Founded in the late 1600s, Danlí is a sizable city of 68,000, though still with a small-town feel. It lies in the center of the Valle de Cuzcateca, which extends south to the town of El Paraíso, and is not far from the rich Valle de Jamastrán. Apart from the cigar industry in Danlí, cattle-ranching and coffee production are the region’s economic mainstays.

Danlí is a relaxed town with a couple of colonial sights worth spending a couple of hours walking around in if your travels take you in this direction. The town explodes to life during the annual Festival de Maíz (Corn Festival), with daily music and dance performances, rodeo shows, and food stands selling corn in every imaginable form.

Getting to Danlí

All buses leave Danlí from the central bus terminal near the exit of town toward Tegucigalpa. Discua/Contreras (tel. 504/763-2217) runs buses every hour or so to Tegucigalpa 5:30 a.m.–6 p.m. (US$2.40 for the local service and US$3 for express). Nonstop rapiditos (minivans) leave from half a block from the bus terminal every two hours 6 a.m.–5 p.m. The rapiditos charge US$3.15 and arrive in Colonia Kennedy in Tegucigalpa, at the DIPPSA gas station on Boulevard Miraflores, from where it’s possible to find a colectivo into town.

Frequent buses ply the route back and forth to El Paraíso for US$1.15. Transportes Mi Empresa has three buses a day from Danlí to Nueva Palestina (where boats can be found down the nearby Río Patuca into the Mosquitia), US$4.20 for the 4.5-hour ride.

Tegucigalpa is 98 kilometers from Danlí by a well-maintained, two-lane highway. Continuing past Danlí toward Nicaragua, the smooth paved road continues through El Paraíso to the Nicaraguan border at Las Manos, 30 kilometers from Danlí.

Taxis from the terminal to anywhere in town cost US$0.65–0.80.