La Esperanza

La Esperanza sits at around seventeen hundred metres in the western highlands and is the highest town in the country, which shows in the pine forest around it, the cold nights and the fact that people wear coats. It is the commercial centre of Lenca country, and the Sunday market draws people down from villages across Intibucá. A grotto chapel cut into the rock above town, La Gruta, is the local landmark, and the surrounding hills grow potatoes, coffee and vegetables.

What you actually see

• The Sunday market - Lenca villagers coming in from across the highlands to trade.
• La Gruta - the chapel cut into the rock face above the town.
• The pine highlands - forest and smallholdings around the valley.
• The climate - genuinely cold nights, unusual anywhere in Honduras.

When to go

November to April is the dry season, and December and January are the coldest, with frost possible. Sunday is market day and the reason to time a visit. The rains from May make the surrounding roads difficult.

Honest expectations

The town is a working market centre, not a scenic one, and there is little for visitors beyond the market and the grotto. Accommodation is basic and unheated, which matters at this altitude. Roads to the outlying Lenca villages are rough.

Nearby

Marcala is south, and the Lenca villages of San Manuel de Colohete and Belen Gualcho are west.