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27, January 2005 The Shadow over Honduras
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View
our accompanying slideshow |
For nature tourists Honduras is shrouded in the shadow cast by Costa Rica. Nature travel to Honduras is generally limited to diving in Roatan. For travelers "nature tourism" and Costa Rica have become virtually synonymous. Mesoamerican countries such as Panama and Honduras continue to struggle to carve out an independent identity or brand.
In May 2000 I traveled to Honduras to assist RARE in organizing the Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance (MEA). We bunked at Lancetilla, and met nonstop for a week as we hashed through the details of the new organization. Lancetilla Botanical Garden is the second largest tropical botanical garden in the world. Established by the Tela Railroad Company (think United Fruit) in 1926, the garden offered me the opportunity to become introduced to the birds of Honduras. One afternoon we kayaked the Rio Platano in Punto Izopo National Park, gliding within arm’s reach of Howler Monkeys, Sungrebes, and Boat-billed Herons. After a week of Bare-throated Tiger-Herons calling from the palms outside our Lancetilla meeting room, I vowed to return as an avitourist.
And return I did, in January 2005. My wife and I, joined by my parents, travel to a different nature destination each fall (the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving). In 2004 we delayed the trip, since I had been engaged to speak in Thunder Bay, Ontario that week. We chose to travel in early January 2005, with the destination being the Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras.
In my earlier trip to Honduras I had become acquainted with Pico Bonito National Park and its staff. I knew the basics about the park; over 100,000 hectares of virgin rain and cloud forest, with an unexplored core area of over 500 square kilometers, seven different ecosystems, jaguars, tapirs, monkeys, alligators and over 275 different species of birds. A few years ago a lodge had been developed at the fringe of the park, providing access to the forest and its nature resources. With a wife and parents in tow, a full-service lodge fit the bill.
After a short flight from Houston to San Pedro Sula, we were collected at the airport by lodge staff and whisked through Tela to the lodge (daily flights are also available to La Ceiba, only an hour from the lodge). The manager of the lodge, Louis Alicea, greeted us as we ascended the steps to enter the lobby. His singular attention to detail (the wishes and desires of his guests) would set the standard for our stay. As one who has been around the hospitality trade for two decades, I must admit that I have never seen a management more attuned to the clientele.
Admittedly impressed by the accommodations, they only accentuated the appeal of Pico Bonito itself. Although we were limited to the areas we could access by trail during day hikes, the park overwhelmed me in its splendor. My wife and I hiked each day, climbing jagged (and at times almost impenetrable) trails (with names such as the "Tangle Trail") to idyllic nooks such as Unbelievable Falls. The grounds of the lodge itself offered fantastic birding, with exotic species such as the Lovely Cotinga and Blue-crowned Chlorophonia streaming in to feed on the wild avocados and Cecropia fruit. We were awakened each morning by the soft "chucks" of wintering Wood Thrushes, only to be jarred from our beds by the blasts from mobs of Brown Jays.
Yet the hikes into the rain forest itself revealed the true grandeur and richness of Pico Bonito. During our brief stay we saw Great Curassow, three species of tinamou (Slaty-breasted, Little, and Great), three species of toucan (Keel-billed, Yellow-eared Toucanet, and Collared Aracari), three species of motmot, and five species of trogon. During a day trip to Cuero y Salado (a coastal refuge, accessible by a century-old narrow gauge fruit train) we were treated to the iridescent blue flashes of the Morpho cypris, a butterfly so luminescent that my eyes refused to focus.
At the end of the week I had seen 155 species of birds (download a list of birds seen during the trip), and I had only barely penetrated the edge of the park. The guides at the lodge were adequate, and given the terrain many of the trails would be confusing (even threatening) without experienced help. Day trips are available to white water rafting, horseback riding, as well as an overnight trip to the Maya ruins at Copan.
Yes, Honduras is (in Churchill’s description of Russia after WW II) "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Yet the Lodge at Pico Bonito is lifting the edge of the veil, revealing a nature tourism location that easily competes with the gold standard — Costa Rica. Combined with the hospitality of Louis, his wife Patty, and the staff, the Lodge at Pico Bonito and Pico Bonito National Park hold their own when compared with any nature destination in Mesoamerica.
Ted Eubanks
27 Jan 2005
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