TRAVEL & TOURISM |
TRAVEL & TOURISM |
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Monday, November 26, 2001 Online Edition 47 |
The Calle El Centro Festival Gastronomico will be presented in Copan Ruinas on Friday, December 7. This food festival will be open from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m., hosted by five different restaurants located on the block, it will feature a house specialty from each restaurant as well as typical Honduran Christmas Foods. Specially decorated and designated tables will be set up in front of the restaurant locations along the street. To facilitate the sampling of many different foods by many individuals, nothing will be priced over L15 (about $1) and all will be finger and snack foods. This gives you the opportunity to sample many different items for a special price and go back and stuff yourself on the ones you really like. The restaurants will also be open for business with their regular menu offerings. All restaurants on the Calle El Centro will offer a different specialty, some featuring a menu with hints of Europe, others are typically Honduran, and still others have maybe a little bit of Tex Mex thrown in. Whatever your taste requires there promises to be something just for you, come by, sample and enjoy. Also featured will be the Children's Folkloric Dance Troupe, strolling Mariachis, and as well each restaurant, business and home will be specially decorated for this wonderful evening of special events. Typical Honduran Christmas beverages, alcohol and soft drinks will also be available. Visitors will be able to shop the souvenir shops located on the block which will stay open late to accommodate them. These shops will be offering sales, thus giving you a jump on your holiday shopping. Children's dancing, singing mariachis, food, drinks, what more could you ask for to start the Christmas Season! We'll see you there. Calle El Centro wishes each of the readers of Copan Update a safe and Merry Christmas. For more information contact Mike Valladares, Rene Hernandez or Liz Nutter-Valladares Tel. 651 4410, tunkul2002@yahoo.com Muchos Thanks to gang at Tunkul for the above info. * * * And while we're on the subject of Copan..........there ain't no better place to lay low for a couple of days this coming holiday season than Copan Ruinas. If laid back, mellow, relaxing, quaint, friendly, enriching and educational all sound good to you...then a couple of days in Copan Ruinas should fit your vacation bill nicely. All our hotels are small in size but big on down home charm, all are family run and the owner will usually be around to sit and chat a spell and serve up recommendations on must see places to go and things to see. Restaurants and bars as well are family owned operations, small, yet big on funkiness and world traveler/gringo trail atmosphere. Belly up to the bar and sip happy hour rum and cokes with travelers from a dozen nations as dinner hour approaches. Leave plenty of room for some of that good old Copan country fare....plates piled high with grilled meats are a favorite around these parts. After a good nights sleep and some early a.m. breakfast chow, you'll be ready to face the day and trek the ruins, be prepared, as the ruins of Copan are some of the most spectacular that you'll see in the Maya world. And don't forget, getting to Copan Ruinas, is now easier than ever. The Hedman Alas bus line now runs 1st class direct buses daily to Copan Ruinas from San Pedro Sula. Buses leave SAP - Copan Ruinas daily at 7am and 2:30. Fri - Sun there is an additional departure from SAP at 9:50 am. Buses return daily from Copan Ruinas - SAP at 5:30am and 2:30 and Fri - Sun there is an additional departure at 10:30am. Weather wise, the holiday season is one of the best times to visit Copan, daytime temperatures are warm while evenings provide perfect sleeping weather as temps dip to the pleasantly chilly range, remember the average year round the temperature in Copan Ruinas is an extremely tolerable and almost wonderfully perfect 78F.Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe and Breakfast. He can be contacted by e-mail <casadecafe@mayanet.hn> Please
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Monday, November 19, 2001 Online Edition 46 |
According to the National Association of Honduran Travel Agents, 14 travel agencies have closed in recent weeks due to the downturn in travel. However in spite of the downturn, the Honduran Ministry of Tourism is predicting record incoming tourism figures projecting some $300 million in income for the country from tourism, a 17% increase over last year. According to coffee experts, regular coffee is experiencing an increase in use of 1.5% per year as opposed to high quality coffee which is growing at a rate of growth of 15%. Unfortunately most Honduran coffee is classified as a low quality coffee. The good news however is that 75% of Honduran coffee farms have the potential to produce higher quality coffee. Please
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Monday, November 12, 2001 Online Edition 45 |
According
to The Organization of American States, tourism in the Caribbean and
Central America directly or indirectly employ one of every four
persons and generates
some $2 billion annually in the region.
As a result of the attacks of Sept 11, the region has been hit
hard by a drop in tourism. The
good news however is that tourists are still coming and the winter ‘
high season ‘ which is just about upon us looks quite promising.
In the case of Copan Ruinas for example; tourism has maintained
a healthy pace in the 4th Quarter, cancellations were
few and international tourists have continued to arrive daily
since September. Hotels
and restaurants in town have not had to resort to layoffs. * * * The
Honduran Ministry of Tourism recently signed an agreement with the
Garifuna to provide training to communities in the area of tourism.
The Garifuna who are descendents of African slaves live spread
out along the North Coast and on the Bay Islands.
For the most part the Garifuna have not taken an active role in
developing tourism infrastructure and services in their villages
although they reside on
some of the most spectacular stretches of white sand beach anywhere. *
* * Charter
flights using Continental Boeing 737’s are now flying twice a day to
Cuba from Miami. The
first flight was inaugurated last week. The daily flight is rented to a tour operator since
Continental is not allowed to fly regular service to Cuba.
A US embargo limits
travel to Cuba. * * * According
to Honduran Ministry of Tourism this year will bring in some $300
million. Coffee has
always been a top money earner for Honduras, however with current
coffee prices at their lowest level in 40 years, tourism will now jump
to the top of the list in terms of money earners for the country. *
* * Looking for a good deal on a rental car in Honduras? In years past the question would have seemed a cruel joke as rental prices were sky high. Budget is now offering a compact Lancer for a hard to beat $20 bucks a day. For info: San Pedro Sula Tel 552-2295, La Ceiba 441-1105 www.budgethonduras.com
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* Good news for La Ceiba.....La Ceiba’s airport is about to undergo a much needed facelift and remodling. The La Ceiba airport is the jumping off point for the Bay Islands, boasts the longest runway in the country and receives the largest number of landings of any Honduran airport. The investment in the airport which is estimated at Lps 60 million will include 1,400 meters of additional terminal area, improved parking, a sewage and potable water system and new bathrooms. Interairports which owns the concession to administer the 4 international airports in Honduras including La Ceiba, is required to undertake infrastructure improvements at each of the airports. Interairports is currently seeking an exoneration of import taxes on all equipment brought into the country for airport improvements due to losses that have been incurred by the recent slowdown in passenger traffic. Please
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Monday, November 5, 2001 Online Edition 44 |
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Watershed Journeys: HTW: What prompted you to write Sacred Monkey River? From ‘89 to ‘97 I took four trips to the area and in ‘95 my eventual editor published an essay of mine in an anthology. When she moved to Norton she asked if I would pitch her a non-fiction book. Instead of abandoning the work, I suggested what would become Sacred Monkey River. HTW: Can you provide some specific examples of how tourism can benefit local communities and the environment? Shaw: I can’t give you any better examples than those outlined in the book at Lake Miramar and even more decisively at Uaxactun, Peten. At Uaxactun, Roan Mcnab has organized the community around attracting tourism and refraining from uncontrolled hunting, helping to build hotels, restaurants, nurseries, and most importantly, attracting money from outside to pay for an official government charter not planned around timber extraction. It’s working there, and being passed down through the generations. HTW: How has this changed over the years you’ve visited the Usumacinta region? Shaw: I’m happy and surprised to say it’s worked its way slightly deeper into the public awareness, to the point where it’s no longer dismissed out of hand as impractical, but worked into the plans of various indigenous organizations and communities. HTW: Can you tell more about the recent Maya Forest Coalition meeting? Shaw: The coalition began ... oh, ten years ago, I think. Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Nature Conservancy put together a directorate and pulled together numerous regional NGOs in the three nations of the Maya forest to begin thinking about the selva as a continuum. The main objective, I believe, was to facilitate and implement the erection of cross-border bio corridors. One of the first events was a conference of scientists on the implementing cross-border conventions to protect the Usumacinta watershed. All these were of course fairly theoretical, with little government support, but they did do a lot of consciousness raising, and put together good maps of the Selva Lacandona, Maya Biosphere Reserve and contiguous wildlands in Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Belize, showing where stress points and protected areas converged and diverged. The purpose of the conference earlier this year was to hand over all future responsibilities to regional organizations, Major threats were deemed to be: the Chilillo dam project in Belize, a new road planned through the Maya Biospere Reserve from southern Yucatan to Tikal, and the spread of oil exploration in northern Peten. Any one of these would occasion disastrous habitat losses, and associated spin-off losses to local economies. A letter is currently being drafted to the Canadian development firm which is engineering and promoting the Chilillo Project. A couple of other people and I spoke out loudly in favor of The banner of “eco-tourism” has been raised by all sorts of places and organizations that have no concept of what it might be, beyond something that gringos like. The ecotourist hotels of the kind currently being planned for Tikal, for instance, are just big, impersonal, concrete tourist hotels where maybe you can take a tour while sitting in half-track doodle-bug to look at some animals and see a piece of “real rain forest.” Such planning can only increase the kind of pressures and expectations that fuel habitat fragmentation and worker exploitation. HTW: What do you mean? Shaw: When I say “wilderness-style,” I’m talking about infrastructure such as trails, campgrounds and primitive campsites, small backcountry lodges, guides, guards, maintenance personnel, waterway take-outs and put-ins. In short, a way of being in nature that is that muscle-powered, non-motorized, and more or less self-supporting. Again, the Adirondack Park exemplifies this kind of development. In the Usumacinta region, small-group recreation can only take place in a swath of primary habitat such as the Montes Azules and the Maya Biosphere Reserves. There’s no reason you can’t have a limited amount of more traditional tourism around the edges — it does produce a faster economic “high” or rush. But it won’t last over the long run and you need to establish wilderness-style tourism first, or it will be too late. Ron Mader hosts the award-winning Planeta.com website —www.planeta.com — and is the author of the “Mexico: Adventures in Nature” guidebook and the “Exploring Ecotourism in the Americas” resource guide. Please
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Did you know...according to US Ambassador Almaguer, in the last three years the United States has invested some $600 million to help in the post hurricane Mitch period. The nations of Central America have taken a beating with the downturn. One strategy that has some potential to yield positive results is to promote internal regional tourism amongst the nations of Central America. Salvadorans, for example, are some of the biggest regional travelers. They flock to Guatemala in large numbers and are beginning to test the waters in terms of Honduras travel as well. Guatemala is a major player in the regional tourism arena, receiving incoming tourists from around Central America. As a response to the events of September 11, Guatemala has gone on the offensive, launching an ad campaign/promotion targeted to the regional travel market. The ad which has appeared in Honduran newspapers is titled “Viva Guatemala” and offers up a bevy of high end hotels such as The Camino Real, Clarion Suites, Princess, Radisson, Inter Continental and Ramada. The ad touts packages which include round trip air fare between San Pedro Sula and Guatemala City, three nights in a hotel, with taxes and transfer from airport to hotel to airport included. Other packages offer Antigua, Chichicastenango, Lake Atitlan and Tikal amongst others. Packages start at $299 per person. The ad is sponsored by The Guatemalan Institute of Tourism and the airline Tikal Jets. For additional info www.travel-guatemala.org.gt The tax had added an extra 88 cents per gallon to the cost, making Honduran jet fuel the most expensive in the region. Cost per gallon prior to the elimination of the tax was $1.40 to $1.88 per gallon depending on the Honduran airport where refueling took place. With the elimination of the tax, jet fuel should experience approximately a 50% reduction in price. And in an additional related piece of news, the Honduran Civil Aviation Authority came out after the elimination of the jet fuel tax with a statement that they will attempt to meet with the airlines serving Honduras to try to “convince” them to lower ticket prices.
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