Travel Tales

Honduras

Honduras has a coastline to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.  The Bay Islands are in the Caribbean Sea, a part of the 1,000 km. of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, famous to divers, as Roatan is known for coral reef dive sites.  Yet, Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, more than half of the population lives in poverty.

Once it was part of Spain's empire but gained its independence in 1821.  During the 1980s Honduras housed anti-Sandinista contras fighting the Marxist Nicaraguan government, and was an ally to Salvadoran forces fighting leftist guerillas.

Despite Hurricane Mitch and other severe storms in 2020 and 2021, and also Covid, it slowly regained its economy.  It has less than 10 million people.  Its populace consists of 90% Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) and 2% African, and 1% white.  Spanish is its official language but Amerindian dialects are spoken by the rural indigenous people.  

Interestingly, once 34% Roman Catholic, now 48% Evangelical.  Unfortunately, Honduras has one of the world's highest murder rates.  Education quality is poor and the drop-out rate is high.  Emigration to the USA is driven by limited job prospects outside of agriculture.  They export: bananas, coffee, sugarcane, beans, maize, poultry, cigars, and some apparel.

Mining activities pollute Lago de Yojoa, the country's largest source of fresh water with heavy metals.  Their major infectious diseases are: hepatitis A, dengue fever, malaria, and typhoid fever.

The climate is subtropical in the lowlands and temperate in the mountains.

It is a transshipment point for cocaine to the USA, and also produces illicit drugs. They depend heavily on US trade and remittances.  

They belong to UNESCO.

 

 

 

 

 

Alinka

 

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