all fell apart.

I continued my journey towards the Caribbean coast to the city of Tela. The drive to get there was really something special; along the road I stared at kilometers of never-ending palm oil plantations. The fruits are processed by various cosmetic products conglomerates and palm oil has been becoming more and more popular in food industry. In order to expand palm plantation, tropical forests are completely cut down.

Relaxing for a few days under coconut palm trees and swimming in the warm Caribbean Sea before further challenges was a fair fit. I visited one of the small villages in the area where the third largest local community in Honduras lives. Garifunas were transported centuries ago to the American continent as slaves from Africa. They eventually gained their freedom, yet continued to uphold their traditional way of life, culture, and language.

I felt really weird when I met some people bigger than me again in Central America. Throughout Mexico and Guatemala such tall people could be counted with the fingers of both hands. They did not act friendly at all and didn’t care about curious gringos.

A live concert with Garifuna music at night was a special experience.

A group of three drummers, accompanied by other unusual instruments (turtle armor, basic rattles), singing and performing characteristic dance with pronounced movements of the hips or buttocks, entertained us late into the night.

Women dressed in red t-shirts and colorful skirts sung and danced enthusiastically, converting the whole place into especially good mood. After drinking a few bottles of beers all spectators were invited to join on the improvised stage to dance out into the night with Garifuna music.

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

Honduras’ political and administrative center impressed me with long lines of shoe-shiner stalls where uniformed men have been earning a living on the city’s streets. Belonging to unions and proudly showing the official licenses, they were unsuccessfully inviting me to seat on the elevated chairs to use their services.

Night walks around the city can be a real adventure due to insecurity on the streets. About a fifth of Honduras population lives in Tegucigalpa, which basically consists of two cities: Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela. Two individual cities merged into one in 1938; today, they are divided by the river Choluteca. The Tegucigalpa area is significantly safer, however most of the cheap hotels are located in the Comayagüela area.

Nevertheless, comparing to San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa is still a quiet and safe city.

I only transited San Pedro Sula to switch buses at the local bus terminal. Instead of visiting the downtown and looking for landmarks, I preferred reading daily newspaper reports on murders, clashes of different street gangs, bomb explosions and kidnappings. It seems to be part of a daily life.

Although Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in Central America, I didn’t have any bad experiences during the trip in 1997 or later.

Between 2018 and 2021, I visited Honduras on various occasions on a business trip. Representing a company from Slovenia, we were looking for opportunities to provide identifications documents for Honduras citizens. I was received by high authorities of Honduras Immigration Institute and driven around in armored car by armed driver of our local agent.

Staying in 5 stars hotels and dinning in luxury restaurants was a very different experience to backpacking, sleeping in guesthouse dormitories and eating street food two decades before.

I had a chance to meet with high class Honduras businessmen, who live in segregated communities, with medium class government employees and bodyguards that carry weapon at any time. Observing various social sectors within the country and listening to diverse perspectives regarding the overall circumstances and quality of life is always an enriching experience.

Upon completing my work commitments during a business trip, I took a break at Roatan island, where I realized a two decades lasting dream to obtain a PADI underwater diver certificate. Observing the underwater ecosystem, including fish, various marine creatures, and corals, was initially thrilling; however, after several dives, the experience began to feel repetitive, even amidst the most colorful reefs of the Caribbean.

If I didn’t feel the magic of underwater world in one of the most breathtaking diving areas on the American continent, maybe diving is not my preferred activity.

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 living in Honduras right now, but I would agree pretty much on the statement about what Honduras has to offer to visitors. It seems that I will continue visiting Honduras due to business activities and also follow the development of the country which is more and more tourist friendly.

The infrastructure is improving, safety seems to be more under control recently and new tourist destinations within the country have been flourishing.