| Cuevas de Talgua: The caves of glowing skeletons and skulls
Patrick Ahern
Honduras This Week
Patrick Ahern/Honduras This Week
The entrance to the Talgua Caves in Olancho. The Cuevas de Talgua national historical site is just one of many reasons to explore Olancho. Located just beyond Catacamas about 200 kilometers northeast of Tegucigalpa, the caves of Talgua were used as burial grounds by Pre-Hispanic Indigenous groups.
A few Hondurans and others knew the caves quite well, but it wasn't until 1994 that two locals and two North Americans were exploring the cave about 2,000 feet from the entrance and spotted an opening in the limestone about ten meters above the cave floor. The two Hondurans scaled the wall and when they peered inside with their head lamps they were shocked to be met by glowing skulls and skeletons, some on platforms and some in niches, but all carefully arranged and accompanied by some of their possessions such as pottery and jade. The foursome immediately reported their discovery to the Institute of Anthropology and History (IHAH) that began studying the site and built infrastructure for visitors and a museum. Further study has shown that the skeletons were painted with red ochre and that thousands of years of calcite dripping off the limestone ceilings encrusted the bones and gave them their fluorescent appearance.
Carbon dating of the bones makes them about 3,000 years old.
The carbon analysis also revealed that the group did not eat corn, but probably manioc (yuca), more a diet of South America than of Central America. This incredible discovery and the excavations of a large settlement nearby "has rewritten the history of pre-Colombian Honduras" according to Chris Humphrey in his Moon Handbook on Honduras. It places Olancho as a crossroads between Central American and South American cultures.
Archaeologists determined that the skeletons belonged to royalty due to the reverent way they were placed and the fact that there are only about 200 of them while the nearby settlement was much larger. Many Mesoamerican societies considered caves the entrances to the after life in the underworld and placed them inside to give them a head start on their journey. Subsequent exploration found two more caves nearby, one called the Cave of the Spiders which has some pictographs and more bones.
The burial chambers themselves are off limits, but taking a guided tour through the caves and studying the museum exhibits afterward is well worth it. The entrance fee is 10 lempiras for Hondurans and residents and $5 for foreigners. One then walks about 500 meters on an interpretive trail along the beautiful Talgua River and the dense forest of the Sierra Agalta National Park to reach the cave entrance. If you have the guide book produced by a Peace Corps couple and IHAH you can read about topics at eight stations ranging from butterflies to birds to limestone to the formation of rivers. Unfortunately vandals have destroyed some of the stations. Near the cave are a visitors' center, museum, dinning hall and rest rooms. A local association of guides charges another small fee to walk you through the cave and talk about the history and geological formations of the cave. Our guide, Mario, was very knowledgeable and courteous. The cave, which has a river running through it, has good lighting and a trail with concrete walkways and iron hand rails.
The tour of the cave took about 45 minutes, the museum another 30 minutes and then we enjoyed our picnic meal at the dinning hall supplemented with soft drinks and chips from the concession.
You can keep the guide under hire and explore what they call the Cueva Grande or take a short hike on another interpretive trail through the forest. For the more adventurous you can continue exploring the 92,500 hectare Sierra de Agalta National Park by hiking a circuit taking three hours or even hire a different guide to scale the 2,354 meter high Pico La Picucha which takes a minimum of two days. You can cross the whole Sierra de Agalta Range in 3-5 days and see the broadleaf, cloud and a dwarf forests which provide a home to monkeys, jaguars, ocelots and nearly 500 bird species including toucans and quetzals. Oh yes, and don't forget the 230 butterfly species including the bright blue morpho.
"Welcome to Olancho, Enter if you like and Leave if you can"
This sign, seen during the Contra war in the mid 80s, greeted travelers crossing the "border" from the Department of Francisco Morazan to Olancho and was hardly an invitation for tourists. Thankfully, times have changed, but Olancho still has a reputation as being a tough place with lots of cowboy hats and guns. I found the Olanchanos to be friendly and hospitable. The usual cautions pertain: Don't be on the highway at night and if you choose to go to night spots you need to remember that alcohol and guns are a dangerous mix.
To say that the road to Olancho is not great is an understatement. The section from Tegucigalpa to Talanga is especially full of pot holes. However, the traffic is lighter than the road to San Pedro Sula by a long shot. The 200 kilometer drive should take about three and a half hours if you don't get stuck in Tegucigalpa traffic leaving.
Probably too much driving to make it a day trip, but there is good lodging in both Juticalpa and Catacamas. Juticalpa is 45 minutes before getting to Catacamas and is the departmental capital. In Juticalpa the Hotel Posada del Centro is a gem with reasonable prices. More expensive, but in the country and with a pool which the kids would enjoy, is the Hotel Hojarasca. In Catacamas two of the better hotels are the Hotel Papabeto and Hotel Juan Carlos. For food, the As de Oro is highly recommended in Catacamas. In Juticalpa, I can personally vouch for the Italian and Mediterranean fare at Oreganos.
Juticalpa's cathedral with beautiful wood and its Franciscan statues is worth a visit as is the Casa de Cultura with various exhibits. Both of these attractions are on the beautiful Parque Central as is the colonial municipal palace.
I have only touched upon a little of what Olancho has to offer. The real draw is the national parks including La Muralla, El Boqueron, and El Carbon. It is also the departure point to La Moskitia through the Rio Platano and Rio Patuca. Olancho is larger than El Salvador. Explore it!
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According to Ministry of Tourism stats, Honduras in 2006 saw a 10% increase in tourists over 2005. In 2006 1.14 billion tourists visited Honduras with more than half staying an average of two nights. Tourists spent a total of $473 million in the country.
A little closer to home in Copan Ruinas, the ruins saw 170,526 visitors in 2006, a 12.5% increase over 2005. However it must be remembered that this figure includes all tourists, foreign as well as Honduran and many Honduran tourists visit Copan just for the day without spending a night, so Copan has plenty of room for growth.
According to hoteliers in Copan, occupancy is not as high as it should be and there are a number of factors which explain this. First off there has been something of a mini-boom in recent years of hotel construction and expansion. A number of new hotels have sprung up around town and many existing hotels have added rooms and have renovated old room stock, especially in certain price ranges. In the high end range for Copan, which is about $90 for a double, there are only a handful of hotels and competition is not quite as fierce. However, in the $20 - $25, there are a lot more hotels, both new and old, fighting for limited market share.
A recent article in La Prensa focused on the problem of low hotel occupancy in Copan and the methods to try to counter this tendency. Foremost, the article stressed the need to diversify and offer additional attractions and products to visitors. For example coffee tourism, nature tourism, crafts tourism, an additional archeology museum in the center of town and a tourism center at the old fort, located a few blocks from the town square. All these projects are geared to increase the length of visitors stay and provide a more well rounded and exciting experience. In addition there are projects under way to beautify the village of Copan Ruinas through the use of building codes, zoning, building material codes, color codes, signage codes etc, thus putting some order in what to date has been a virtual free for all in terms of construction of residential and commercial projects in and around town. A number of examples can now be seen in Honduras where towns have initiated complete makeovers of their historic downtowns with truly spectacular results. One need only look to nearby Santa Rosa de Copan which has totally remade its historic downtown. Comayagua, the nation's first capital, has undergone extensive renovation of its historic center as well.
Even such far flung towns such as Trujillo and Gracias are beginning to jump on the historic preservation bandwagon. Obviously, Copan Ruinas is a prime candidate to preserve its charming village center. However, fierce opposition by many sectors in town have stymied many attempts to fully implement downtown preservation guidelines which were drawn up by a team funded by the World Bank. There have been some success stories, such as the removal of inappropriate signage for example, but there remains much to be done, especially in terms of remodeling and renovation restrictions and new construction guidelines.
Experts agree that if Copan get its quaint downtown in order, average tourist stays will increase leading to a higher hotel occupancy rate across the board with all hotels regardless of category partaking in the benefits. As construction growth in town hits record levels, it is critical for Copan to fully implement to World Bank/Valle de Copan Project guidelines if Copan is to remain competitive in an increasingly globalized and competitive marketplace.
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