Discos

It’s a sorry town that doesn’t have at least one disco where the locals can boogie until the daylight hours on Friday and Saturday. Larger towns and cities invariably have several, often near each other, and many are hopping Wednesday–Sunday. The north coast towns of Tela and especially La Ceiba are famed for their nightlife, and any visitor with a partying spirit should be sure to go out at least one weekend to check out the scene.

The favored music in discos is salsa, merengue, punta, American pop, reggaeton, and the occasional slow country tune. A few lounges in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa play techno/house.

Discos usually don’t get cranking until midnight or later, though in some smaller towns, festivities can start earlier. Fistfights and the occasional knifing are not uncommon but rarely involve foreigners, unless they do something exceptionally stupid like insult someone or try to pick up someone else’s date. Almost all the attention you receive will be friendly, some perhaps unusually friendly. Male travelers shouldn’t be surprised if they’re approached by very forward young women in the discos. As you will be quick to note, unless you’ve had a few drinks, many are prostitutes. Foreign women can also expect to get plenty of attention in a disco, even if accompanied by a man. As long as you keep your wits about you and fend off the overzealous men with good humor, all will be well. Going to discos alone is not a great idea if you are a woman.

Pool Halls

Salones de billar, as pool halls are known, are common all over Honduras. They’re not always the cleanest of places, and sometimes the players are a bit rough-looking but are usually friendly to the occasional foreigner who stops in for a couple of games and beers.

In the most common game played, simply called “pool,” players line up the 15 balls around the side of the table, potting them in numerical order. The shelves on the wall are for each player to keep track of the balls he or she has sunk, and at the end, players add up their point total based on the face value of the balls. Any number of people can play. Eight-ball is common enough for most pool halls to have a triangle, but it is not the game of choice. Players from the United States will notice the unforgiving narrowness of the table pockets.

© Chris Humphrey and Amy E. Robertson from Moon Honduras, 5th Edition