Honduras This Week Travel and Tourism June1999

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

The Honduran National Congress is considering making mandatory the charging of a 5 percent surcharge in restaurants, bars, hotels and other related businesses. The surcharge will be divided up by management and distributed to employees. Right now, some high-end restaurants charge an obligatory 10 percent tip tax, but most restaurants do not. There are strong sentiments both for and against the mandatory tip tax. Most employees strongly favor a mandatory 10 percent tax, while guests would probably prefer a voluntary system of sliding scale tips, depending on the quality of service rendered. Business owners would just as soon not deal with the headache of collecting and equally dividing up tips, but then again if their employees are earning more tips experience usually tells us that those better paid employees will provide better, faster and more cheerful service.

Costa Rica, our local down home Central American tourism leader, received $356 million in tourism revenues during the first four months of this year, which is 6.3 percent higher than the same period last year. Compare this to Honduras, which in all of 1998 took in an anemic $150 million. According to the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, between January and April 1999, 263,000 visited Costa Rica, some 9,000 more than the same period last year. In 1998, Costa Rica raked in a total of $812 million and received a total of 940,000 visitors. (Hey, they don't call Costa Rica the "Rich Coast" for nothing!) According to government projections, Costa Rica will hit the 1 million tourists per year milestone by the year 2000.

Did you know that by law, Italians receive 42 days of vacation days per year. Eat your heart out America!

In other news from the "old country," but closer to home, an Italian resort is close to opening on West Bay Beach in Roatan. The opening of the resort will be accompanied by a weekly charter flight between Milan and Roatan. Can the arrival of super models, quaint little Italian restaurants and cafes be far behind? Let's hope not. I could kill right now for a plate of baked ziti, with some fresh baked Italian bread, a good red wine and a steaming espresso.

Copan News: The Asociacion Copan will put out a new/improved/redesigned newsletter in the coming weeks. It's being put together by a group of Copan volunteers who meet each week at Cafe Welchez for iced coffee and editorial sessions. As the end of June approaches all thoughts in town turn to the imminent arrival of (more) tourists. July and August mark vacation time for many North Americans and Europeans, which is reflected in the number of foreign tourists coming to Copan. One of the biggest differences between the two groups is the amount of time they can dedicate to a Caribbean/Central American holiday. As mentioned, Europeans get a lot more time off to engage in world travel than the average Joe Blow from Grand Rapids. And interestingly enough the average length of a U.S. vacation is decreasing, with most North Americans taking long weekends a couple times a year as opposed to taking a long vacation (which in the States means two whole entire weeks). I mean, shoot, by the time Joe Six Pack flies from his hometown to gateways Houston or Miami and catches a flight to San Pedro Sula, hops a bus to Copan and then repeats all that on the flip-flop, half the poor guy's vacation was spent eating little happy meals at 30,000 feet above the earth!

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast. Contact him at casadecafe_@yahoo.com.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

Tela gets down! Now, we've all heard no doubt of Tela's balmy Caribbean climate, its pearly white sand beaches, its verdant national parks, its tasty seafood specialties and its rich ethnic mix of races. To that impressive list we can soon add Honduras' first undersea oil pipeline. Built to permit incoming oil tankers to off load their petroleum cargo, the soon to open pipeline will be submerged 40 feet below the surface and will stretch about two miles out into open sea. According to a Honduran oil company executive, the pipeline will pose no environmental threat to Tela Bay (and if you believe that one I've got a nice piece of ex-banana plantation land out near La Lima that I'd like to sell).

Things keep gettin' stranger and stranger news: According to press reports, the Cuban airline Aero Caribbean initiated service to Honduras in early June. The flight will cover the route Havana-San Pedro Sula-Belize. Although Cuba and Honduras do not have diplomatic relations, Cuba is beginning to promote travel packages to the island. Wealthy Hondurans with the means will now have an alternative travel destination apart from the usual shop-till-you-drop travel getaways to Miami or Houston. Now, for the first time, wealthy Hondurans will be able to spend their vacations at a country more "screwed up" than we are here in Honduras.

Cuba is an economic basket case where state workers earn the equivalent of $15 per month and the only thriving business on the island are the hordes (1 million made the trek last year) of Euro tourists out for a little fun, sun, a good cigar and a beautiful mulatta. Add to the mix a nation with no freedom of speech, nor press, nor freedom to criticize the regime, nor the liberty to travel outside of the country, and top it all off with an aging, fatigue-clad, cigar-chomping, pistol-packing geriatric ex-guerilla and you've got the makings of one heck of a tourist destination! I can just see all the wealthy Hondurans walking around with their newly acquired "My grandpa' went to Cuba and all he got me was this olive green, Che Guevara t-shirt."

Not so new airport news: All of us who have travelled outside of Honduras via air know all to well that the exit airport tax to leave the country now stands at a hefty $25. Given the current state of the discount air fare wars in the States, that $25 today could probably buy you a o/w ticket from Miami to the Big Apple!

Or to look at it another way, its about a weeks salary for an average Honduran worker! Now of course, not many poor, working class Hondurans can pick up and take the kids to Disneyworld for a weeks vacation. But that's really besides the point. The logic behind the "grande" tax is that the airport needs the bucks to operate and provide a certain level of service and since the vast majority of those passengers travelling outside the country are "wealthy" then they should do their part to subsidize the airport. Which actually makes very good sense. Obliging the minuscule few who can afford to travel to pay a large exit tax sounds about right. And when I say minuscule class of wealthy Hondurans, I do mean minuscule. According to published figures, only some 1 percent of all working Hondurans earn $700 or more per month.

So how do all those wealthy globetrotting Hondurans, expats and returning tourists feel about shelling out $25 big ones at the airline check-in gate? Well, I think I've got a clue....next time you fly out of San Pedro Sula on an international flight take a look at the receipt (in Spanish) that you received upon paying your $25 exit tax- Across the front, stamped in big black letters, is the word (in English) "USED." Now, I'm not quite sure if they mean "used" in the sense that the tax was paid, because many a departing traveller could easily take it to mean that they've been "used" after plunking down a small fortune solely for permission to leave the country. You decide.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.

Santa Rosa awaits with a western welcome

By WENDY GRIFFIN

Santa Rosa de Copan is western Honduras' largest city. A number of tourists pass through here on their way to or from El Salvador. Others change buses here on the route between the colonial town of Gracias, Lempira and the Mayan Ruins of Copan. However, few stop to enjoy Santa Rosa's quiet charm.

In the colonial period, the town was called "Los Llanos de Copan." "Llano" is the Honduran word for grasslands. Not surprisingly, Santa Rosa was a center for cattle ranching. Some processing of indigo plants (anil or "xiquilite") to make indigo dye also took place. However, the glory of colonial "Los Llanos" was its tobacco, used in the production of Honduran cigars.

Tobacco is a natural around cattle, as it is one of the few plants they will not eat. In Honduras, there are usually two growing seasons for corn. Tobacco is grown only in the second growing season. Thus the land can be used to grow corn and beans in the first growing season, and tobacco in the second.

Santa Rosa is still famous for its cigars. The Flor de Copan cigar factory is located here, two blocks west of the central plaza. Here they produce the famous Zino line. Cigar Aficionado magazine considers it one of the most visitor-friendly factories in Central America. Tours can be arranged from 8 a.m - 5 p.m., Monday-Friday and 8-11 a.m. on Saturdays. Zino cigars are now even available over the Internet through the Cigar and Coffee site if you do not have time to visit Santa Rosa.

If you have wondered how coffee got from being green or red beans on a tree to being roasted coffee for your coffee maker, you could visit Beneficio Maya in Santa Rosa. They roast and sell export grade Honduran coffee. A "beneficio" processes the coffee beans to remove the thin green coating from the coffee bean, which is called the "pergamino."

While you are in Santa Rosa, you will need to eat. With choices from steak houses to chop suey, there are several different kinds of food available. This is unusual in most of western Honduras where white bread is still considered a novelty.

One of the friendliest places is Pizza Pizza, which also acts as Santa Rosa's Internet cafe. Owner/manager Warren Post will happily provide you with detailed information on local travel, or even travel to the Mosquitia. He is helping to coordinate a Mosquitia relief project with Honduran, American and Canadian Rotary clubs.

If you are eating a pizza in Honduras because you do not know how to say anything else in Spanish, consider the Santa Rosa de Copan language school. With few tourists to talk to, you will have to learn Spanish.

Santa Rosa itself has always been principally a ladino or mestizo town since colonial days. In part this was because indigo dye works and working in gold mines of nearby San Andres Minas were prohibited to Indian workers. It was felt this work was detrimental to the health of the Indians thus was better suited to blacks or mulattos. The Spanish did try to force Indians from as far away as Gracias to work for free in "Los Llanos," which prompted both letters of protest while entire villages moved up into the mountains to escape recruitment.

One way to find the Lenca Indians of today is to contact Max Elvir who runs Lenca Land Trails from Hotel Elvir in Santa Rosa de Copan. He organizes cultural, ethnic, hiking, birding, and horseback trips. Few people can make the folk culture of western Honduras so interesting. Reservations can be made by e-mail at <lenca@hondutel.hn>.

It is an easy 3-hour bus ride from Santa Rosa to the colonial town of Gracias in Lempira. The people at Guancasco Restaurant there sell Lencan pottery, or can help you get to La Campa, a large Lenca village where they make the pottery. During the week of its fair, perhaps 50,000 people visit La Campa, which is famous for its "garrobo" or spiny iguana dance. Gracias' fair is spectacular with its "guancasco" or ceremony for peace combined with a dance-theater piece, "Moors & Christians".

Belen Gualcho is another Lencan town, but located south of Santa Rosa. The Celaque National Park, with Honduras' tallest mountain and highest tropical cloud forest, can be reached from either Belen Gualcho or from Gracias. There is a smaller Montanita park as you leave Santa Rosa de Copan.

Only 90 minutes north of Santa Rosa in La Entrada is La Puente Archaeological Park. This Classic period (300-900 AD) Mayan ruin shows Lenca influence. The charming museum that had been right in the center of La Entrada town is now located in the visitor's center of the archaeological park. So Santa Rosa makes a comfortable headquarters from which to tour Western Honduras. It is connected by direct luxury buses to San Pedro Sula, by Copaneco and Toritos lines. Congolon, which continues on to Ocotepeque, also stops in Santa Rosa de Copan. Sultana de Occidente provides direct service to Tegucigalpa.

Gracias, Santa Rosa de Copan, and La Entrada suffered little damage during Hurricane Mitch. Although there was some flooding of fields in Copan, most tobacco was not yet planted then, but rather was in nurseries when Mitch hit. Food supplies are reported adequate in the region and the coffee was successfully harvested. All roads and hotels in the region are open. Those with Internet access can read more at <http:www2.planeta.com/mader/planeta>.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

Hard to believe news. According to a study titled "Projections for Tourist Arrivals in Central America" that was presented at the Expotour travel fair in Costa Rica, the Central American nation that will experience the greatest increase in tourism over the next 10 years will be none other than Nicaragua! Now, I know you're probably saying to yourself right now, Nicaragua? According to the study, Nicaragua, which last year hosted some 381,000 visitors, will see some 730,000 visitors by the year 2008, an increase of 91 percent. In second place will be the current numero uno, perennial tourism powerhouse Costa Rica, which should see an increase in tourist arrivals of 81 percent over the next 10 years, bringing Costa Rica's total number of visitors to a nifty 1.2 million.

Closer to home, neighboring Guatemala is slated to host some 473,000 visitors by 2008 and last (but certainly not least) is the "home town team," Honduras, which is slated to host some 323,000 visitors.

According to another recently published article, in 1997 Honduras hosted some 306,000 tourists and the country took in some $145 million in tourism revenues. In my mind though, somethin' just ain't right here regardin' dem der numbers.' The fact that tourist arrivals per year are only projected to rise by a paltry 17,000 per year over the next 10 years, just don't cut the mustard with me, especially when the Institute of Tourism of Honduras is projecting increases in tourism revenue along the lines of $250 million per year by the year 2001 and $450 million by the year 2006.

The important point here I want to make though is we in Honduras have only one direction to go, and that is up. Given the fact that Honduras makes such a poor showing in terms of tourism revenues when compared to our neighbors to the north and south (Costa Rica took in a very respectable $751 million in 1997), then Honduras has an open playing field ahead of itself. With a variety of top quality products that can compete nicely with the big boys on the block -- aka Costa Rica, Guatemala and Belize -- there is no reason that Honduras cannot become a major regional player.

As I've repeated many times in this forum, Costa Rica would kill for Honduras' pristine reef diving, Mayan archaeological sites and live cultures. These three areas alone provide enough niche products to satisfy travellers seeking specialized travel experiences.

What Honduras must do though (and it hasn't up until now) is to use savvy marketing and promotion along with a proactive, dynamic public and private sector to push through the muck and ooze of archaic regulations and entrenched indifference to tourism and get the tourism ball rolling. If not, we are doomed to read a lot more bad news in the coming years, such as the above study results telling us that we in Honduras will be relegated to sitting out the tourism game in the bullpen while our more dynamic and go-get-em neighbors to the north and south are out on the field receiving all the glory (and the bucks)!

* * *

Great service news: A two-week, 20-hour course to train waiters and waitresses in the fine points of restaurant service was offered free of charge at the Hotel Marina Copan in Copan Ruinas during the first days of June. Such workshops go along way at improving service at the many local restaurants, bars and cafes here in Copan Ruinas. Although service is in general quite acceptable in many establishments, there is always room for improvement and refinement of knowledge and technique. I'll never forget an employee of mine who at a previous seminar responded to a question by the instructor concerning the different types of wines available to clients: "We have white, red and black."

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.

Try Triunfo for a taste of Tela without the crime Triunfu, Honduras
Typical restaurants on the beach of Triunfo are made with "cana brava" and palm thatch roofs.

By WENDY GRIFFIN

With white sand beaches, waves and coconut palms, many people are attracted to the Tela Bay area. If the crime rate in Tela puts your nerves on edge, consider making Triunfo de la Cruz with its small hotels your base around that seaside city.

Triunfo is easy to get to. Located east of Tela off the main Tela-La Ceiba highway, it is accessible by local bus (if it is running) or by taxi from Tela's market. In theory, it is in easy walking distance both along the beach and from the highway turnoff, but both of these are bad ideas due to thieves. According to Dolores Lopez, a Tela resident, Tela only has two "maras" (gangs), but they are very good at what they do.

The name of the town predates the arrival of the Garifunas, many of whom were forced out of Tela in the 1930s when the town claimed the land near the pier for non-payment of municipal taxes. The story behind its name, "Triumph of the Cross," is that the first mass on the Central American mainland was supposedly held here. The main objection historians have to this story is that the ship that stopped here had no priest on board, so therefore there could not have been an "official" mass.

PROLANSATE, the local environmental agency, has requested the point at Triunfo de la Cruz be made a national monument to commemorate this first mass (which might not have happened). The Garifunas are not happy about this move, nor about the creation of a national park to the east of Triunfo called Punta Izopo.

Triunfo is the second or third largest Garifuna community in Honduras, with approximately 5,000 people -- about the same size as Santa Rosa de Aguan. Its size classifies it as "urban," but its streets are mostly sand, the roofs are made of palm leaf thatch, and many houses are made of "cana brava" or wild cane. Some houses suffered damage during the hurricane and many people were evacuated.

Tipico restaurants on the beach offer Garifuna food like conch soup. Although the sea reclaimed several feet of beach after the hurricane and coconut trees took the worse for winds and disease, the village is still charming.

This is a good village for obtaining cassava bread, made of ground up manioc root, as there is a women's cooperative that makes cassava for sale in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Before the hurricane, they were grinding 900 pounds of manioc root (yuca) a day. Now it depends on what they can get.

If you stay the night, you will certainly hear Garifuna music, if for no other reason than Triunfo has its on Garifuna radio station. At night you may run into people dancing "punta" at a wake or getting ready for Christmas dances or for the fair. Triunfo has several dance groups -- women's, men's, teenager and modern Garifuna music.

It is also possible to reserve presentations through the Garifuna Museum or GariPlaza in Tela. Moreover, this is the village that stages the new play, "Danzas con las Animas" (Dancing with Souls) about the Garifuna ancestral ceremony dugu. The night I was there women were dancing abeimajani, a women's healing dance from this ceremony candlelight, which was truly awesome.

There are several advantages to going with a Garifuna Museum tour. For example, the guide can show you medicinal plants and tell their stories, such as one plant has white sap most of the year, but on Good Friday, the sap (leche) turns red to remember the blood of Christ. Our Garifuna guide told us that as a boy he had snapped a twig of this plant on Good Friday and saw that it was true.

With a guide, one can visit the homes of the women who make coconut bread and buns (bounu) to get them hot from the oven. If you complain of sore feet, the guide can show you where to get "guifity," a medicinal wine that has six herbs in it, which reportedly is excellent for arthritis and tiredness. The "buyei" or shaman of Triunfo has said she is willing to meet with people participating in the tour.

Another possibility is to arrange for a cane trip down the Plantain River. Insect repellent and anti-malarial medication will be appreciated, but this is a good way to see water birds.

The Garifuna hotel and restaurant owners also told us many insightful stories about their town. Triunfo has been a center of Garifuna land struggles, a saga that included the jailing of a mayor of Tela and the violent deaths of several Garifuna leaders.

Although Triunfo has been popular with tourists for more than a decade, the only training the local entrepreneurs have received from the Honduran Tourism Institute was on keeping the beach clean. There are no telephones to make reservations and neither the hotel nor the restaurants have signs.

With Triunfo so easy to reach from both San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba, it is a convenient "let it all unwind" vacation spot. For additional information, contact the Garifuna Museum, Apartado Postal 127, Tela, Atlantida.

Honduras' tourism destinations to be on the net

By JORGE FLORES MCCLELLAN

Special to Honduras This Week

TEGUCIGALPA -- Everything from the best plane seat in flights to Honduras, to the most experienced jungle guides or dive masters, and the best and most affordable restaurants and hotels will be detailed and at the fingertips of the world through the super web-site or portal the Instituto Hondureno de Turismo (IHT) will have on the Internet.

All of this is part of a Latin American, multi-lateral effort in conjunction with the Organization of American States (OAS) to modernize and streamline the continent's tourism, the industry that projections show will be the biggest seller on the net by the year 2001, with 43 percent of the commerce worldwide.

Norman Garcia, director of the Honduran Tourism Institute; Kenia Lima, marketing director; and Roberto Portugal, the project director sub-contracted by the OAS, explained last Monday how the system will work. The DMS, or Destination Management System, will contain the vast majority of the tourist-oriented businesses in the country and pertinent information on how to get here, what and what not to do, and how to do it.

The idea is to present all possible options so that anyone interested in traveling to Honduras can choose from a wide range of activities and prices directly on the Internet. Moreover, travelers will also be able to make contacts and bookings through the Internet without having to deal with middlemen.

According to Lima, an independent international study made of the Central American region gave Honduras the highest potential due to the fact that it has all of the following: archaeology, cultural and ethnic groups, diving, nature and colonial patrimony.

None of the other Central American countries rival Honduras in potential. For example, Guatemala has an immensely rich, live, Maya culture, among other attractions, but it has no diving; and Costa Rica has very little in the way of archaeological sites. Belize has an excellent record because it was not involved in the regional conflicts of the 1980s and has had international promotion, but it has no Spanish colonial heritage.

To answer why El Salvador advertises in Honduras and not viceversa, Lima explained that El Salvador is a destination for regional tourism while Honduras is a destination for the world.

One of the main problems concerning eco-tourism in Honduras' vast protected areas is that there are little or no visitor's centers. The same is true with colonial and modern cities. All this is currently being worked on with the government and with the sponsoring of native handcrafts, festivals and ceremonies. "Poverty" is not being sold, but the rich, ethnic background and the vast natural variety.

There is already a pilot DMS project functioning in several Latin American countries and its results will serve to consolidate the system, which will sell "Central America" as a whole destination and include the five-star to no-star getaway, so that the tourist will "experience" his or her own custom-made trip and not "buy" the place.

The system will take some time to become operational because the digital data banks are being created from all the tourist chambers. There are many advantages in the system for the seller of tourist-oriented services and goods, and for the tourist himself, the first and foremost being that you will not have to leave your seat in front of the computer to know everything there is to know about Honduras.

For tourism businesses that wish to be included in the DMS,contact the IHT located 200 meters north of Los Castanos Mall, Edificio Europa 5to piso, in Tegucigalpa or at tel. (504) 222-2124, fax 222-6621, and e-mail <ihturism@hondutel.hn>.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

The "crema y nata" (creme) of Copan Ruinas' society came out last week to celebrate a singular occasion, the birthday of Don Mike Valladares, co-owner of Copan's premier gringo bar/restaurant, the infamous Tunkul. The select group of celebrants were invited by Don Mikes gracious wife Liz, who in addition to being a lovely hostess and a whiz in the kitchen, does a hellova mean load of wash at her laundry/bookstore/tourist information center.

Among the select group of invitees were Dr. Castro and his always charming wife, Mimi, who just returned from an extended trip to California, Harvard Phd candidate Alan Maca, Copan archaeologist extraordinaire. Alan was accompanied by his equally nice and wonderfully cosmopolitan girlfriend, Jennifer, who is also undertaking Phd studies in Copan. Also in attendance were yours truly, accompanied by his lovely wife Angela as well as Copan archaeologist Cassandra Bill.

The select group was finely attended by Liz and Mike. The nectar of the grape (wine to the rest of you) flowed like water out of a pila and there were yummy munchies to get the palate warmed up for the main event to come. Mimi's hummus' dip (if you don't know what hummus is think refried beans without the black beans and substituting garbanzo beans -- and don't forget to 86 the manteca and liberally add some virgin olive oil).

After some dexterous barbecue action, displayed by master grillman, Don Mike, the main course, served buffet style, appeared. Heaps of lovely grilled chicken with a tasty mango-chutney grilling sauce, potato salad, tomato salad bathed in a tangy vinaigrette, home-baked baguette fresh from the oven, and real home-style baked beans.

I just had breakfast a few minutes ago and I'm already hungry all over again just thinking about it. To top it all off there was a light spongy, sponge cake with a layer of fresh mango sauce laced with a hint of Flor de Cana and some other wonderful spices. By the time the steaming pot of espresso hit the table we couldn't ingest another gram of anything. Hats off to the 30-something (or is it 40-something?) birthday boy and Liz for the good chow, as well as the rest of the gang for the good company.

* * *

Copan's central park is receiving a much needed and well deserved makeover. The park currently looks like downtown Belgrade after a visit from a pair of F-16s. The park has been totally torn up by a crew of workers in preparation for construction. It is estimated (and hoped for) that the new, improved park will be mission ready for the millennium celebration, which is rapidly approaching... t minus 7 months and counting.

* * *

In other Copan news, the annual May/June slow season has hit like a bucket of cold Rubi waterfall water. Incoming tourism has slowed to a trickle and tourism entrepreneurs in town wait in a state of semi-suspended animation for that happy, long-awaited day when the tourists begin to make their yearly summer migration south of the border.

This year we have been especially hard hit during our accustomed low seasons due to the lingering effects of the highly negative publicity brought on by Hurricane Mitch. Many potential tourists wrongly believe that Honduras was wiped off the face of the world scene by the storm, which is quite inaccurate.

To repeat (for the absolutely last time in Copan Update), Honduran tourism is open, ready and able to accept tourists who desire to come. Our beaches are open, reefs open, archaeological ruins open, roads open, airports open. In a nutshell, everything is open.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.