Honduras
In July 1983 I had a 2 week trip to CentralAmerica covering Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua but the guys in Guatemala decided they needed me to nip in to Honduras to check out the suitability of a local filling line operation also and so it was added to my itinerary. In point of fact that sort of diversion happened quite often in that part of the world ! (The year before I was out for six weeks after add-ons meant that I missed the entire Falklands conflict just travelling around Latin America ! But the compansation was I added Haiti and the Dominican Republic to my countries list). Anyway I hit the airport and boarded a fairly small plane from Guatemala to the capital Of Honduras - Tegucigalpa. It was what might call a `lively` landing there because the capital sits in a depression surrounded by a series of volcano peaks which means the access is demanding from the air. After I commented to our local company about this they told me of the time one of the bigger airlines decided to try out a short Jumbo jet on the route. Big mistake. The pilots got it down, just, but were so scared by the experience that it sat at the airport for several weeks whilst the seats and any other unnecessary material was stripped out to reduce the weight enough to risk a takeoff. Landing in Tegucigalpa is still a challenge even today. It involves a sharp 45-degree turn amidst mountains and then quick descent without getting too close to the mountain peaks below.
The country is known for its rich natural resources, including coffee, bananas, tobacco, and tropical fruit, minerals, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, timber, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron ore, antimony, coal, fish, shrimp, and hydropower.. Hence we were interested in possibly helping to set up a local filling line sourced from our production factories in the adjacent Nicaragua, El Salvador or Guatemala. The main cities Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula in recent years have suffered badly from drug gangs and murders. Violence reached a peak in 2012 with an average of 20 homicides a day.These two cities registered homicide rates among the highest in the world. Given that Honduras has always had some form of turmoil since it gained independence from Spain in 1821 that`s hardly a surprise - they`ve had in the region of 300 civil wars/rebellions since then. Indeed the phrase "banana republic" was coined by O. Henry after living there for six months.
At the time of my visit it was pretty basic and rural but in the past had been a centre of the Mayan civilisation and the Toltecs. This means that there are plenty of `lost` temples and ruins from those eras ripe for tourism development like Copan (pictures below) and that is improving their income today - that along with some excellent beaches and resorts. Caribbean beaches, bird-rich lakes and jungle, and the undeveloped tropical rainforest of La Mosquitia, the Mosquito Coast all contribute to a growing tourist industry. There are now some excellent hotels and the establishment of a tourist police force has helped. Roatan is the most developed of the Bay Islands and now a cruise port and a popular destination - especially for snorkelers and divers. More than 2 million tourists visited in 2017. A large chunk of those arrived via cruise ships, however. That's mainly to visit islands like Roatan. For those seeking wildlife this is abundant, including Insects, birds, and reptiles are the most conspicuous animal forms. There are many species of butterflies, moths, beetles, bees, wasps, spiders, ants, flies, and mosquitoes, many of them beautifully coloured. Waterfowl in large numbers inhabit the coastal areas. Crocodiles, snakes, lizards (giant iguana and others), and turtles are found. The fauna also deer, peccaries, tapir, pumas, jaguars, and ocelots.
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Browse through the picture galleries below relating to this page and you will get a much better idea than just reading my words! Each page has it`s own set of relevant images - where possible taken by us.