TRAVEL & TOURISM |
Monday, March 29, 1999 Online Edition 151 |
By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG Good News from our tourism powerhouse neighbor to the south! Tourism, the number one source of hard currency in Costa Rica, brought a total of $812 million during 1998. Some 917,000 tourists visited the country during the year, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year, according to the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism. The largest number of tourists came from the United States, and the number of Americans visiting the country increased 23.2 percent over the previous year. Not to be redundant, it should be said that Honduras has an excellent tourism product line that can compete well with Costa Rica. Honduras took in some $150 million last year. The potential for growth is obvious -- it's all up from here! Honduran tourism after Mitch reached its lowest level in a long time, so it's on to bigger and better things from here on out! Could Honduras use an additional couple of hundred million per year in hard currency pumped into the economy? You're darn tootin' ...so what are we waitin' for! We can compete with the big 'muchachos' (Costa Rica, Guatemala and Belize) if only we work hard at it! Interesting maritime tourism news! Did you know that cruise lines expect to haul some 6 million passengers in 1999? Roatan is currently taking baby steps at attracting cruise ships to its shores. Islanders see great potential for future growth using Roatan as a new/virgin stopover. In a future Copan update we'll look a bit more in depth at the up-and-coming cruise ship niche in Honduras and Roatan in particular. Col beer here news! As we all know, nothing goes with a humid, hot tropical vacation like a cold brewskie! According to the Honduran Central Bank, Hondurans consumed a total of 223.8 million beers, 4.6 million liters of rum and 3.8 million liters of aguardiente (firewater). Don't ask me how the heck the Honduran Central Bank came up with these figures, but I'm sure it has something to do with the $25 million dollars paid by Honduran liquor manufacturers to the state in taxes in 1998. Copan's annual feria has come and gone. This year's version brought with it the good, the bad, and the ugly. On the one side there was lots of music, food, dancing and general merriment and on the other there were the requisite shootings, car thefts, garbage strewn here and there and passed out "chavos" in the streets. Well, the good news is that the feria is over until next year and the customary peace and tranquility has returned to the town of Copan. The bad news is that come March 2000, we have to go through the whole thing all over again! C'est la vie. To all my dedicated (and not so dedicated) readers of Copan Update over the years, I'd like to wish all of you a happy and peaceful Easter holiday. May the sun shine every day, may the wind be always at your back, and may the good Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand. Remember don't drink and drive. Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast. |
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Monday, March 22, 1999 Online Edition 150 |
By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG Things are gettin' stranger and stranger news! According to press reports, a bank was robbed in of all places the island of Utila. The tranquil, diminutive island is absolutely the last place where anyone would expect a bank robbery. The island only measures 7 miles long and 3 miles wide, so there is absolutely no place to run and hide. Upon realizing that the town bank was robbed, some 100 islanders set out across the island in search of the "bad guys." Obviously these guys are not the brightest cons in the world, I mean heck, who in their right mind would rob a bank on a piece of island the size of a suburban shopping mall, surrounded by the deep blue waters of the Caribbean, with no place to run, even fewer places to hide and a posse of furious islanders armed to the teeth in hot (tropical) pursuit? Sounds more like a script for a new Robin Williams / Billy Crystal movie! When you snooze you lose news: According to the Honduran Vice-Minister of Tourism, Honduras lost some $100,000 during Bill Clinton's visit to Honduras due to the fact that Tegucigalpa could not provide the required number of first class hotel rooms required by the Presidential delegation. The Clinton party solicited 800 first class rooms and the capital could only offer 700. Shake your belly news! Tunkul Bar, which has long been known by gringo trail aficionados as "the place" to party in Copan Ruinas, is now known as "the place" for exotic entertainment and culture as well. Tunkul co-owners Rene and Mike recently sponsored two straight nights of authentic belly-dancing with a dancer from New York City. Tourists and a healthy dose of wide-eyed locals really got into the swing of things, as new meaning was given to the term "audience participation." Rene did his version of "The dance of the 7 veils", and Susan of Cafe Vamos a Ver fame did her version of an exotic (although fully-clothed) dance. Good News (for a change): Although the first 3-4 weeks after the hurricane were a disaster for tourism in Copan Ruinas, things have picked up quite nicely. Tourists are back, although overall numbers are down. Copan's proximity to the Guatemalan border means that access to Copan from Guatemala is a snap. In addition, Guatemalan tourism, which is much stronger than in Honduras, means a steady stream of tourists, mostly from the United States and Europe, take a side trip to Copan using Guatemala as their base. Tourists are also coming into Copan via San Pedro Sula. Each month that goes by, tourism to Copan recovers a bit more -- good news for the town of Copan Ruinas as well as the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History, which receives the lions share of its budget from ticket sales to the ruins. Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast. |
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Monday, March 15, 1999 Online Edition 149 |
By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG Interesting Travel News! According to CNN, 21 percent of Americans would sacrifice a weeks vacation in order to hire a maid for one year. So when it comes down to making that tough choice between a clean bathroom and a week of R&R on a tropical beach, you know what one out of five Americans would choose! Things keep getting stranger and stranger news! Last month, U.S. Marshals got their man, the most wanted criminal on their list, in Tikal of all places. And what do you think that most wanted guy was doing in Tikal? Well, working as a tour guide at the ruins, of course. The 43-year-old tour guide just happened to be the ex-kingpin of a Wisconsin coke dealing ring in his past life. I can just imagine Tommy Lee Jones sweeping down low in his Blackhawk chopper over the Peten jungle canopy with the peaks of Tikal's Mayan temples below, guns blazing, sirens screaming (and a group of bewildered Dutch tourists in bermuda shorts scrambling for cover -- the ex-con was in the midst of conducting a tour at the time of his apprehension! New kid on the block news! Copan's newest bar/restaurant/cafe/hotel officially opened last week. Cafe Via Via is Copan's latest place to grab a cold beer, a good meal, a cup of coffee or book a local tour. The cafe is part of a chain of travellers' cafes around the world, operated by the Belgian tour operator, Joker. The concept behind opening cafes at the far corners of the globe is to create a fun, informative, cultural meeting place where travellers can meet and share insights and experiences. Via Via is bright, airy and clean and boasts a funky multi-hued paint job. It is located right smack in the middle of Copan's zona viva (nightlife zone), with Tunkul (the grand dame of Copan's night spots) right next door and Llama del Bosque, (Copan's número uno restaurant since the beginning of time) just across the street. Next time you find yourself in Copan Ruinas, be sure to check out all three (those in the know here in Copan call them the holy trinity)... See ya there and tell 'em Copan Update sent ya. Copan Ruinas' annual fiesta is fast approaching. The feria gives locals an opportunity to blow off a little steam through the liberal use of alcoholic beverages and some good clean fun. And while on the topic of clean fun, wouldn't it be nice if we could for once have a feria in town where the garbage got picked up? Copan hosted a group of some 50 travel agents and tour operators from El Salvador in February. The guests were wined and dined in grand fashion: dinner at El Jaral, cocktails and dinner at Hotel Marina, live music at The Tunkul, breakfast at a number of fine Copan hotels and a first class tour of the ruins with Honduran archeologist, Ricardo (Rosalila) Argucia. There are great possibilities of attracting Salvadoran tourists to Honduran shores -- Copan, the Bay Islands and Tela are Grade A attractions for Salvadorans. Let's see if Honduras can poner las pilas (literally, put in the batteries) and do what it takes to market Honduras in El Salvador. Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast. |
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Monday, March 8, 1999 Online Edition 148 |
Plenty
to see and do in the seaside town of Tela By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG
The North Coast beachfront town of Tela is a delight -- from its white sand beaches and clear coral reefs, to its seaside lagoons which are a birdwatchers paradise, to its funky ex-banana port town ambiance, to its myriad of inexpensive seaside seafood restaurants, Tela is happening! Tela moves to a decidedly Caribbean rhythm. The streets of downtown Tela boast more shiny, black, Chinese-made bicycles than cars. Garifuna women and children stroll the downtown and beachfront streets with baskets of freshly baked coconut bread -- highly recommended and highly delicious. Also for sale on street corners are freshly cut whole coconuts. For a few pennies, a young person will deftly raise a machete and slice the top off the coconut, pluck a straw in it, providing you with one of the freshest, most refreshing hot weather beverages you can imagine. To say that the coconut water within the shell is sweet and delicious would be the understatement of the year. Tela has a funky, forgotten, ex-banana port feel to it (probably because it used to serve as one of the major export ports for bananas heading to the States). There are old, creaky, weather worn banana era buildings all over downtown. The people themselves reflect the towns' banana era heritage, as they are a mixture of all colors and shades of brown. There are Garifunas, descendants of slaves and Carib Indians, as well as dark- and light-skinned residents. The women in this part of Honduras are especially attractive, given the rich mixture that has taken place in Tela over the last few hundred years. Almond-colored skin, long, dark hair, deep dark almond shaped eyes -- the women of Tela are truly a beauty to behold. Tela offers up a gastronomic delight for seafood lovers. Fresh fried fish is available in a number of restaurants on or near the beach. It comes served up with fried bananas, salad, a wedge of fresh lime just picked from the tree and a plate of white bread on the side. Together with a chilled Port Royal or Salva Vida, you've got the makings for one heck of a lunch. In addition to the justly famous fried fish of Tela Bay, one can also sample such specialties as shrimp, fish soup and conch soup, the last two being justly famous for their medicinal properties, especially in regard to curing or lessening the debilitating effects of a Caribbean Friday night hangover. Tela is close by, only 90 minutes from San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. The road is in quite good shape, Hurricane Mitch being gracious enough to spare this stretch of asphalt. Tela boasts the biggest and best botanical gardens in Central America. The Lancetilla Botanical Gardens are a delight, lots of tropical flora, tons of birds, plenty of shaded trails for walking, and only 10 minutes from the beach. Punta Sal National Park is truly one of the "must see" eco-sites in Honduras. Lovely white sand beaches, dense tropical forests with marked and signed trails, plenty of wildlife up close and personal. Two kinds of monkeys, capuchin and howler, scoot from tree to tree just feet above your head. Tropical fruit trees, hidden bays complete with deserted white sand beach, perfect for that romantic getaway. Access to Punta Sal is via motorized launch, a 1 hour trip. Lunch is partaken on Playa de Cocalito, an idyllic beach where the caretaker's wife will cook you up one of the cheapest and best fried fish lunches of your life. Highly recommended for the quality of their tours, excellent guides and good prices is Garifuna Tours, which specializes in tours to Punta Sal National Park. The tour starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. and runs only $15 per person, which has to be the deal of the millennium! There are a number of good places to stay in Tela. Built on the top of a hill, the Maya Vista has an awesome panoramic view of Tela Bay and the distant mountains -- truly spectacular. Rooms are pleasant, there's good food and the Canadian owners are very pleasant. Other recommended hotels are Hotel Sherwood, which is building a new wing of rooms and a new bar/restaurant; Hotel Cesar Mariscos, which is building a new restaurant; La Posada de Don Carlos, a newly opened family-run establishment right on the beach; and the soon to open French-owned Hotel Gran Central, which has received a wonderful refurbishing. |
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Monday, March 1, 1999 Online Edition 147 |
Modernization
in the markets of Comayaguela By MARK D. MORRIS (Second of three parts) As Comayaguela's privately subscribed market went up during May and June, little comment came forward from Tegucigalpa's press. However, at the market's inauguration a conciliatory stance was adopted. All important public figures complimented the community's initiative, and the reporter for La Nacion wrote that the market was a symbol of the "magic word of the century -- forward!" meriting the support of the highest authorities, who should work to impede, "the development of immorality and crime... Not the useful works of individuals or collectives." Initially, Comayaguela's bid for modernity paid off handsomely. "El Progreso" embodied its name and the beginning of modernization in Comayaguela. As the commercial center of the Villa, it was here that the campesinos of the outlying aldeas brought all their goods on burro and it was here that all citizens bought their necessities. It was then a meeting place of the campesino and bourgeois culture. It was a place of transition, a place where commodities and identities were exchanged, where barefoot peasants could become prosperous vendors. "El Progreso" succeeded so well that, by 1905, under the progressive alcalde Gen. Benjamin Henriquez, the municipality commissioned a new market in an extraordinary session on September 11. The central government stood firmly behind the project, donating $20,000. The municipality raised another $10,000 to purchase a large lot owned privately by Francisco Verde. The architects Cipriano Velasquez and Federico Werling were awarded the building contract under a concession of 14 years. However, the success of El Progreso did not wholly transform old attitudes toward Comayaguela's vendedoras. On April 3 of 1905, El Tiempo took the trouble to note that "near the market in the neighboring city every night they light immense bonfires to the fury of the Don Juans there." As for La Paz's editors 30 years earlier, the morality and decency of the Comayaguelas continued to be a public issue, an excuse to discount their status as equal citizens with an equal share in the republic and perhaps reason to impede public initiatives tied to their concerns. Similarly, in its "Revista del Mercado" devoted principally to trade overseas, El Tiempo noted from March to May high prices in the markets of both Comayaguela and Tegucigalpa, with maiz de montano selling for 5 reales per medida and el abanero for 6, frijoles for 7 reales per medida and arroz 15 centares per pound. In the last notice of this on May 6, the daily reported, "Food prices in the markets of both cities have not gone down by which one sees some farmers have made fat profits." In these days, the writer indicates, rather than a benefit to progress and the people of the town, the market was a place for gente de afuera to reap in excess. MODERN EDIFICE The new market was completed in 1908 at a total cost of $33, 969.50. Built of adobe and tile, 86 meters east-west, 56 north-south, it stood five meters in height adorned with cornisas and surrounded by sidewalks of quarried stone. A corridor of three meters ran through its interior, passing two large pabellones. Its interior also held a pila five meters in diameter and eight toilets with drainage to the outside. Iron gates barred all of its doors, and at the main entrance facing the Parque Colon was placed a large clock. It was a very modern building, and at its completion, it was officially delivered into the hands of Henry Burgois, Pedro Reina, Miguel Garcia, Ismael Velasquez and F. C. Bol, who presented a report on the work on September 28. The battle for "Progress" past, and this work as its own testament, the municipality baptized the new market "San Isidro," after San Isidro Labrador de Madrid, the patron saint of farmers. A capilla for the saint was placed near the walkway running between the market and Parque Colon, and the saint's day became an annual day of renewal for the market. During the Revolution of 1924, San Isidro was destroyed by fire, and from the 20th of July 1924 to July 25th of 1925 the market was entirely rebuilt. Like its predecessors, this new San Isidro was a public monument and a clear symbol of community pride. Its photograph appeared in every important local book or magazine of the era. In his "Sintesis Historica de la Ciudad de Comayaguela," for volume six of the Revista del Archivo y Biblioteca Nacional, Salvador Turcios R. includes two photographs of the newly rebuilt San Isidro. Shot from the north, the market lies in panoramic view spanning more than a city block in an open plain, shaded only by one tall ceiba. This majestic view of San Isidro is typical; its grandeur appears in the structure not in the use. However, in the picture of the main pavilion, the daily business of the market overcomes the portrait; beneath pillars marked clearly each with a number, sit women of various ages, all dressed in indigenous mantas, surrounded by three legged cantaros and other clay utensils or grains and vegetables set out in baskets. The appearance of these women at San Isidro in 1927 differs little from women seen in a photograph of the market San Miguel of Tegucigalpa taken by Dana Munro in 1916. The women sit, clustered together on the sidewalk, with their dark mantas pulled around them, shallow containers of produce at their side; here and there also is a black umbrella. Everyone is barefoot. It is clear, then, from the evidence of these photographs that indigenous traditions were a visible part of Comayaguela's markets up through 1930. GENTE DE AFUERA Maria de los Santos Barahona remembers these women as "gente de afuera." She began selling in San Isidro in 1936 at the age of 18 after her children were born. Before, she worked in a factory, and when she came to the market she "illegally" bought a puesto from a vecina for twelve lempiras. In the market, she sold successively grains, shoes, clothing, refrescos and finally alfareria. The women in the photograph of San Isidro she describes as "very plain" and "very distinct" in their dress and manners. These people are no longer in the market, and perhaps she opines, their dress and manners were better than some. Her description of the "gente de afuera" runs into reminisces of better days when the municipality only charged vendors a tax of ten cents for a canasto, twenty-five cents for a puesto and 1.50 lempira for a tienda (pieza). And, not only was everything cheaper, but the market was more orderly, cleaner and less crowded. It was a time of useful and progressive government regulation. Maria de los Santos recalls a requirement that every woman selling prepared food wear a hair tie and a simple white shirt. The reforms pursued by the newly united Municipality of the Capital District (M.D.C.) extended to ordering the market's commerce by rational economic principles. It began to publish detailed lists of taxes in the annual Plan de Arbitrios for wholesale and retail sales in the market. The Plan differentiated 13 classes of space for retail sales according to location, size and product. This list shows that transactions in the market are not, principally, an exchange of goods but are the currency exchanges mandated by Western modernity. Arranged alphabetically, the list of taxes for wholesale cargas brought into the market runs to four pages, breaking down costs in a mix of linguistic and economic convenientia (see box). BYGONE DAYS Like Maria de los Santos, for Maria Zara Variedades the women of simple and plain dress bring to mind things old fashioned -- when eggs cost five cents for two, cuartillos one cent for three and a plate of food 25 cents. Maria Zara grew up in San Isidro playing in the puesto of a woman of the older generation, an "india cacique." Born in Guacerique, Maria's parents moved to Comayaguela when she was a baby. Her mother arrived to the market barefoot, "una muchacha de afuera," and began to sell from a canastillo. Language was more polite she recalls; instead of "Comprame," or "¿Que buscas amor?," the women called "¿Que quieria marchante?" In those days, the indigenas carried their goods en bestia to the market and unloaded at the main pavilion. "There," she recounts, also, "were the foods and there they unloaded the vegetables. In the middle opposite to la iglesia Maria de la Immaculada Concepcion, was the porton of flowers, and along the side between Colon y San Isidro there was a walkway." Although she affectionately calls her godmother an "india cacique," she draws a sharp distinction between the people of the market and indigenas. "El indigena," she asserts, "sean los que cargaban en burros. La gente de afuera. De las aldeas." The indios came from "Curaren, de Intibuca, los de Ceraguani, Cantaranas, Yuscaran, Alguarcerique, Ojojona, San Buenaventura, El Horno, Sabanagrande, de Monte Redondo, Jamaica, Rio Hondo." The majority went barefoot, she says, and the women wore long skirts with blouses "del pueblo" carrying their children on their backs. Another woman who began selling in San Isidro in 1936 at the age of 13 affirms that then the market was more orderly and much cheaper, with vegetable stands costing 6, 10, or 12 cents. Unlike today where small vendors line the streets of five square city blocks, women gathered with baskets of fruits and vegetables only at the portones. Here also were the restrooms. In the middle stood the main pavilion. On one side vegetables and avocadoes were sold; on the other were grains and prepared food. It was here that the campesinos unloaded their burros carrying maiz, frijoles, vegetables etc. and the women seen in Turcios' photograph sold prepared food. This exchange of food and services between rural and urban occupied the market's central place because San Isidro existed for this commerce -- which was a commerce in not only produce and currency, but also in progress and modernity. San Isidro was an incubator for civilization. It brought the "gente de afuera" into the culture of civilized nations -- such as that which had beautiful public works like "San Isidro." To be continued. |
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The Caribbean port of Tela is most famous for its white sand beaches.
