Tropical Rain Forest Adventure

This town is great if you like historic things. You get to see the Mayan ruins, and Santa Rosa is noted for excellent hand rolled cigars (Flor de Copan), the makers of the famous Zino line. The factory is only two blocks west of the central plaza and allows visitors to enter and view the process. You can take a tour in English or Spanish. Inquire at Pizza Pizza.

Quick Tips:

Study the map before you go anywhere. If you start in Copan stop in Santa Rosa.Go to Tegucigalpa. See Choluteca and leave on an airconditioned bus for San Pedro Sula. Travel to Omoa, Pto.Cortes and stay a night in Tela.

Find your way to La Ceiba. Go to nice places outside this town. Visit Trujillo. And definitely visit the islands of Roatan and Utila if you want to get off the tourist path.

Best Way To Get Around:

I found many ways to get around here. It just depends on where you are going that day. We tried them all: walking, driving, flying(the local helicopter), fourwheeler and yes, the old donkey!

The price was very reasonable. The house we rented was, maybe, 25 feet from the beach. Great location! The people from Las Cupulas were very helpful with anything we needed. Unless you want to share West Bay Beach with 3,000 visitors from cruise ships and the mainland, do not go to Roatan Island the week prior to Easter.

The favourite spot for the local English speaking crowd. Informal with a pleasant atmosphere. A great place to relax and enjoy the local cuisine. They have Satelite TV and other things to much to list. If you go there you have to try a local item `Pollo Marlon`! Chicken, you`ve never tasted it like this.

There are so many things to see I just have to list them all. When in La Ceiba try to see the following things: Rio Maria (take a bus for Sambo creek), Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge (33 km. from L.C. on Caribbean shore). If you like excitement try the Congrejal River Rafting (some of the best white water rafting in C.America), The Butterfly and Insect Museum (5000 butterflies and more), Pico Bonito cloud Forest, Villa Rhina (H-wy towards Jutiapa) great restaurant, bar, hotel and fresh mountain water ponds, Playa Peru (across from Villa Rhina Club) Picture a beautiful sunset from your window, ROATAN, major island of the Islas de la Bahia in Honduras.

Cayos Cochinos. Make no mistake - This is A PARADISE just off the coast from La Ceiba. 13 different keys or small islands. Hard to get to but well worth your trouble. Travel to a place called Armenia (on the road to Trujillo) and arrange the crossing from there. The cost is about $ 30 US per boat - return. It`s a simple fishing boat. Cayos Cochinos have been declared a Biological Reserve by the gov. of Honduras. Number of things you cannot do there. You will love it. May want to live with a Garifuna family.

We went to the Copan Ruins. The road was very good except for a washed out bridge right at the entrance to the town of Copan Ruinas. I've seen highway 1 here in California in worse shape. The people of Copan were very friendly and surprised to see tourists from the direction of San Pedro Sula. Most tourists of late had been coming from the Guatamalan border. Our news of Roatan was well received as they seemed to be under the impression that it was as devastated as Guanaja. We stayed at the Casa de Cafe and had a wonderful time. The Ruins were incredible.

Some really exciting monuments and tombs are here in Copan. Everything is surrounded by the wild forrest.

It`s hard to get here. It's pretty interesting to get to. They said it's good to buy a trip from Guatemala only to Copan, since you`ll pay less for your visa at the border but that's your choice.

We took a private three-and-one-half hour tour through the undeveloped East End of the island. The tour gave us a unique opportunity to enjoy the landscape and soak up the local culture. At the stilt-village of Jonesville we boarded amotorized dory (crude boat) for a brief trip along the shore and through beautiful naturally-formed mangrove tunnels. We stopped at Harble Hill Farm, where jams and jellies are made from locally-grown flowers and fruits like hibiscus, apple-banana and mangoes. Hummingbirds were pleantiful in the garden. We met members of the Garifuna, descendants of the Black Carib Indiansd who settled there in 1796. We had a Garifuna steel band and dancers who greeted us as we left the ship. Also on the tour we had a demonstration of their music and dance. Some of the people on the tour were selected to dance with the women during the dancing demonstration. Small shopping area was adequate. The ladies of the village braided hair for the women who want them too.