Comayagua
Travel Guide Central America Honduras Comayagua
Introduction
Comayagua is a small city in Honduras. It has maintained much of its picturesque Spanish Colonial era architecture.
Sights and Activities
In the central square of the town sits the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, an outstanding example of 18th-century colonial architecture.
Getting There
Comayagua is about 2 hours by car or bus from Tegucigalpa, where the nearest international airport is located. Avianca, American, and United airlines service the Tegucigalpa airport.
Further away, but on a better road, is the San Pedro Sula airport, the busiest in Honduras.
Rent a car at either of those airports, or catch one of the many busses running the SPS-Tegucigalpa-SPS route.
Getting Around
Taxis abound. Fares for anywhere in town, before 6PM, are L20 (lempiras) per person. Rates go up after 6PM and again in the evening hours. Rates may even be higher at 3 AM or so. Always ask the fare before entering the cab.
Eat
- Restaurante Casa Colonial (Colonial House Restaurant), Parque Central (next to the Cathedral). Very good food at reasonable prices in a romantic setting on the central square, right next to the cathedral. Seafood, steaks, salads, chicken and plato tipico. Coffee shop attached. Also serves breakfast. Inquire about off-menu items such as crab, or sushi-maki. Ricardo, the owner, has filled the restaurant with art, crafts, and antiques from Honduras and the US. Credit cards accepted. Outside seating on the parque. Special seating for groups up to about 25.
- Restaurante El Torito (Toritos Restaurant), CA-5 (On the main highway, just south of town). Toritos is probably the best restaurant in town. Known for their excellent steaks, they also serve seafood and chicken. Full bar, credit cards accepted. Air-conditioned. Secure parking. edit
- Fast Food Restaurants, CA-5 (On the main highway, between the old and new boulevards). On the main highway, between the two major intersections, is a Pizza Hut, a Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins, and a Pollo Compenero. Wendy's is about a quarter of a mile towards town, on the "old" boulevard. Go towards town at the Texaco, you'll see it on the left.
- Golosinas. These small, inexpensive, family-run restaurants serving typical Honduran food and either fried or rotisserie chicken are on every block it seems. Food preparation in Honduras is not tightly regulated as it is in the US, so caution is on order when in any restaurant. But after being in-country for a few weeks, you should be able to eat pretty much anywhere.
- Mang Ying, Old Blvd (4th Ave) and 7th St (Turn off the main highway at Texaco, continue through town for about 1.6 kilometres). There are many Chinese restaurants in Comayagua, most of them serving the same food, but Mang Ying is probably the best. Expect giant portions. A decent atmosphere, with large photos of Chinese landmarks and generous seating partially makes up for the fact that "American" style Chinese food, such as General Cho's Chicken, is absent from the menu. Overall, good food, prepared quickly. Air-conditioned. No credit cards accepted. Secure parking.
- La Casita, Old Blvd (Ave 4) and 1st ST, approx (From the main highway, go towards town at the Texaco, maybe 400 metres), on the right). Excellent family restaurant with the one of the only true grills in town (there are more than a few street food vendors around town who grill skewers of meat and white corn-on-the-cob). Grilled favorites such as steak, pork chops, sausage, and barbecue chicken are accompanied with tortillas, rice, beans, chismol, cooked plantains, and a trio of sauces in a farmhouse atmosphere. The walls are covered with original paintings depcting pastoral Honduran life, and antique Honduran tools and small farm implements that would have been used in a Honduran casita of years past. Reasonable prices. Air conditioning. Secure Parking. No credit cards accepted.
Sleep
Keep Connected
Internet
No matter where you are in Honduras, you should find Internet access, either in a cafe, mall, or cybercafe. Most hotels, even hostels, have their own Internet service, and more and more are beginning to have Wi-Fi service. Roughly 90% of these hotels offer Wi-Fi for free, yet some international chain hotels in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, as well as a few resorts on Roatán, charge a fee that ranges between US$6 and US$15 per day. If the hotel does not have Internet service, the hotel staff can usually point out where to find it. Expect to pay approximately 20 lempira per hour.
Phone
See also International Telephone Calls
The emergency numbers are 199 (police), 195 (ambulance) and 198 (fire). The international area code in Honduras is 504. All local phone numbers are eight digits, including the area code. Numbers either start with a 2 (landline) or a 9 (cellular).
Kiosks and convenience stores throughout Honduras sell phone cards with individual instructions on long-distance dialing, and phone booths at telephone centers will provide instructions on dialing.
Honduras's largest phone companies, such as Telefonica, operate on a GSM 850 or 1900 MHZ frequency, which several large North American carriers also use, though these frequencies are rare in other parts of the world. Any dual or multiband GSM cellphone will work in Honduras, but you might pay expensive roaming rates; it's better to buy a local SIM card and install it in your own cell phone for cheaper rates.
You can also rent a phone at kiosks located on the arrival level at the San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa airport; they are open daily from 6:00am to 9:00pm. Depending on your service, you may be able to insert your own SIM card, though you'll likely still pay regular roaming rates. Some cellphone companies in Honduras will rent phones with prepaid calling cards.
Post
Honducor is the country's national postal service. Post offices are open from Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm (though generally with a long lunch break) and on Saturday from 8:00am to noon. Sendings standard letters or postcards internationally start at around US$1 and take 10-14 days at least. You can get stamps at a post office and at some gift shops in large hotels. The Honduran postal service is renowned for being considerably more reliable than in other Central American nations, though if you are sending anything of value, it is still recommended to use an international courier service like DHL, UPS, TNT or FedEx, which have offices in larger cities.
External Links
Accommodation in Comayagua
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This is version 2. Last edited at 12:18 on Feb 8, 18 by Utrecht. 1 article links to this page.
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