Frequently Asked Questions

I am often asked questions about Santa Rosa de Copán and western Honduras. What follows is a list of those questions and their answers that I have not integrated into the rest of this site. If you have a question, browse the list below; it may be that your question has already been asked and answered.

On this page you will find:

• Copán Ruinas, the Bay Islands, and other irrelevancies
• Money matters
• Communication and transportation
• Working in Honduras
• Land ownership and real estate
• Personal safety
• Contact information
• Other questions

Copán Ruinas, the Bay Islands, and other irrelevancies

Why is there no information on your site about Copán Ruinas / the Mayan ruins of Copán / the Bay Islands / the coast and the beach?

My site focuses on Santa Rosa de Copán and the surrounding area, which is where I live and where I know the most about. There are several good references on the web to each of those destinations, which you can find on my links page.

What? Isn't Santa Rosa de Copán the same place as Copán Ruinas?

No, Santa Rosa de Copán is 110 km (70 miles) southeast from Copán Ruinas. You are not alone in your confusion; several supposedly reputable travel guides in print and on the web get it wrong. To confuse things further, some people incorrectly refer to Copán Ruinas as merely "Copán". Avoid this gaffe; it marks you as a tourist and a rube. Copán is the name of the province in which the towns of Santa Rosa de Copán and Copán Ruinas are located.

Oh come on. At least tell me something about Copán Ruinas!

Plan to spend one day and night in Copán Ruinas, more if you are a archaeology buff or like to take things easy. I recommend the Casa de Café bed and breakfast.

Ron Mader and Jim Gollin's excellent book Eco Adventures in Honduras advises "the ruins, like most great archaeological sites, are best visited twice. Go once with a guide or a tour book, paying attention to names and dates and archaeological history. Then return with nothing but your imagination to enjoy the timeless mood of the place. You will probably learn more on your second visit."

There is a bus leaving Copán Ruinas for Santa Rosa twice a day.

Money matters

How should I bring my money?

U.S. dollars. No other currency is commonly accepted or exchanged in Honduras; not even the currencies of neighboring nations. Bring some cash in bills no larger than 50's, and the rest as a surplus on deposit in your ATM or Visa card account. Many banks will change American Express travelers cheques (no other brand) and will give cash advances on your Visa card (again, no other brand, so leave that Master Card at home). Most businesses will not accept anything other than local cash, so do your currency exchanges at the bank.

Santa Rosa de Copán and most other cities in Honduras have ATM machines, and you will find that they are considerably faster than waiting in the sometimes long lines in the banks.

There are informal money changers in Honduras. The practice is completely legal but rates are normally no better than what you will get at the bank, so again my advice is to exchange at the ATM or bank.

Many businesses in Honduras feel no obligation to make change for customers. Carry local currency in small bills so that you can make your purchases with exact change.

Be forwarned that a 2005 Central Bank regulation prohibits banks (and thus indirectly businesses and money changers) from accepting foreign currency that is even slightly torn or worn. Hondurans joke that it is easier to pass freshly printed counterfeit dollars than legitimate used ones. If you bring dollars cash, bring only clean and crisp bills fresh from the printing press. Should you be stuck with unchangeable dollar bills in Honduras, save them for the next country on your itinerary. All neighboring nations will welcome your money.

How much money should I budget for my trip?

This is one of those trick questions that is easy to ask and impossible to answer. What is a reasonable budget for me would be excessive for another, and not nearly enough for a third person. But:

• Bus fare, San Pedro Sula - Santa Rosa de Copán, deluxe: US$5.75
• What the locals eat: US$2.50/person
• Fanciest restaurant in Santa Rosa: US$12.00/person
• Clean cheap hotel w/private bath: US$15.00/double
• Fanciest hotel in Santa Rosa: US$50.00/double
• Typical taxi fare in San Pedro Sula: US$2.65/person
• Beer in an inexpensive diner or snack bar: US$0.85
• Soft drink in a corner grocery: US$0.60

As always, your mileage may vary.

How can I send money to a friend or organization in Honduras?

There are two options. The easiest but most expensive method is via a service like Western Union or American Express's MoneyGram. The recipient can claim the money (in local currency) at the bank you chose at the time of sending.

The second option is a wire transfer into a previously opened account in a Honduran bank. I have done a fair bit of this with funds donated for various Rotary Club projects in Santa Rosa de Copán. There are at least two banks involved in any wire transfer: sender and receiver. A bank will only work with a foreign bank if a working relationship has been previously established between them (making them "correspondent banks"). In a typical wire transfer one or several intermediate banks pass the money along, each taking its cut, until a correspondent bank to the receiver can be found.

How big are these cuts? As big as a banker wants them to be. Union Planters Bank in Florida once charged US$50 to pass along one wire. It is thus both cheaper and faster to eliminate these middlemen and work directly with a correspondent of the Honduran receiving bank of your choice. Any Honduran bank should be able to provide a list of its correspondent banks. If it cannot, seek another bank.

My best results have been with Banco Atlántida (in Honduras) and Chase Manhattan Bank (in the U.S.). They charge very low rates (Banco Atlántida only five lempiras). As to exchange rates, banks in Honduras are required to use the current Central Bank rate.

If the funds are wired into a local currency account, they will be converted into local currency by the bank upon arrival. If the funds are wired into a U.S. dollar account, they will be deposited as dollars. The recipient can then withdraw the dollars (normally as a check, almost never as cash) and shop for the best rate of exchange. In practice this is more trouble than it is worth, as the difference between the Central Bank rate and the street rate is usually less than $0.01 per dollar. If an unofficial changer will accept a check at all he will usually offer a dramatically lower rate, more than offsetting any gain. I suggest changing the dollars into local currency at the bank at the time of withdrawal.

Communication and transportation

I need to send a package to (or from) Honduras. How should I do it?

When speed and reliability are most important, I use what the U.S. Postal Service calls International Express Mail and what most other postal systems (including Honduras's) calls Express Mail Service (EMS). It has been nearly as fast and just as reliable as DHL in my experience, at about half the cost.

When price is the most important issue, I use the regular mail system. A small package sent international parcel post will take two or three weeks between Honduras and the U.S., a week or two extra to or from Europe.

Use the Honduran postal system? You're kidding, right?

Not at all. It works better than the postal system of any other developing nation I am familiar with.

Maps show a road between Gracias (near Santa Rosa) and La Esperanza (in west central Honduras) but I can not find any information about it. Can you help me?

That is my favorite road in Honduras, passing through lovely scenery and skirting little mountain villages tourists never get to. It is slowly being graded and paved and so its condition varies greatly. Some weeks it is in fine shape, other weeks it is a wretched and poorly marked jeep trail. If you plan to drive this route, inquire in Gracias or La Esperanza before continuing.

Public transportation in the form of a daily minivan works this route, in which case the road condition is the driver's headache, not yours.

When riding the bus, do you have to purchase a bus ticket at the bus station, or do you just get on the bus and pay the driver?

In Honduras you normally take a seat and once on the road the driver's assistant will come to your seat and take your fare. Try to have exact change, because otherwise you are inviting the fare taker to forget to give you your change back.

Some express buses are exceptions. For them, buy a ticket in the bus station prior to boarding.

Working

Are there job opportunities teaching English in Honduras?

Yes. You can do this informally and on your own, as I did at first, but I recommend getting a job with a bilingual school. Spanish ability is not normally a job requirement, but should be. I taught one year at a school that had two teachers who could not speak Spanish. It was a very frustrating time for those teachers and for their poor pupils. You do not need to be fluent, but being able to express yourself is necessary.

You should make a certain time commitment to the school: three months absolute minimum, and the longer the better. Additionally, the longer you teach the more you will enjoy it (getting to see the fruits of your labor, etc.).

A tourist visa does not entitle you to work in Honduras. A special work permit from the Honduran Ministry of Labor is required. This is best obtained by your would-be employer.

Land ownership and real estate

I want to buy property in Honduras. Any tips?

There is a certain amount of land fraud in Honduras and buyers who do not practice due diligence may fall victim to it. Do not assume that your local attorney will practice due diligence for you. The American Embassy in Tegucigalpa has useful information for real estate investors.

Having said the above, I should also note that I am a landowner in Honduras and have had no problems of any kind. I would not hesitate to buy again.

If you are considering beach front property, be aware that foreign ownership of land within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of a coastline or national border is prohibited by Article 107 of Honduras's Constitution. An exception is made for small lots zoned as urban. Seek competent legal counsel before buying property that may fall in this category.

Can you recommend a real estate agency in Santa Rosa de Copán?

Yes, I recommend IMC Real Estate, the only licensed realty in Santa Rosa de Copán. Their staff speaks English, German, and Spanish.

Personal safety

Elsewhere on the web I am left with the impression that Honduras is unusually dangerous and crime ridden. Is Honduras an acceptable travel destination?

I have lived in Honduras since 1990. On the basis of this experience, I hold that security in Honduras is not the serious problem for travelers that some claim it to be. I say this for several reasons:

Crime is on the rise in Honduras, as it is worldwide. Hondurans mentally compare current crime levels to how they remember things were ten or fifteen years ago, and understandably if incorrectly conclude that the country is going to hell in a hand basket. A more useful exercise for a potential visitor would be to compare current crime levels in Honduras to those of neighboring countries and to those of one's own home nation and city. On this basis Honduras is safer than popular tourist destinations Guatemala and Belize, and certainly safer than many urban areas in my native United States.

Those who do attempt to compare crime statistics of comparable nations often choose the wrong crimes: homicide and attempted homicide. More relevant to a visitor would be those crimes typically suffered by tourists: mugging, scams, and petty theft. On that score Honduras ranks better than Miami or Washington, but I do not hear the scaremongers warning travelers away from the U.S.

Although inaccurate, Hondurans' perception that crime is raging out of control is reflected in the highly sensationalist Honduran media. Hondurans want their newspapers and newscasts to be served up with a heaping helping of blood and gore, and a newspaper that does not regularly publish color photos of bloody corpses on the front page will soon find itself without readers. Thus the local press presents not so much an accurate reflection of current crime levels as an X-ray of national fears and neuroses.

Sensationalist local news reporting in turn colors the international media, consular advisories, and the tall tales you read on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree. If you were to read the U.S. State Department's consular information sheet on Honduras, for example, you would be reading an accurate summary of sensationalized local crime reporting, not an accurate summary of personal security in the nation.

Unlike in Guatemala or Belize, crime in Honduras does not specifically target tourists or tourist venues. This is I think is due to the small volume of Honduran tourism, and I suspect that this would change for the worse should Honduras become a more popular tourist destination.

Two exceptions were Tela and Trujillo, two towns on the north coast where muggers were indeed preying on tourists who were wandering alone in deserted areas after dark, sleeping on the beach, and doing other things worthy of a feature episode of Stupid Things That People Do On Vacation That They Would Never Do At Home. Things have since quieted down, but I do not know if this is because the police have taken care of the muggers or because natural selection has taken care of the stupid travelers.

Several years ago a criminal ring would target passengers arriving at the San Pedro Sula airport with unusually large amounts of checked luggage and rob them on the highway later. Their objectives were Hondurans returning from shopping sprees abroad, not tourists with a couple of bags. In any case that ring was broken up years ago.

I do not claim that Honduras is crime free, and I trust that I have not overstated my case. I intend merely to rebut those who would have you believe that Honduras is unusually dangerous or insecure. Anecdotal evidence is of little use, but for what it is worth I have suffered only one burglary and one pickpocketing in my many years in Honduras, and no violent crime. I wish I could say the same for my time in the United States.

Having made my case, I should elaborate on a point alluded to above. At home, you know how to avoid becoming a crime statistic. Without really thinking about it, you know where not to go and what not to do. When you leave your home environment, you lose this advantage, and the wise traveler will give conscious thought to his surroundings and to the prudence of his actions, at least until common sense in his new surroundings becomes second nature. I think you will find this to be useful advice in your travels generally, not just while in Honduras.

Is it safe for two women to travel alone in Honduras?

Every month I meet one or two small groups of women traveling through Central America. From what they tell me, the only problem commonly encountered is verbal harassment, which is something that (assuming modest dress and behavior) Central American women typically suffer in equal measure. According to Honduran women, the best way to deal with verbal harassment is to pointedly ignore it. A woman traveling alone is assumed to be in urgent need of masculine attention, so you would be wise to have a traveling partner.

Contact information

I have more questions about Santa Rosa de Copán. How may I contact you?

I am happy to answer questions about Santa Rosa de Copán. Feel free to email me.

Other questions

What sights do you recommend that I see while in Honduras?

Some things you should see while in Honduras are:

• The cloud forest in Celaque National Park at dawn. The park is not far from Santa Rosa de Copán. You will have to be a backpacker to get to the cloud forest, though, as it is a three or four hour hike from the trailhead.
• Snorkeling the reef on the Bay Islands.
• The ruins of Copán and the surrounding valley at sunset. Rent horses to take you to a vantage point up in the hills.
• The Flor de Copán cigar factory in Santa Rosa de Copán. I think its neat and I do not even smoke.

What are the entry and exit requirements for Honduras?

A visa is not required for U.S. citizens entering as tourists. Upon entry you will be given a 30 day tourist card, a paper form stapled into your passport. The tourist card may be renewed up to a maximum of five times in any immigration office. Should you wish to stay longer than six months, you will have to leave the country for 72 hours. You could take a brief trip across the border to Guatemala, for example. Upon doing that, the process starts anew.

I would like to add to this section, but I am not familiar with entry requirements for other nationalities. If you are, please contact me and I will add your information to this section.

Honduran immigration officials seem to have no more fixed fees to work with than did tax collectors in biblical times, and enjoy the same dubious reputation for honesty. Fees thus vary, but in general expect to pay US$1 to $5 for initial entry and for monthly renewals. Fees tend to run much higher on the Bay Islands, so try to renew on the mainland.

Tourists departing Honduras by air will be charged a US$25 airport fee plus a $2 security fee.

In what time zone is Honduras?

Honduras is six hours behind Greenwich mean time (GMT-6). Some years it does not observe daylight savings time and some years it does, according to political whim.

When is market day in Santa Rosa de Copán?

The tradition of a colorful market day with buyers and sellers in bright indigenous garb is pretty much limited to Guatemala and is not something that is observed in Honduras. Yes, every town and village has it's farmer's market, usually on Sunday morning (as it is here in Santa Rosa de Copán) but they are working markets, not the photo ops you will see in Guatemala.

The best market day in Honduras is in the lovely mountain village of Belén Gualcho, about a 2½ hour bus ride southwest from Santa Rosa de Copán. You'll have to spend Saturday night in the village and get up early Sunday. And the market still lacks the indigenous color of those in Guatemala. But the village itself is so agreeable that it is well worth the adventure.

I am considering a side trip to Equipulas, Guatemala. Is it easier to make the trip from Santa Rosa de Copán or Copán Ruinas? Which border crossing site makes more sense?

From Santa Rosa de Copán via the Agua Caliente border crossing. There are minivans from the Guatemalan side of Agua Caliente to Esquipulas every 20 minutes or so. Total time from Santa Rosa to Esquipulas including delays at the border would be perhaps 3½ hours.

Honduras produces excellent coffee, yet it is said that you can't get a decent cup of coffee in Honduras. Why is that?

It depends on where you get your coffee. Better restaurants in Honduras serve export grade coffee, which is as good as any in the world. Cheap diners in town serve poor quality domestic grade coffee, called café de bolsita. That stuff is not worth cleaning paint brushes with, much less drinking. Oddly enough, many urban Hondurans have developed a perverse taste for this witches' brew and don't want real coffee.

Small rural establishments usually serve café de palo, which is grown in somebody's back yard and was probably hand roasted and ground earlier that day. It can vary in quality but is usually outstanding. I never turn down a cup of café de palo.

The export grade vs. domestic grade silliness is the result of government price controls. The maximum legal price for domestic coffee is so low that all the good stuff is exported. The broken, moldy, and fermented beans that are unfit for export are over roasted (scorched, actually) to hide the beans' bad taste. Sugar cane waste is added to the roaster to mask the bitter flavor that over roasting produces. Avocado pits are added to the beans as inert filler. The result is ground, packaged in tiny cellophane bags (bolsitas, hence the name café de bolsita) and sold in corner grocery stores. So do not expect domestic grade coffee to be good or even drinkable.

I learned the above while researching what became the Virtual Coffee Tour, which I wrote and illustrated for local exporter Beneficio Maya. Take a look if you are interested in learning how quality coffee gets from the farm to your cup.

Who are you? Are you a real person or just a Turing Test running on a computer somewhere?

I am for real. My name is Warren Post. I first came to Honduras in 1986 as a diplomat assigned to the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa, and returned to stay in 1990. Since then I have amused myself as a university professor, a beach bum on the Caribbean, the marketing director for a tour operator, an English teacher on a cattle ranch, a cybercafé owner, a jungle guide in the Mosquitia, a pizzeria owner, and a web designer and information technology consultant.