A visit to El Cajon in Honduras

A few weeks ago I visited a place in Honduras near Lake Yojoa. This place is unique and very interesting. The name of this place is El Cajon. What about it? What's in that place that is worth visiting?. Well, let me tell you that I was planning to take a week for vacations, and I figured that visiting the north area of Honduras would be a good choice.

My idea was to go somewhere that could be a good location in order to take advantage of the few days available, so I could go to different places in the same week, but I needed like a base for establish myself, and go to the different places in different days, and go back to my base the same day, so I could do something similar the next day and so on for the rest of the week.

Someone I know suggested to go this place, El Cajon, that would be a good place to establish myself as I was planning, the location is good, it is pretty near to some very interesting other places where I could go and return the same day. Now, everything I knew about El Cajon so far was that I have heard about it, this place is known because there is a water dam in the area. In fact, the name of this water dam is El Cajon. But I said, what about a water dam?. It may be an interesting place to visit, but for one day and that´s all. I thought I could go there, visit the water dam, but I had no idea what else I could do there.

To give you an idea where it is located, as I said before, this place is in the Lake Yojoa area. You have to drive about 20 minutes north of Lake Yojoa in the main road to San Pedro Sula, and you will get to a detour right to a well known town with the name of Santa Cruz de Yojoa. You drive about 25-30 minutes in a paved road, into the mountains, and you will get to El Cajon.

Well, it turns out that El Cajon is a water dam, but you know what, it is one of the highest water dams in the World. Yes, it is listed in the top 20 highest water dams of the whole world. The concrete water dam structure in El Cajon is about 230 meters high, it looks huge!. Another interesting thing about this water dam is that because of its magnitude, it is a huge electricity generator. In order to keep this water dam and all its associated facilities running, a lot of people has to work there.

The electricty company has two base camps where the employees that work in El Cajon need to live. The camps are pretty nice, they have in there all they need to live, they are like little towns.

Going back to my initial plan, the idea was to be based in one of these camps, I had a complete house available with living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms, a complete house. Now, the catch here is the following …… how can anybody go to one of these camps and get a house available?. Unfortunately I have to tell you that these camps are not open to the public, they are only available for people who work there, or their families.

Well, I think I was pretty lucky on this one…….it turns out that my sister in law works in the electricity company, and she could get me a house because we are relatives, we are family. With this place available for me, I could go on with my initial plan. I figured it would be a good idea to go there, establish myself in one of those camps, and go to different places the rest of the week, go and return the same day so I could spend the night in the camp.

And I did just that, I went there and had a very interesting week. The same week I went to San Pedro Sula, next day I went to Tela, next day I went to the mayan ruins in Copan, next day I went to Lake Yojoa and Pulapanzak. I also spent a couple of days inside the camps in El Cajon, it is very cool, they have pools, parks, places to visit inside the camps, you can admire nature, mountains, fresh air. I also went to visit the water dam of course, it is incredible.

Ordinary people can also visit El Cajon, the water dam. It is a one day visit, you can go there anytime and take a look at this interesting place. Unfortunately you can not stay in the camps unless you work in the electricty company, or some member of your family works there. Lucky me on this one!

In other posts I will tell you about the other places I visited that week (Tela, San Pedro Sula, Copan Ruins)……….

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From Siguatepeque to San Pedro Sula in Honduras

In my previous post I told you about the first half of the trip from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula until getting to Siguatepeque. When you make this trip driving from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula, you have to take a rest in Siguatepeque. It is like a must stop, while you rest you can have lunch, there are a lot of restaurants right next to the road. I suggest you go to Granja D'elia, very good food. A lot of people stop there to have food, drink coffee, take a rest. You can relax for some minutes, stretch your arms and legs, breath natural air. It is not a good idea to do all the 4 hours drive from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula without taking a break. Siguatepeque is the perfect place to take that break, right in the middle of the trip.

After taking a rest and food, I moved on with my trip. Siguatepeque is like in the mountains, similar to Tegucigalpa. Going from Siguatepeque to San Pedro Sula is about 2 hours drive, most of it is downhill, from the mountains down to the Valley of Sula. Now, there is a very interesting place in the road, I already have written previous posts about it. About 30-40 minutes from Siguatepeque, in the road to San Pedro Sula, you will spot to your left, right next to the road, Lake Yojoa, a very beautiful lake. It is surrounded by mountains, the water is very blue. It is a very beautiful landscape. Unfortunately this time I didn´t stop in Lake Yojoa, I was kind of a hurry in getting to San Pedro Sula. But many times I have stopped in Lake Yojoa to enjoy the natural beauty, and to enjoy some of the best fried fish food I've ever eaten, fish food is delicious. Not this time, but next time I will stop by and eat fish.

Going from Lake Yojoa to San Pedro Sula is like getting into more plain terrain, not a lot of mountains. By the way, the road in this area has been recently enhanced, there is a project for enhancing the road from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa until become a real Highway, right now it is under construction. There are many interesting places in this area, near Lake Yojoa. A nearby place is Pulapanzak, a famous waterfall. If you want to go there you have to take a turn left and drive through a different road and drive about 30 minutes. Another interesting place nearby is Santa Cruz de Yojoa, a nice town. In that area you will find El Cajon, which is a very large water dam, it was built about 20 years ago. I've been there by the way, very interesting. In order to go there you should take a turn right going to Santa Cruz de Yojoa, and drive about 30 minutes into the mountains. But again, this is a different road, not in the way to San Pedro Sula.

Next key place in the trip in the way to San Pedro Sula is La Barca, which is an intersection where you decide to go north to San Pedro Sula, or turn right and you're in the way to the city of El Progreso, Tela, La Ceiba (beaches in the Caribbean). This time I took the way to San Pedro Sula.

Not very far from La Barca, you will get to the following towns: Potrerillos, Pimienta, Villanueva. When you get to the town of Villanueva, you almost made it to San Pedro Sula. Villanueva is only 20-25 minutes from San Pedro Sula, it is an industrial town, a lot of Maquila facilities. Villanueva has become like a south neighborhood of San Pedro Sula. A lot of people live in San Pedro Sula and work in Villanueva, they travel every day to their work. From Villanueva to San Pedro Sula there is a highway, very modern road. In no time you will get to San Pedro Sula.

Well, this is it. Very interesting 4 hours drive, the only stop was in Siguatepeque. I will tell you about San Pedro Sula in other posts.

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Would you like to know what is Pulapanzak?

What am I talking about? Am I kidding you? Maybe you are wondering if this word "Pulapanzak" is some mistake, what is it?. Well, the word Pulapanzak is the name of a very famous waterfall in Honduras, in the heart of Central America, and of course, like many destinations we've talked about on our blog, you bet it is a very beautiful place.

Let me tell you that Pulapanzak is located very near Lake Yojoa, and it is a very good place to visit especially if you like nature and things related to rain forests or similar places. If you ever visit the Lake Yojoa area maybe you could make some time to take a quick trip to Pulapanzak. You can drive very easily to get there, it´s about 30 minutes drive from Lake Yojoa. If you're driving from South to North, like going from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula over the main road, just after passing Lake Yojoa take a turn left, it's in the way to "Cañaveral", a very well known place in the area. Don’t be afraid to ask local people how to get to Pulapanzak, they will tell you, it's not difficult to get there.

All the way from Lake Yojoa to Pulapanzak is very beautiful, a lot of nature surrounding the road, very green landscapes. As you admire the mountains, trees and little towns along the road, in no time you will be in Pulapanzak.

When you get there, you have to get out of your car and walk. There are safe places to park your car, from there you have to walk in order to get to the waterfall, you can not see the waterfall from the road. But don´t worry, it´s not a long walk, only a few minutes.

Once you get there, I'm sure you will agree with me………it is a very beautiful natural scene, the waterfall makes a perfect picture for a good memory. I suggest you take some good pictures of the waterfall, with you in the pictures of course and the waterfall in the back. It feels like you are in the jungle, admiring how beautiful some natural places can be. This waterfall reminds me about some great places I have seen in many movies and TV documentals. It is very beautiful indeed.

Don´t expect to find hotels, resorts or very complex touristic facilities in the waterfall area, even though there are some very good hotels in Lake Yojoa, only minutes away. If you can take some food and water with you to the waterfall, that would be a good idea. I hope that it can stay that way for many years, I mean, the less touristic infrastructure, the better, it feels more natural that way.

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