First hotel school opens in Tegucigalpa 

School is expected to become the 'Zamorano' of the tourism sector 

The new three-floor building located in Col. 21 de Octubre in Tegucigalpa will house a hotel and restaurant for the general public. (Photo by Suyapa Carias.)

By SUYAPA CARIAS 

TEGUCIGALPA -- Honduras is best known for its abundant natural and historical treasures, but also for its lack of adequate infrastructure and of tourism-educated people.  This could change in the near future, however, with this week's opening of the Madrid Hotel School in the Col. 21 de Octubre district of the capital.

Conceived seven years ago, the $4 million project has been developed by the not-for profit Madrid Foundation in an attempt to meet the needs that the growing tourism sector has long been demanding from the local labor market.

Built and conditioned with funds provided by the Ayuntamiento de Madrid and the Spanish International Cooperation Agency, the school has the support of the Canovas del Castillo Foundation and the Foundation for National Development (FUDENA), who are members of the Madrid Foundation's board of directors.

Board members also include representatives of the Hotel Association of Honduras (AHAH), the Honduran Chamber of Tourism (CAMTURH), the Ministry of Tourism and the National Institute of Professional Training (INFOP).

According to its promoters, the center will develop a flexible, training curriculum that will allow students to become trainers themselves in the areas of management and reception, bar and restaurant service, and food and drinks.  Each course will be offered in 480 hours over a six-month period.  For this purpose, 30 teachers from the Official Tourism School of Spain recently arrived in the country.

During the inauguration ceremony, Tourism Vice Minister Victor Hugo Molina said the school is an integral effort that clear demonstrates the interest of the civil and public sectors in helping national tourism development "to take off."

Salvador Corroto, manager of the Madrid Hotel School; Miguel Palacios, business attache of the Spanish Embassy; Victor Hugo Molina, vice minister of Tourism; Jose Ramon Martinez Madrid, president of the Madrid Foundation; Nelson Licona, director of INFOP; Ronald Barahona, president of CAMTURH pose in front of the new hotel school following the inauguration ceremony. (Photo by Suyapa Carias.)

Meanwhile, Miguel Palacios, business attache of the Spanish Embassy, said "my government believes that there is no better cooperation than training, and if there is something Spain has experience in it is tourism, as [Spain] is the second [most popular] destination in the world... now, we have brought this experience to Honduras and we hope the school becomes an international reference in its field."

Later, CAMTURH President Ronald Barahona recognized that in Honduras "we have been doing things in a rather improvised way, because we haven't had the opportunity to train our people."

Jose Ramon Martinez, president of the Madrid Foundation, reminded listeners that the school represents one more step toward achieving the collective well-being that the country is seeking.  He said that as the national labor force relies mainly on women, this new job opportunity center is in great part oriented toward this gender.

Besides formal training, the hotel school will offer lodging for 64 students, one restaurant for students and another for the public, hotel service for the public with fees around $25 to $30 per night, and a job net to be coordinated with AHAH.

For more information, call Salvador Corroto, director and manager of the Madrid Hotel School, at 236-5857.

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Cafeteria Frostie's offers cool treats in Choluteca 

Comedor Central on Central Park is a good place for tipico food.

By WENDY GRIFFIN 

When you hear about Choluteca, the first thing you hear about is the unbearable heat.  So when a restaurant with a name as cool as Frostie's is within two minutes walking distance of the hotel, it is very, very tempting.

Cafeteria Frostie's is owned by the same management as Hotel Pierre and Pizza King, near the market in downtown Choluteca.  It lives up to its name by offering banana splits, milk shakes, and ice cream floats with Oso Polar (polar bear) Ice Cream.  Even with all the cows here, it is still impressive that Honduras makes some good ice cream and this is one of my favorite brands.

Southern Honduras is famous for its cultivated shrimp.  Here you can have shrimp pizza (Lps. 50), a shrimp submarine sandwich (Lps. 50), breaded shrimp (Lps. 70), or rice with shrimp (Lps. 60), which are significantly better prices than you pay on the North Coast.

If you are not in the mood for shrimp, other possibilities include hamburgers, submarine sandwiches and a variety of pizzas.  For breakfast they serve continental, Honduran breakfast, ham and cheese omelette and an American breakfast.

Except for breakfast, almost the same menu is served around the corner at Pizza King, which has more staff and thus faster service.  The decor at Frosties is clean, but a little dark and uninteresting.  Pizza King has the more open, brighter decor found in most pizza places.  Frosties is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., so you can get breakfast before you head to the beach.  Pizza King opens for lunch and dinner until 7 p.m.

So, if you are looking for a cool treat after a hot bus ride or western food, or something other than beans and rice, go to Frosties and Pizza King.

If you are thinking, I did not go all the way to southern Honduras to eat what I could have eaten at home, then you might want to try the picturesque Comedor Central on Central Park.  Here is a chance to enjoy the coolness of an colonial-style adobe building while sampling Honduran foods.

In the heat, a whole meal can be hard to take.  They have juice, sandwiches, bread filled with beans and sour cream, and bread with eggs, as well as ice cream.

Pozol made of corn, cinnamon, water and milk is the traditional drink people urged me to try in the south.  They serve it here.  A new tradition in southern Honduras is the growing of cashews.  Southern grown peanuts and cashews are sold here.

In cattle ranching country, the most traditional Honduran food is carne asada.  This is beef, cut up into cubes, marinated in a spicy sauce and grilled over wood or charcoal.  Usually served with tortillas, rice and beans, to most meat-loving Hondurans this is the food of the Gods.

However, since Choluteca is near the sea and wetlands, crab soup is available as the daily special (plato del dia) when it is in season.

Here is where the Hondurans hang out, near the Mayor's office, the church, the park, so service is fast.  The restaurant looks clean and the friendliness of the staff surprised me.  When you eat Honduran food in Honduras, it is usually very good, as was the case here, while trying to eat American food, even something as simple as toast, can often be a disappointing experience.

After a few panes con frijoles y mantequilla (bread with beans and sour cream), a cold juice and purchasing some water for the road and cashews for my family, I am ready for a day at the beach.  So, no matter what your style, Choluteca, which is not usually on the tourist road, can still offer a pleasant experience if hurricane relief or a vacation take you that way.  

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The Best of Honduras, Part VI

Best Ecotourism Project/Copan Ruinas

Hacienda San Lucas is Copan's only true ecotourism project, offering plenty of nature, great vistas and good eating, all just minutes from the ruins and village of Copan Ruinas.  San Lucas has a little bit for everyone: bed and breakfast rooms, horse rental, nature trails, the Los Sapos archaeological site, plenty of comfy hammocks, great views of the Copan River Valley and an open air restaurant serving up yummy portions of home cooked Honduran country fare.

Tourism projects that stress ecotourism, like this one, are few and far between in Honduras, so it is important for tourists to support such noteworthy projects that place emphasis on sustainability and the protection of ecosystems.  Info: <sanlucas@honduras.com>.

Best Overnight Side Trip from Copan Ruinas

Seen the Copan Ruins, done the nearby hot springs, did the requisite hour horseback riding jaunt into the nearby hills and not quite ready to head back to San Pedro Sula and the North Coast?  Well, fear not, an alternative solution is at hand.  Why not consider continuing your journey deeper into western Honduras for a couple of days?  Here's a sample itinerary.  From Copan Ruinas, hop the 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. direct bus to San Pedro Sula, jumping off the bus (not literally, though -- I don't want any lawsuits!) in La Entrada.  From here catch a bus to Santa Rosa de Copan and then a cheapo collective taxi into the center of town.  Santa Rosa is the center of commerce and business in western Honduras.  It's a laid back, colonial inspired, decidedly un‑touristy town.

The best place in town to get the latest info on what's shakin' is at Restaurante Pizza Pizza.  In addition to servin' up a mighty fine pie, expat proprietor Warren Post is a wealth of info for the gringo trail trekker.  The restaurant also serves as an Internet cafe, so you surf the web as you wolf down your pizza of preference.  The main mecca for tourists to Santa Rosa is the Flor de Copan cigar factory, where they roll their cigars the old fashioned way: by hand, one at a time.  Their cigars are shipped to some of the finest tobacco shops around the world and you can purchase a box or two at the factory as well.

After the requisite cigar tour and pizza lunch, catch another one of those convenient collective taxis back down to the bus terminal for the third leg of the trip: Santa Rosa de Copan - Gracias.  Gracias was once, for a brief time, the capital of Central America.  Strolling down its streets lined with crumbling colonial era structures, one gets the impression that not much has changed during the past century or so.  Take away the pick ups that rattle down the cobblestone streets and eliminate the big Coca Cola signs that proliferate like blackbirds all over town and you could almost imagine what Gracias was like at the turn of the century.

Towering over all of this decaying colonial splendor is Celaque National Park, one of the finest and most accessible parks in Honduras.  A hike up Mt. Celaque is a "must do" and hearty trekkers will be rewarded with fine views, pristine nature and great flora and fauna.  The best place to lay your head in town is at the Dutch-owned Hotel Guancascos.  Comfortable rooms at a very comfy price and a stones throw away from the massive San Cristobal Fort (great views of town from here).  Info: Pizza Pizza: <wpost@hondutel.hn>; Hotel Guancascos: <fronica@datum.hn>.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.  He can be contacted at e-mail <casadecafe@mayanet.hn>.

Tourism Institute launches awareness campaign 

Tourism Minister Ana Abarca

By SUYAPA CARIAS 

TEGUCIGALPA -- Highlighting the slogan "tourism is everybody's enterprise," the Honduran Institute of Tourism (IHT) last week launched a new national media campaign aimed at creating a real tourism culture among this country's residents.

Kenya Lima de Zapata, IHT marketing vice president, explained to a large group of business people involved in the tourism sector and the media that the concept of tourism culture is understood as the expression and recognition of the benefits of tourism by the host community, and the transmission of such feelings to visitors.  It implies the creation of an "ineludible" bond between the quality of life of the host community and the quality of the visitors' experiences.

She said that in the process of reaching such a collective state of mind, it is imperative to extol this country's values and to transform them into actions.

Abarca said that through this campaign, IHT wants to restore the people's love of their country, "to appreciate our culture and resources, and to know how to project them to others.  Honduras has a wide variety of products to offer: beaches, colonial towns, archaeology, nature, but if we don't have the right attitude, any efforts made by the government will be wasted.  It is about being proud to be Honduran... otherwise, we will continue to compete with other cultures, wishing we were Mexican, Italian or from another nation that has caused an impact on us."

The campaign has been divided into three phases.  The first presents the tourism industry as a big common enterprise; the second phase talks about how this enterprise, through its products, can help people improve their economic situation; and the third phase addresses how all Hondurans can be part of this enterprise that is expected to open the path of development in Honduras.

Meanwhile, IHT Minister Ana Abarca said that in 1999, the country earned $185 million through tourism, a number she considers could be much higher in the near future.  "A diagnosis made by the government points out that Hondurans are poor for two reasons: because we receive low incomes, and because those incomes are unequally distributed.  In my opinion, we have the capacity to solve these negative situations through tourism," she said.

Although the main attractions Honduras offers to tourists are archaeology and diving, the institute intends to develop the concept of rural tourism, as a strategy to better distribute potential revenue.

An important aspect of the current IHT campaign is the awareness and training program that was signed between Honduras and Mexico in 1991, through the Mundo Maya organization.  Since that time, more than 6,800 persons -- among them taxi drivers, law enforcement officials, hotel personnel and customs employees -- have received training on how to treat tourists.

In the coming months, IHT will unveil a new tourism map and it will train fifth and sixth grade teachers on what tourism culture is about, in this way starting a multiplying educational effect among the new generations of Hondurans.

Top off souvenir shopping with tasty Honduran food

By WENDY GRIFFIN

Souvenir shopping is easy in Tegucigalpa.  You start at Parque Central on Miquel Cervantes Street, the street between the Cathedral and Burger King.  Then walk up Cervantes past souvenir shops and Tegucigalpa's best bookstore, Libreria Guaymuras.  When the street ends, cross the bridge over the Rio Chiquito and go up the hill toward the souvenir shops near or in the Honduras Maya Hotel.

If you are the type of person who enjoys Santa Barbara baskets, Vaca Negra Coffee Liqueur, embroidered shirts from Omoa or paintings by Maury Flores, then the Meson del Buen Sabor (The House of Good Taste) will probably appeal to you as a lunch or snack stop on your shopping tour.  To reach it, just continue one more block up the hill past the Honduras Maya.

The Meson del Buen Sabor is actually a food court for five small restaurants.  The table area is light and airy with white tile floors and walls cheerfully painted pink, blue and white.  The tables are of dark Honduran woods heavily varnished to shine and resist water damage.  Every table has a colonial-style vase made in Santa Lucia, Francisco Morazan with live flowers in it.

The restaurant called "Nachos" had soup -- a coconut milk broth with cheese floating in it.  Stuffed pipian squash accompanied the rice.  Even adding a large Coca-Cola, the meal was only Lps. 50.

If you even feel distraught over where to take your out-of-town vegetarian guests, this is one place where he or she will eat well.  D'l Tropico offers fruit salads and licuados -- the fruit, ice and milk shakes that are so popular here.  Coca-Cola can be purchased anywhere, but in-season papaya milkshakes gives you the real taste of the tropics.

Cocina Creativa offers pita bread with vegetables and tofu (carne soya).  For meat-eaters, steaks, surf and turf and breaded spicy fish cakes are available.  If you are not that hungry, ham and cheese, chicken, tuna fish and club sandwiches are also available.  As in the rest of Honduras, vegetarians can order a cheese sandwich by asking for a ham and cheese sandwich without the ham.

Other restaurants here offer chicken, spaghetti and pizza.  If you think that no visit to Honduras is complete without eating flan, the restaurant closest to the door offers flan with caramel sauce.  Arroz con leche or rice pudding, another traditional dessert, is sold at D'l Tropico.

Every table was full for lunch, a good sign that over the last two years the restaurant has gained good acceptance among the locals.  It helped that the air conditioning was working on this hot sunny day.  The staff was surprisingly friendly and attentive, something not found often in Honduran restaurants.

So if souvenir shopping or other business takes you to the area around the Hotel Honduras Maya, try El Meson del Buen Sabor located across the street form the Peace Corps office.  It is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday as it caters mostly to a downtown worker crowd.

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By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG 

Best of Honduras, 
Part V

Best Gringo Bar, Copan Ruinas:

For as long as anyone 'round these parts can recall, the Tunkul Bar has been the place for savvy gringo trail trekkers, suitcase laden tourists, off-island divers out for a little mainland fun in the Mayan sun, and expats from near and far, as well as a healthy dollop of party hearty locals.  The 'Tunk,' as aficionados call it, has been serving up some of the coolest tropical cocktails, the greatest oversized palatial plates of hearty bar food, and the personal are always on the ball, under the watchful eyes of owners Mike and Rene.

Tunkul began a number of years ago on a wing and a prayer with the dream to create Copan's first true gringo trail bar/restaurant experience.  Now a decade later, Tunkul continues its tradition as the premier place to meet, greet, eat, drink and party hearty in Copan Ruinas.  Lauded by every guidebook from Japan to Germany, The Tunk defies a mere recommendation as the best place to party in Copan -- to fully appreciate it for yourself, follow these suggestions: ease up to the bar 'round the start of happy hour (for novices that would be about 8 p.m.), sample the  cocktails or your ice cold brewskie of preference, belly up to the bar and engage the dueno de turno (either Mike or Rene) in a bit of casual bartender-type conversation while you peruse the crowd of travellers from a dozen plus nations whilst the sound system zips out a constant stream of classic rock.  By 9 p.m., the sacred gong has been rung, marking the end of happy hour festivities and the real partying begins.

When it comes time to pay your bar bill, head back to your hotel where a nice comfy bed and (hopefully) a hot shower await.  Don't forget to pay your respects to Don Mike or Don Rene on your way out the door.  One day, say when the next millennium rolls around and Tunkul may be just a memory in the minds of a dwindling bunch geriatric gringo expats, retired former backpackers and aging archaeologists from way back when, they may raise a monument in Copan's Central Park to these two guys and on it, chiseled in stone, it may read: To Mike and Rene of Tunkul Bar -- you guys rocked dudes!  Info: 651‑4410.

Best Breakfast Buffet, San Pedro Sula:

The Intercontinental Camino Real is without a doubt San Pedro's finest high end hotel.  In addition to the great rooms, excellent service and amenities up the kazoo, the hotel serves up the best all you can devour breakfast buffet.  Hard core breakfast aficionados can munch down on a vast array of typical breakfast yummies; custom prepared omelettes, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruits, yogurt, breads, juices, and the list goes on.  For the price of a pair of Whooper combos, one can belly up to the breakfast bar and gorge oneself in true business class style.  Note: This breakfast buffet is not for the faint hearted, come hungry and plan to spend the better part of your early morning.  Info: 553‑0000.

Best Low Cost Night Out, San Pedro Sula:

Looking for a relatively low cost night out on the big town?  Well, here's the skinny -- catch a flick and a pizza.  There are a number of good movie theaters near the stadium area, Cines Plaza being the biggest and best of the bunch.  You can catch a first run film for about $2 a head, and go crazy at the snack bar filling up on the requisite fresh popped popcorn, soft drink and assorted imported candy bars from the United States.  Afterward, head downtown to Pizza Hut, order up a deluxe grande pie with everythin' on it, a couple of cans of coke and head back to your hotel room for a bit of cable surfing and pizza.

My recommended cheapo hotel is the centrally located Hotel Terraza.  Pretty it ain't, but it is reasonably clean, has in-room color cable TV, fan (a/c is extra), even an elevator and a downstairs restaurant.  And with the movies and pizza just blocks away, what more can one ask for?  Info: For movies, check La Prensa, San Pedro's best daily.  Hotel Terraza 550‑3108.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.  He can be contacted at e-mail <casadecafe@mayanet.hn>.