Sights

La Iglesia de la Inmaculada Concepción, on Danlí [1]’s parque central and pleasingly flanked by palms and other verdant trees, was built between 1810 and 1817, at the end of the colonial era. Inside are five simple wood and gilt retablos (altarpieces).

On the opposite side of the square is the Museo del Cabildo (8 a.m.–noon and 1–3:45 p.m. Mon.–Fri., US$0.50), housed in a two-story building built in 1857 and showing its age. It features an odd assortment of pre-Hispanic and colonial-era trinkets, and the old caretaker will happily tell you about them if your Spanish is up to it.

Acuaducto Los Arcos are the minor ruins of Honduras’s second potable water system, built in 1770 and located in the Barrio Los Arcos, a 25-minute walk from central Danlí, only worth visiting if you’re a die-hard archaeology buff.

Danlí [1] is home to a burgeoning cigar industry. A dozen or so factories operate in and around the city, including Honduran Cuban Cigars, Cuban Honduran Tobacco, Plasencia Tobacco, Central American Cigar, Tabacalera Occidental, and Puros Indios, most of which welcome visitors—just knock on the door.

Puros Indios (tel. 504/763-1486, 8 a.m.–4 p.m., Mon.–Fri.), an excellent hand-rolling factory on the road leading from town to El Paraíso, will happily give tours (in Spanish) of its factory, which produces 25,000 cigars a day. Boxes of cigars are available for purchase direct at the factory for about half their U.S. price (starting at US$42 and up, payable in lempiras or dollars). City maps indicating cigar factories (as well as hotels, restaurants, and Internet cafés) are available at the tourism office.

This is also a cowboy town, and you’ll see several talabarterías (leather goods stores) selling saddles, hats, and other items. They can turn out good-quality products with several days’ advance order.