Santa Cruz, Lempira

For other uses, see Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz
Guaticaitique
Municipality

Panoramic View of Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz

Location in Honduras

Coordinates: 14°1′N 88°23′W / 14.017°N 88.383°W / 14.017; -88.383
Country Honduras
Department Lempira
Municipality since 26 October 1926 (1926-10-26)
Area
 • Total 150 km2 (60 sq mi)
Population (2015)
 • Total 7,089
 • Density 47/km2 (120/sq mi)
Website Official website

Santa Cruz (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsanta ˈkɾus]) is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira.

It is one of the most hidden municipalities of the Lempira department. It is 70 km away from the city of Gracias, forced to pass by San Juan del Caite in Intibuca.

History

Its former name was "Guaticaitique", after that it was "Santa Cruz de Guasabosque". In the census of 1887 it was a village of Erandique. On 26 October 1926 it was granted the title of municipality in the administration of president Miguel Paz Barahona.

Lenca Women with their offspring

Geography

As in the rest of the department, one cannot miss the high, steep mountains on their way to the municipality capital. Also on the road there are a couple of quarries, they provide material for the maintenance of the road. Rocks of different colours and hardness' may be seen. It has a great amount of forestal resources, but all around the municipality capital less trees are seen, this is making the weather a little hotter than it used to be. Pine forests are the most prevalent but there is also a good amount of "Liquidambar" forest. These last change the colour of their leaves according to the season of the year.

Boundaries

Its boundaries are:

Resources

This is one of the poorest municipalities of the department. The coffee plantations are in the first place, nothing new. Cattle raising, corn and beans crops follow but are mostly for local use. It has electricity and mobile communication services and they obtained water from wells. According to the elder inhabitants, close to the municipality capital there is a big deposit of several metals, but the owner of this property has no intention to exploit it and has rejected some millionaire offers from multi-nationals companies.

Population

In Santa Cruz, the direct descendants of the indigenous peoples make up 85% of the population. The remainder are of mixed ancestry.

Tourism

The deviation for this municipality capital is not easy to see, it is approximately 20 km away from San Juan del Caite, right across a football field. From the deviation to the capital the road is not in the best conditions. There is not much to see in the municipality capital. Perhaps for people who like to visit old colonial buildings, its church is a forced stop. Without doubt, the best feature of this municipality is its Liquidambar forest because their leaves change colours, depending on the season of the year. Also it can be interesting to see the descendants of the Indians, since they still keep a lot of features of their ancestors.

Spring Season in Santa Cruz forests
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santa Cruz.

Coordinates: 14°1′N 88°23′W / 14.017°N 88.383°W / 14.017; -88.383

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.