Valle de Ángeles

Valle de Ángeles, 23 kilometers east of Tegucigalpa [1], leads a sort of double life. It’s part playground for wealthy Tegucigalpa residents and tourists, and part rural Honduran mountain village. The town is lively on weekends, with a camera-toting, handicraft-buying crowd, but tough-looking cowboys still clomp around the cobblestone streets on horseback on their way into the surrounding pine forest. Weekdays you practically have the town to yourself, and may find some of the restaurants [2] closed.

As its name (Valley of Angels) suggests, the town is beautifully set in a high mountain valley at 1,310 meters, surrounded by mountains on three sides and dropping off into a valley on the fourth. Apart from enjoying the atmosphere and breathing the clean mountain air, many visitors come to Valle de Ángeles to shop for handicrafts in the couple of dozen shops. Among the handicrafts sold in town are woodcarvings, ceramics, pewter, tapestries, furniture, paintings, and many other items from across the country.

Despite the promising market name, the Mercado Municipal de Artesanías, in the market building where the Tegucigalpa buses turn around, has a less-interesting selection of handicrafts than the many stores in town.

Across the street is Lesandra Leather, a small store with fine leather purses and wallets. Note that many stores also carry items from elsewhere in Latin America, so if Honduran origin is important to you, be sure to ask where the piece came from before you buy.

Getting to Valle de Ángeles

To catch a bus to Valle, follow Avenida La Paz east past the U.S. Embassy and catch the bus by Los Proceres shopping center, opposite Hospital San Felipe, at the gas stations at the end of Avenida La Paz. Buses leaving Valle back to Tegucigalpa [1] leave daily until 5:30 p.m. (Saturdays until 6 p.m.), charging US$0.75 for the 45-minute ride. You can also catch a rapidito, a nonstop van, near Clínicas Viera, charging US$1 for the 30-minute ride.

If you are on the eastern edge of Tegucigalpa and leaving to Olancho, it’s just as fast, if not faster, to go via Valle and San Juan de Flores to reconnect with the main highway at Talanga, rather than through the center of Tegucigalpa.

Three kilometers from Valle toward Tegucigalpa on the left side of the highway is Parque Turístico, where you’ll find picnic tables among the pine trees. The park recently had a face-lift, and the facilities (pool, restaurant, bathrooms) are all much improved. Horses are available for rent here.