Open air legislation discussed in Congress

Last Thursday, August 26th, the National Congress of Honduras debated the new open skies legislation, whose purpose is to deregulate the Honduran skies, make them attractive to international airlines and thus promote increased tourism into the country. An important fringe benefit of the law is that it will make the four international airports currently operating in the country more enticing to investors and will thus generate more revenue for the state when these airports are offered in concession to the private enterprise.

The law, put forth by Congressman Rodolfo Irias Navas, of the National Party was approved during this first debate, which means that if approved again during the other debate required by law it will go into effect. The most outstanding facts of this new law are that it will not require reciprocity from other countries to allow international airlines into Honduras. Traditionally, if an international airline wished to fly into the country, its government had to allow Honduran airlines to fly into their territory. Since Honduras does not have a National Carrier since 1995, when Tan-Sahsa went belly up, reciprocity is not only not an issue, it actually makes no sense.

The general consensus of the Honduran public is all for the "open skies", which is regarded as the one and only way to attract more visitors to the country and at the same time make air fares more affordable. Currently, fares from the USA to Honduras are far more expensive than they are to neighboring countries, even though, for example, Costa Rica is considerably further away from the USA than Honduras is.

La Prensa reported that Ricardo Martinez, former Minister of Tourism and current counselor to the Honduras Ministry of Tourism, declared that the intention of the open skies policy is to make Honduras more attractive so that more aircraft of diverse airlines start flying to the country, thus generating more tourism and therefore, more hard currency for Honduras. It has been reported that airlines such as Mexicana de Aviacion, Delta Airlines and Aerocaribe have already expressed interest in flying to Honduras.

Jaime Valenzuela, CEO of Aerocaribe, a Mexican airline with hubs in Cancun and Merida informed Honduras.com that they are already doing the paperwork to start flying from Cancun to San Pedro Sula and Roatan. They will start with daily flight from Cancun to San Pedro Sula before the end of the year. This opens the possibility of using Cancun as a hub for connections from the USA and Europe towards Honduras, which hopefully could make it easier for many travelers throughout the North American market, which is the number one market for tourism into Honduras.

Progreso gets new telephone numbers

El Progreso, Honduras' third most populated city with over three hundred thousand inhabitants is located 30 kilometers east of San Pedro Sula, on the banks of the Ulua River has finally gotten what it has been fighting for during the last 18 months. Ever since Hondutel, the local Honduran Telephone Company changed the old 6 digit numbers to 7 digits, El Progreso inhabitants have staged a true war against the telephone company. It turns out that the first three digits for all numbers in El Progreso, started with 666 (three sixes), which in bible tradition is the number for Satan.

Both Catholic and Evangelical churches, that compromise basically the totality of the Honduran Population where very energetic about the satanical implications of having to dial 666 every time need to talk with someone in El Progreso.

Fortunately for El Progreso, the manager of Hondutel, Mr. Micheleti is a native from El Progreso, so they where able to use their influence and fianlly managed to change the first digits to 647, a much saitlier number! So if you are dialing El Progreso, remember that the first three numbers to dial have changed from 666 to 647!

The Tropical Treasures Bird Park in Roatan has just reported success in breeding macaws

According to Lloyd Davidson, owner of the park, which has a variety of species of tropical birds from Honduras, Mango and Guava, two of their scarlet macaws "just decided they where going to breed, despite the fact that we where not trying to promote this. When it was obvious they were into it, we decided to put in barrel in their cage, and they where in it within an hour, preparing it as a nest." Although they laid two eggs, only one of them hatched. The baby macaw, named Papaya, is now 8 weeks old, and despite the fact that it is the first offspring born to Mango and Guava, they have done an outstanding job feeding him. The macaws share their large cage with several other birds, including other scarlet macaws as well as the larger and rarer Buffoon Macaws, also native to Honduras. One of these large, green and blue macaws has also taken his job as an "uncle" and pitched in helping the parents feed baby Papaya, says Davidson.

The park is located in Sandy Bay, Roatan, and came to be from what originally was a private collection of beautiful tropical birds. As the collection got bigger, and many people who had birds and no longer wanted them started bringing them to us, said Davidson, we found that we had to get a larger space for them and decided to open the park, the first of its kind in Honduras. The park is know visited by many of the cruise ship tourists that arrive in Roatan for a day visit, and is getting ever more popular. Located next to the calm Sandy Bay beach, and under some massive mango trees that provide a nice cool shade that together with the cool Caribbean tradewinds keep the birds and visitors cool, this park is an outstanding experience that people from all ages will enjoy. Many different birds are actually kept outside their large cages during the day, allowing visitors to interact with them. Friendly toucans, yellow napped parrots and macaws are but a few of the many inhabitants of this unique park. Judy Lambert, who is in charge of the park has an outstanding relationship with the birds and personally guides the visitors throughout the park.

If you are planning to visit Roatan or know of someone who will be there soon, don't skip the opportunity of interacting with the birds and getting to know baby Papaya personally!