Cayos Cochinos

This website was developed to share information about Honduras, and more particularly Trujillo and surrounding areas, where Charlene & Paul are making their home – well, part-time anyway. We want to dispel the fears that it is a dangerous and unsafe travel or living destination. If you’ve never visited Honduras, you’re missing out on a wonderful experience, where the people are friendly, the food & drink is good, the cost of living is low, and the water is great to swim in. If you simply follow common sense rules – stay away from ‘spotty’ areas at night, watch your back, never walk alone – you’ll be fine. We’ve felt more threatened in parts of the U.S., where we lived for many years, than we ever have in Honduras. And Trujillo is the unspoiled jewel: off the beaten path, with an improving infrastructure, located on the gorgeous Caribbean Sea. Who could ask for anything more? If you want a more ‘touristy’ location, Roatan is close by, and for divers & snorkelers you also have the other Bay Islands to explore (Guanaja, Utila), with regular ferry service from Trujillo to Guanaja and from La Ceiba to the others. Or take a plane to any of them! Then there’s beautiful Copan; the other towns along the North Coast like Tela & La Ceiba; Lago de Yojoa and area ; Santa Lucia …………  the list goes on & on.

We love historic Trujillo!
– the real life town of ‘Coralio’ located in the fictional ‘Republic of Anchuria’, as described in O. Henry’s delightful collection of short stories: “Of Cabbages & Kings”. After fleeing the U.S. in 1897 to avoid bank embezzlement charges, O. Henry holed up in a Trujillo hotel, and coined the term “banana republic” to describe an economy where there was favorable treatment of the fruit companies within Latin America. Read more here

– the final resting place of William Walker, an American filibuster who tried to conquer Central America but was shot by the Honduran government in 1860. You can visit his grave in the central Trujillo cemetery.

– where Dole Fruit (formerly Standard Fruit Company of La Ceiba, one of the 2 major players in the Honduran economy that prompted O Henry to call Honduras a Banana Republic), ships bananas out of nearby Puerta Castilla

– a favorite spot to plunder gold and silver for English, French & Dutch pirates and privateers, including “Pegleg”, “Blackbeard”, Francis Drake, Henry Morgan, Calico Jack Rackham, etc. in the 1600 & 1700’s. Visit the fort when you’re here and imagine looking out over the bay watching in trepidation as they arrive in their sailing ships.

In addition to information and useful tips about living in and moving to Honduras, we want to use this as a means of sharing with others our experiences & excellent adventures. We invite comments on the News and Comments page, as long as they follow generally accepted polite conversation – no ranting or vulgar language and please, no links to adult sites or content. And if you have a story and/or photos you’d like to share, we’d love to see them! Just send us a message on the Contact Us page and we’ll send you instructions on how to get them to us.

 

Our recent Posts & Stories

Itchy Boots

Came across this super interesting YouTube channel by a Dutch biker, with a number of clips related to Honduras. Here is the 1st of a series (S6-E51).

Creativity & Culture- Off the Beaten Path

Tracy Knight MacDonald shared another lovely post about her experiences in Honduras, this one awhile visiting the Wall Murals in the town of Catarranas or San Juan de Flores, close to Valle de Angeles. Read it here.

Car Repairs

Hello all fellow Honduras dwellers. Today I want to share my experiences with a mechanic who worked on our Land Cruiser.
In early 2020, the turbo on our diesel engine shattered throwing a blade into one of the cylinders. As a result, the engine had to be almost completely rebuilt. We were fortunate in that the owner of a local auto repair shop in the town of Tocoa (near our town of Trujillo), could recommended a good diesel mechanic – Denis. You can see his contact info on the www.trujillopicks.com website. The repair shop recommended him since they didn’t do engine work.
He rebuilt the engine with a new turbocharger and many other new or refurbished parts, and it was working perfectly when he returned it. Then COVID hit and we went back to Canada for what we thought would be a few months.
15 months later we have returned for a short visit. And the Land Cruiser wouldn’t start! I called Denis and he came out that night, knowing how important it was to us to have a vehicle in order to do some shopping since we had just arrived. He even offered to lend us his vehicle so we could go while he worked on ours. Or if wanted, he would drive out the following morning with a car we could use. (Tocoa is a 1 hour drive from our house)
After working on it for 2+ hours, removing and reinstalling the starter, it was determined that the starter needed work as it had been sitting for 15 months so became frozen. He removed it again and took it and the battery back to Tocoa, saying he’d be back the following day.
Sure enough, the following night he showed up with the repaired starter,a fully charged battery plus some new cable material and lugs. In addition to installing the starter and battery he spent another hour replacing the battery cables, as the ones we had weren’t up to his standards. (I had bought a new battery just before the turbo blew, and the battery shop had installed it)
With a repaired starter and improved cables, it started with the first turn of the ignition key!
Watching him work, I was impressed by how knowledgeable and competent he was. I will definitely go back to him with any future problems. He charged about one-fifth what similar work would cost in US or Canada and remember, he made two trips from Tocoa which is about 1 hour from our house, for which he only asked we reimburse him for fuel.
So here in Honduras there are definitely competent mechanics in Honduras; you just need to find them. And if you’re reading this and need some work done around here, he’s your person!