Tourism Mastery Online

Traveling Sustainable Tourism

Workshop Adventure

Asociación Intibucana de Comunicación

Led By Dr. Carol Cross

 Are you involved in tourism development and want to see how grassroots tourism projects can be developed? Join us on a community based sustainable tour through the State of Intibuca in Honduras for a combination of tourism adventure and tourism training.  You'll be seeing the grassroots development of ecotourism, cultural tourism, horse tourism, agricultural tourism and other tourism projects.  Intibuca is the homeland of the Lenca Indians, the first people to enter Honduras in prehistory.  They maintain much of their ancient culture and you will have the opportunity to share their cultural heritage. The Lenca Indians still maintain the concepts of blessing fields before planting as well as mask dancing, folkloric dancing and local community music groups called conjuntos.  We will share in these activities and learn how they are focusing these cultural activities into tourism projects. 

 This is a hands-on activity which includes visits to communities, small aldeas and you will enjoy this endangered mountain forest habitat.  The Lenca Indians are seeking to develop tourism as an alternative to the cutting of cloud forests and pine forests for export which is causing deforestation in other states of Honduras.

Our organization, the Asociación Intibucana de Comunicación, a Honduran Tourism Consulting firm,  works with local communities through volunteer tourism development programs. See http://www.weshemsoc.com/healing_through_tourism2.htm

This is a grassroots experience with the Lenca Indian people who settled in Honduras several thousands of years ago.  These are the people who fought the Spanish to a standstill but had their leader treacherously killed under a flag of truce.  The Lenca Indian leader Lempira, was the glue that held together an alliance of many Indian tribes.  With his death, the alliance fell apart and the Spanish overran Honduras.

 A.  You will arrive in Tegucigalpa, Honduras at 11:30 A.M  and be picked up at the airport.  You will then travel to La Esperanza through several different ecosystems from the hot farmlands of Comayagua, to the mountains of Siguatepeque with another lowland experience in the Valley of Jesus de Otoro.  You immediately begin climbing again to the  mountains of La Esperanza where you will likely experience the Neiblina or clouds on the roads and hillsides. Your first night will be spent in La Esperanza, capital of the state of Intibuca in the Hotel Molino Real, recently built by the Family Argueta/Bourdett. That first night you will experience a "noche cultural" with the folkloric dance group Icelaca and a conjuntos of bands playing local ranchero music.  There will be a display of arts and crafts by Lenca artisans as well. 

B.  The first travel day will find us going to the communidad of San Miguelito to the  community of Cofradia where we are developing a project for the Turismo en El Camino Lenca program.  You will walk down to a waterfall full of butterflies and birds where they hope to develop a tourism picnic center.  The community is already developing a community kitchen with plans for attracting tourists..  On the way we will visit a petrified forest sites that has been over-collected and discuss ways the local people can conserve what is left by creating a reserve or protected status through the community organization. That night you will sleep in San Juan, a community that is the center of tourism in the region. 

 C.  The next day will be spent in San Juan where you will visit a horse tourism project, go to the Waterfalls of the Elves and visit a hot springs that is being developed by community members. You will spend time meeting with the developer of the San Juan Tourism Association.  You will sleep in San Juan that night. 

D.   The following  day you will travel to the colonial city of Gracias where you will observe cultural tourism projects. Gracias is a true Spanish colonial town with colonial architecture and churches and many cultural tourism sites.

 E.  The next morning you will travel to Erandike where you will see the overexploitation of a resource.  Erandike contains many opal mines that have been over exploited. There are still reserves that have not been exploited and there is a need to develop community control of this resource.  We will meet with local officials to discus this possibility. AIC will demonstrate its community communication techniques that include role playing and popular theater.  There will also be a chance for you to collect small pieces of opal or purchase from locals.

F.   We will come in a circle back to the La Esperanza area to Yamaranguila, the center of artisanship in the state of Intibuca.  There we will experience a cultural tourism actrivity by seeing the Guanacosta dancers who dance with masks and act out Lenca legends.  That group is involved in the coming Folkloroic Festival to be held in December 2006 in La Esperanza. You will have an opportunity to browse local artisan products such as pine straw basketry, embroidery, red clay pottery, white clay pottery and others. We will sleep that night in La Esperanza.

G.   The next day we will travel to the Laguna Chiligartura where a tourism and flower growing project is being developed.  We will meet with the members of this community and discuss the problems and constraints they have had in developing their projects. Fishing gear will be available for rent for those wishing to fish.

H.   Finally we will visit a working farm  belonging to Doña Norma Mejia Redozno, who grows coffee, strawberries and see the problems locals have in developing toruism. The road to the place requires a four wheel drive but there is the most beautiful cloud forest in Intibuca.  It is a relict Bromiliad wilderness. Over 400 years ago the Spanish cut many old Growth pine trees and sweet gums and that forest has grown back.  The exquisite and unique thing about this site is that on many of the cut stumps there are bromiliads that have been growing for centuries.  Some of the have flowers have stems over 4 feet long. There is an ancient pond that is changing into a marsh where you can see succession in a mountain ecosystem. 

You will meet the owner who wants to develop tourism but is constrained by monetary problems.  She speaks excellent English.  We will discuss with her some methods of financing such as project financing, adopt a tree,  sale of t-shirts, development of handicraft tourism and the Fair Trade movement. (You will need a sleeping bag as her finca is over 6000 feet).  We will spend the day there  and you will sleep that night in her home on top of the mountain.  We are likely to see deer, conejos, guatusa.  In Cornodia the people say that mountain lions  come and drink at the waterfall. of course Honduras is the land of  birds and butterflies everywhere. Wild flowers are everywhere. There are wild blackberries, wild passion fruits. You will see coffee growing, strawberries, peppers and other crops including white potatoes.

 During our adventure not only will we learn a lot about developing a tourism cluster, you will experience beautiful waterfalls, pristine pine forests (We call Intibuca the Oregon of Honduras), we will walk on trails in the mountains, see places where no one has ever walked because of the sheer steepness of the mountains.  We will also see farmers farming hillsides so steep you think they must have one leg shorter than the other.  In addition, you will see wildflowers everywhere from wild gladiolus to hills covered will wild impatiens.  You will see bromeliads in pine trees, experience the unique sight of pine trees towering over banana trees, see orchids that have probably never been cataloged.  You will bath in hot springs,  dance with the local folkloric groups, see many of 700+species of birds found in Honduras , eat mouth watering local foods and sleep in the cool temperate mountains.

I.   The final day will be spent in La Esperanza where a one day workshop on Community Tourism Cluster Development will be held.  You will be introduced to tourism planning, developing websites for tourism, business writing, tourism cluster development, use of tourism kits, utilizing online tourism courses, tourism marketing, professional certification, tourism English, tourism mastery learning for providers, internet marketing, volunteer adventures as part of tourism, seeing tourism as a healing function, ecospiritual tourism, handicraft tourism, cultural tourism, agricultural and horse tourism, ecotourism, agroforestry tourism and sports tourism.  You will receive a certificate of completion from theAsociación Intibucana de Comunicación (AIC).  You will also receive membership in the asociación.

J.   You will sleep that night at the Hotel Molino Real. The next morning you will leave for Tegucigalpa and catch your airplane for home.

The cost for this 9 day Traveling Sustainable Tourism Workshop Adventure is just $1400 US excluding airfare. (Fly to Tegucigalpa and be met at the airport) This includes 3 nights at the Hotel Molino Real, sleeping quarters at end of each day's travel, private van or truck transports, local guides at each site, village tour, dance performances, 2 meals per day, nights at the farms and hotels.  

Your trip fee directly supports the Tourism Development Center of AIC for developing tourism as the sustainable development resources for these Lenca mountain Highlands.  It provides income to each village because we pay for the use of their sites. Each time we bring a group to a village they receive users fees.  This provides income for the village and enables us to work with them as we develop the Turismo en El Camino Lenca. 

The Turismo En El Camino Lenca is a grassroots project to develop tourism projects with each provider building sanitary outdoor toilets in village as well as a shaded rest area.  The AIC approach  is to create Win Win projects as partners with local communities. That means we are providing on site training for providers in sanitation, courtesy, cleanliness and English.  You will come inside the Lenca culture in a way most tourists never experience it and thus you gain insights on how to develop your country’s own tourism projects as interactive experiences for all.

So that both your tourism adventure and your tourism learning experience will be optimal, we are limiting the number of people who may participate each time.  Tours are being offered only once each two months so it is vital you reserve your space. 

Please contact  Dr. Carol Cross at exportfacs@aol.com  for more details and to confirm your entry on your chosen dates. We also offer this Traveling Sustainable Tourism Workshop Adventure to  groups..

Daily Workshop/Tour Itinerary

Dates For Traveling Sustainable Tourism Workshop Adventure To Be Held In 2006, 2007

Cost of Tour US$1400

What You Need To Bring:

You will need to bring personal items like toothpaste toothbrushes, etc.  In addition, you will need to bring jackets as well as warm clothes such as sweatshirt and sweatpants for colder nights.  A sleeping bag will be a necessity for the night at the Mejia farm as it is not furnished.  We will furnish one wool blanket for that night to use with the sleeping bag.