El Tigre is a wonderful island in Honduran Pacific area. In the times of the failure of an attempt called Republic of Central America in 1898, it became an object of controversy between the three emerging republics: Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.

It was right between 1896 and 1898 when its most important municipality, Amapala, became the capital of short-term confederation of these republics aimed to increase their political strength.

You can walk around the island in a couple of hours. A couple of hours takes also to climb its highest mountain, El Tigre (783 m above the sea level), which is a former volcano, the biggest one in Fonseca Gulf.

The island is quite outside the main tourist points, since most of the visitors of Honduras prefer Caribbean islands of this country. The Pacific coast of Honduras is significantly shorter and with less white-sand beaches than the Caribbean one. Even so, I find it much more interesting. The mangrove coasts of the continental Honduras prevent the real development of tourism in this area. Nevertheless, in the local summer season, mainly in December, you will find certain tourism activities even here, since the people from Tegucigalpa like to spend their vacations in the area.

From the island, you can see the coasts of both Nicaragua and El Salvador. From the highest point, you will see the coasts of three countries at once: Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

There is almost no international tourism. You will find no internet cafés at all. Incredibly tasty catch-of-the-day menus are obvious in the three or four all-year-round restaurants open in the island. Friendly people and relaxed atmosphere is ubiquitous. The price niveau is just slightly higher than in the closest continental area.

It is not very difficult to get there. From Tegucigalpa, just take the bus to San Lorenzo (ending in Choluteca). San Lorenzo has nice market to have a lunch. From San Lorenzo, bus line works to Coyolito, the point of boats departure to Amapala. Consequent and hard passage price negotiation is strongly recommendable.

I was there in November 2007. This was one of the strongest highlights of my first trip to Central America.