Community Tourism in La Ceiba, great alternatives at a magnificent value!

Few Central American destinations offer such a great variety of options for community tourism as does La Ceiba! You see, La Ceiba is right on the Caribbean Coast of Central America, and is the gateway to the Bay Islands of Honduras. La Ceiba is the capital of Atlantida, the new up and coming destination that offers the most extensive alternatives for Honduras Travel!

The Garifuna culture is one of the brightest highlights in Atlantida, and for that matter, all of Honduras. This unique, Afro Antillean culture has been given the status of Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO. There are several places within the destination where you can experience the Garifuna community tourism in La Ceiba: The Garifuna villages of Corozal, and Sambo Creek are located only a few miles east of La Ceiba. You can easily drive to these communities and experience first hand the highlights of Community tourism in La Ceiba. For a more complete experience, consider traveling to the Cayos Cochinos Marine Reserve, a unique National Park that offers a pristine Caribbean setting with the added benefit of boasting the most authentic Garifuna community in the World: Chachahuate.

This small community lives on a tiny cay, with the same name: Cayo Chachahuate of Chachahuate Cay, a sand bar where you will find rustic cabins made of wood, thatched palms and a lively Garifuna community all set in a white sand beach completely surrounded by the turquoise blue Caribbean Sea!

For those looking for a full immersion in the Garifuna culture, you can even plan on staying on the very primitive and Spartan accommodations in Chachahuate, or you can also plan on staying at the Cabanas Laru Beja in East End, another small Garifuna community in the Cayos Cochinos, which offers much better facilities.

Cayos Cochinos is located a few miles off the coast of Sambo Creek, and can easily be seen from the mainland. Travel time to Cayos Cochinos is a mere 40 minutes is a motor boat, making a trip to the Hog Cays very easy!

Other options for community tourism in La Ceiba can be enjoyed in the Cangrejal River Valley, in the vicinity of the community of Las Mangas. Here you can visit a small rural community, sleep in their community owned cabins, and enjoy a series of hiking tours around Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios National Parks. Visit a grass roots community organization, Guaruma that offers computing and environmental education to local kids, who will personally give you a tour through some of the trails they maintain!

Community Tourism in La Ceiba truly offers many different alternatives! Come and stay with us at La Villa de Soledad B&B and have a memorable experience interacting with the local communities!

July 17, 2015

Best of Honduras, National Parks, tourism in Honduras, World Heritage sites in Honduras Biosphere Reserve in Honduras, Cacique Lempira, Celaque National Park, Gracias, Lempira

Did you know that there is a new Natural World Heritage Site in Honduras?

As of June 10, 2015, Honduras has a new Natural World Heritage Site registered in the UNESCO. The site, named Reserva de la Biosfera del Cacique Lempira, Senor de las Montañas, which translated into English would read Cacique Lempira, Lord of the Mountains Biosphere Reserve is located in Western Honduras. The anchor for this new biosphere reserve is none less than Celaque National Park, home of Honduras’s highest peak, Cerro de Las Minas which reaches an altitude of 2849 meters above sea level. Also known as Celaque, this park, as well as the Cordillera de Celaque mountain range are part of the most rugged territories in Honduras and Central America.

Named after the almost mythical native leader, Lempira, who valiantly fought against the Spanish Conquistadors, and became the first national hero of Honduras when he was murdered in cold blood during a truce that the Spaniards declared to negotiate with Lempira and his army, the new Natural World Heritage Site in Honduras promises to help attract more tourists while at the same time preserve this unique natural heritage of humanity. The new biosphere reserve has a total area of 168,634 hectares and includes several municipalities within the departments of Lempira and Ocotepeque.

With this newly declared Natural World Heritage Site, Honduras now has three in total: The Archaeological Park of Copan, which was designated Cultural World Heritage; The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve and now the Cacique Lempira, Senor de las Montañas Biosphere Reserve, these last two under the category of Natural World Heritage Site.

The Honduran Forestry Conservation Institute was in charge of putting the file together to support the request for the Natural World Heritage Site Status, and is proof of the commitment that the government of Honduras has to preserve its natural heritage. At the time, efforts are under way to propose other Natural Heritage Site in Honduras: one in the Gulf of Fonseca, on the Pacific Coast of Honduras and the other in Atlantida in the North Coast of Honduras. Work has commenced in order to have all the proper documentation by the September 2016 deadline!

Visiting the new Natural World Heritage Site in Honduras is easy! The gateway is through the beautiful colonial city of Gracias, capital of the department of Lempira. There are many different hotels where you can stay while in Gracias. Birding in the area around Celaque is outstanding, and there are many lovely rural colonial villages within the territory!