Honduras hosts a rich colonial legacy that can be admired in churches, homes and fortresses. What’s more, it is a live culture with strong roots in the prehispanic world. Come along with a traveller in her adventure through the COLOSUCA tourist circuit along the Lenca Trails, of unique ecological and cultural magic.

I love to travel in December, in search of hot weather. We intended to go to Bay Islands in Honduras, but our path took us somewhere else, to an unknown land, Colosuca.

Our adventure began in Copan Ruinas, following the traces of Mayan civilization. Elisa wanted to go hiking, so we decided to go to Celaque, the highest mountain in Honduras. We traveled by bus, first up to Santa Rosa de Copan, and then as far as Gracias, the gate to the Colosuca. Small adobe houses, fields of corn and beans, mud roads, barefoot children staring at passers-by, women that got on the bus after a two hour walk from their houses... We arrived at Colosuca, where the clouds blur an intense green and the mountains smell like wet soil.

The center of the town was a blend of “pulperias” (local stores), traditional houses with tile roofs and wooden eaves, and other buildings with a playful colonial flavor. We came across an old lady with a big smile, dressed in an intense pink garment, wearing a red necklace and a basket of sweet bread on her head, that certainly sweetened our evening.

In the central square we found a kiosk; it was the tourist information office. The girl in charge sent us to Casa Galeano, where we not only confirmed that the whole area is spattered with impressive colonial churches, but we also understood that our trip had taken us to a living culture with roots in the pre-Hispanic world.

The mountain of Celaque awaited us! A motorcycle-taxi took us up to Villaverde, an access to the national park. It was already getting dark when we got there. We set up the tent near the visitors' center; a great place to watch the stars. They had told me that Celaque was one of the largest protected areas in Honduras, but what I longed to see the most was a cloud forest.

One could breathe the magic of the ambiance when the trees of liquidambar announced that we were close to the "box of water": prehistoric ferns, many pines, graceful formations that the guide was calling "turkey buzzards" and trees of wide leaves that can drink water directly from the clouds. We heard a few noises that Juan Carlos recognized as the song of a quetzal. We went up to the Cascade Lookout: an overwhelming sight. Upon returning to Gracias, we went directly to the thermal waters, a small paradise, to rest from so many emotions.

There was a Lenca pottery exhibit. We understood the importance of this activity in their economy, in their universe of beliefs and myths, and especially in the community’s way of life, always linked to the mud.
Our route had to continue, but we knew that in Colosuca we had a lot of experiences left to live and so many places to go... Belen, San Sebastian, San Marcos de Caiquín, San Manuel Colohete.

On the following day we marched to Campa, through a ground road that went way into the mountain and had a smell of wet soil and coffee. The majestic church of San Matías rose in the middle of a town of peasants and craftsmen, men of corn and women of mud.

In that place, where one feels linked to its peoples with shy smile and watery eyes, one can but be grateful to them for taking care of this small bit of the world to which I know I will very soon return.

Laura

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