The other ruins of Copan….Parque El Puente

Tourism: The Future Hope

The Copan Ruins are easily accesible by car.

In the last couple of months, there has been a feeling in the tourism industry that things are taking a turn for the better.

As in the case of Hertz Rent a Car that says that the flow of people that visit this country is continually increasing. The director of the company, Ricardo Andrade, pointed out that for this reason the company is constantly improving it’s services in order to offer tourists the best. In this manner tourists leave with a good image of Honduras and the service industry.

Nevertheless, more support and training are needed from the Secretary of Tourism so that we can offer more diverse tourist options to our clients. Many ask us about possible destinations within the country. In the case of Hertz, we are attentive to whatever additional information that the Secretary of Tourism would like to provide. We know that this information will secure our place as leaders in the rent-a-car industry and in supplying information about the most beautiful places in this country.

The work the Secretary of Tourism is carrying out is on-going, now the development of Honduras depends on us.


The village of Rio Negro: The future for ecotourism in Honduras?

Jose Avilio Velasquez and Wilderness Guide Abel Ortiz, Rio Negro

By IXCHEL GRANADA

COMAYAGUA — Central Honduras hosts expansive, fertile valleys where lies the country’s first Spanish capital city, Comayagua. Surrounding Comayagua is the National Park, La Montana de Comayagua; PANACOMA.

PANACOMA was declared a National Park in the 1980’s for its important role in the watershed of El Cajon, the hydroelectric dam that supplies electricity to the majority of Hondurans. The mountain gives origin to two principal rivers and thousands of smaller tributaries forming the largest portion of the powerfully flowing water that travels to the power plant.

From Comayagua, several roads lead to towns or villages that surround the borders of the mountain. When the clouds permit, these roads provide majestic views of the summit. The communities in these remote mountains subsist on basic grain and coffee production. As the coffee market continues to plunge, many cafeteleros are looking towards ecological and rural tourism as a means to survive and share their knowledge and love for their natural surroundings.

Rio Negro’s numerous inhabitants have relied heavily on coffee production since the 1960’s. In the years between 1978 and 1980 a fungus which devastated the coffee plant prompted a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project promoting sun-grown coffee and hybrid seed varieties throughout Honduras. This project in effect served to wipe out the native wildtype and promoted an era of clear cutting.

ose Avilio Velasquez, a community leader of Rio Negro, remembers the years of replacing virgin and secondary forest with coffee. “We’ve learned through experience and personal hardships what clearing forest lands will do to a community in the long-run. We have lost wildlife, and virgin forest, we have impacted watersheds, soil health and our own well-being through intense use of chemicals, and taught our children these detrimental habits along the way.”

In 1995, Jose Avilio took a course in ecotourism at the University of New Mexico and returned with ideas for a community-initiated enterprise in hand with conservation. His enthusiasm has paved the way for a community owned and initiated ecotourism project. The project mission states that 15 percent of all profits from the ecotourism project will go directly to a community fund, creating a library for the schoolhouse, harnessing solar energy and bringing resources for organic food production to the mountain community. Although some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the local municipality have taken an interest in ownership of the ecotourism project, those of Rio Negro hope the project remains community owned and driven.

Rio Negro has now created shade-grown organic coffee farms, which provide a discontinuous tree line, fantastic for bird watching. The organic coffee is sold at national and international markets and proceeds of the sales go towards restoration of the Comayagua Mountain. The community has created a series of wilderness trails important for environmental education, and showcasing the ecological restoration that the community has achieved. The trail interprets the natural history of this humid subtropical forest, by pointing out nests, burrows or food sources for wildlife. The flora of the zone is described along the trail, with local and scientific names, their uses such as medicinal, edible, or in preventing soil erosion, and the importance of almost every species that is common to the ecosystem. Rio Negro has created a compilation of over 100 medicinal plants and has on hand a local specialist in medicinal plants of the area. Many endangered birds, such as quetzal, can be seen wandering about the trail. The trails, the forest and the village are testament to the efforts that the community has made towards a future in conservation and development, hand-in-hand.

COFCAECOMA, (Cooperativa de Familias Cafetaleros y Ecologistas de la Montana de Comayagua) the Cooperative of Coffee Family’s Committed to Ecological Change, is a community initiated cooperative whose objective is creating an ecotourism circuit connecting the villages of the mountain of Comayagua in the enterprise of ecotourism. The first stop in this circuit would be the community of Matasano and would include mountain communities along the way to Rio Negro.

“ This circuit will be unique among tourism circuits because unlike other circuits, COFCAECOMA is directed by the community and for the benefit of the community members who live in the mountain. These are the people who have an intimate knowledge and interest in the conservation of the surrounding forests and wildlife,” said Carlos Galvez, President COFCAECOMA.

If interested on how to visit Rio Negro or the Circuit of Comayagua search: www.cch.hn Or contact Jose Avilio Velazquez at 996 0995
 

Dave and Don with 30 pound wahoo. Errol holding the mackeral.

By CMJ JENNINGS

ROATAN — Dreams can come true at Roatan. Don Wills, an avid fisherman, had one request when he made his first trip to Roatan in January of 2003. Being from the Canadian prairies the thought of casting his line into the Caribbean blue waters would be a thrill of a lifetime. Dave Jennings, the friend he was coming to visit, quickly asked around and through word of mouth came across the name of Errol Jackson. Errol was born and raised on the island. Having lived here all his life he knew the best fishing spots. He happily agreed to take these two Canadians fishing.

Last month, on January 22, Don, Dave and Errol set out around nine in the morning and promised to be back by three in the afternoon. Although optimistic, all fishermen know there are days when the fish don’t bite, and they knew this could be one of them.
Errol entertained them with a story about why he named his boat “Struggle,” and other anecdotes about Roatan, the largest Bay Island, which is situated about 40 miles north off the coast of Honduras in the Western Caribbean Sea. With the spectacular view from the boat accompanied by adventurous tales, the time passed quickly.

At three o’clock Errol called his wife to say they would be a few minutes late as they had caught a big fish. Word spread quickly. Soon there was a crowd waiting at the dock in French Cay where Struggle is moored.

They hauled off two wahoos, and one mackerel. The first wahoo caught weighed 30 pounds, and the second one was five feet long and weighed 63 pounds. Nobody paid much attention to the mackerel!

Errol took only a few minutes to filet the fish, bag it and tell them it was a “very good eating” fish. It wasn’t until they returned home, shared it with the neighbors and cooked some for supper, that they realized how tasty it really was.

If you have a dream about fishing in the Caribbean, come to Roatan, were dreams do come true.

Postcard from El Salvador

CLARE HARRISON

El Salvador is a nation that’s history has been plagued by successive bouts of tumultuous conflict. The resulting country is one trying to forge a new identity for itself after years of painful affliction. El Salvador is not often explored by westerners whom are often put off traveling there, scared by the countries turbulent past. Interestingly the aftermath, as we discovered, was not the open wounds and widespread suffering that we expected, but a country intent on re-building itself. Despite the terrible atrocities that El Salvadorans have suffered, the overriding impression I got was of a resilient nation intent on remaining buoyant and looking forward regardless of the horrific events of its past.

Unlike other parts of Central America El Salvador is completely devoid of scores of tourists. Although travelling presents something of a challenge, sections of the road infrastructure are surprisingly good and there are countless buses all competing for your custom. The lack of other tourists give the traveler a real sense of adventure, no glossy tourist brochures just a sense that you are getting as close to real life as is possible.

The main border crossing between Honduras and El Salvador is at the El Salvadoran border town of El Amatillo. It is easiest to get a direct bus to San Salvador, but it is not impossible to get a bus from Tegucigalpa and change at the border. We arrived in San Salvador late at night, not really advisable, as the streets are rather unnervingly deserted at night and as one of our fellow travelers commented “San Salvador at 11 p.m. is rather like Dusseldorf at five in the morning!” On the plus side the city is the primary transport hub for the country. Inconveniently the bus stations are scattered haphazardly throughout the city and finding one to your destination takes a fair degree of effort, especially when, as we found, even the locals are unsure of their whereabouts. At times San Salvador can be an unbearable combination of stifling heat, car fumes and resounding clamor, so by midday we were pleased to be slowly chugging along out of the city.

The pacific coast of El Salvador holds several attractions to the traveler; the South West Coast has a growing reputation as popular surfing destination. We were heading south and east however, to relative serenity and the tranquil region of Montecristo Island. Our journey took us by bus and boat to a lush environment where flourishing mangroves provided a resplendent backdrop to the Rio Lempa. The region is a haven for wildlife, the sheer variety of birds in the region make for a mildly cacophonous soundtrack to wildlife viewing.

After a balmy evening spent lounging on the banks of the Rio Lempa, we were reluctant to move on, but our next destination beckoned. The tiny village of Alegria, whose main attraction for us was the prospect of a gleaming emerald lake situated in the crater of the imposing Tocapa Volcano.

The lake was beautiful but the views from the fertile slopes of Tocapa proved equally impressive, the visibility is generally such that whole stretches of pacific coast can be seen from this vantage point.

The next day we headed down to the pacific coastal planes once more, towards Playa Las Tunas a beach nestling close to the border with Honduras. Here the arid coastal planes converge with the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean providing the weary traveler with a welcome chance to rejuvenate their flagging senses. A bracing swim on an expansive, but virtually empty beach was the perfect antidote to our travel-induced fatigue, while also making us even less inclined to leave such a ruggedly beautiful country.



 

Finca Los Abuelos; exemplary rural tourism

By IXCHEL GRANADA

SAN ISIDRO, CHOLUTECA — Among the hills of northern Choluteca, the Southernmost department of Honduras, sits the small village of San Isidro. A short two-hour drive down Honduras’s southern highway from Tegucigalpa will bring you to the turn-off to the village.

San Isidro has a population of about 6,000. Four kilometers past the main village of San Isidro is located an even smaller settlement, El Rincon. Just beyond the last boulder lies the hanging stick bridge, which crosses a beautiful clear mountain stream and leads to the farm “Los Abuelos”.

Finca Los Abuelos still teems with wildlife. Along all trails, bird watchers will be thrilled with large groups of parakeets, and hummingbirds. A lucky visitor might catch a band of toucans or parrots.

Fifteen cows serve as an integral part of the farm, providing varieties of lactose products unique to Central America. The cows provide an example of the type of integrated organic agriculture that the center’s owner, Abel Ortíz, is trying to promote. Abel teaches farmers, through demonstration plots, that native grasses rejuvenate naturally and more nutritiously without burning, that leaving trees in grazing lands help to fertilize soil and host wildlife.

The Farm was converted to a sustainable and organic agriculture training center about two years ago. Twenty years ago, the owners stopped burning and clear-cutting the land, began to reforest with fruit and lumber trees in designated areas with the idea to promote sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism.

Sustainable agriculture workshops are taught to groups and use the following outline: Basic course of sustainable agriculture; propagation of plants and agro-forestry; and integrated pest management and integrated use of domestic farm animals.

The workshops bring participants to the farm for a length of stay between 4-6 days, and include a visit to a local farmer who is practicing the new techniques.

Los Abuelos hosts a variety of ecosystems one of which includes tropical dry forest which contains the second largest biodiversity reserves in the world, tropical rainforests being the first. Although many are aware of the tropical rainforests and their deforestation rates, few know about the diversity found in tropical dry forests and that it is the most endangered ecosystem on Earth. In Central America, primary tropical dry forest is almost extinct. Only Costa Rica has a National Park, which contains a protected area of primary tropical dry forest; Honduras is the only other country that has the opportunity to protect a rapidly disappearing area of primary tropical dry forest in its southeastern corner, in the Montana De La Botija.

If interested in learning more about Los Abuelos visit www.cch.hn or contact Abel Ortiz at 504 225 1902