La Campa

La Campa is an aldea, or small town, in the Honduran Department of Lempira, located about 18 km by dirt road from Gracias, the largest town in the immediate region. The inhabitants of Gracias, La Campa, and other nearby aldeas, including San Manuel Colohete, are mainly of Lenca descent. Although the aldea is small, there are multiple smaller and spread out satellite communities in the hills above La Campa, such as Cruz Alta. People in these communities refer to La Campa as if it were their nearby city. These communities grow coffee to consume and sell; substance crops of rice, mango, a dozen varieties of bananas, and black beans; and run their own public elementary schools and churches.

The town is known as a center of Lenca pottery production, of which there are two main styles; there are black and white (smoked) pots and red-glazed pots. La Campa's are of the latter style. Much of the pottery sold in La Campa is brought down from the hillside villages, where the villagers are adept pottery makers. The town also has a lovely and large 18th century Spanish church. La Campa sits in a deep river valley near Celaque, the tallest mountain in Honduras.

Useful traveling information and local contacts can be found here: [http://visitlacampa.blogspot.com/]

La Campa,is one of the municipalities of the Lempira department. It is properly located only 16 km from Gracias city. And it can take about half an hour to get there. As the visitor moves forward, the southeast side of Celaque national park is seen imposing. The unpaved road is kept in good conditions almost year round.

History

La Campa in 1582 was a small town with 20 tributaries to encomendero Mario Cana. It was previously known as "Tecauxinas", back in 1887 it was a village of Gracias. It became a municipality in 1921. The name of "La Campa" has its origins in an expression used by old miners, it had to do with searching protection against the rain.

Geography

It is located on a hillside and it is guarded by a line of solid rock hills, which also provide a nice landscape for the town. All these hills are covered with pine forests, therefore the weather is cool and nice most of the year.

Boundaries

Its boundaries are:
*North : Gracias and Belén municipalities.
*South : San Andrés and Santa Cruz.
*East : Belén municipality and Intibuca department.
*West : San Manuel Colohete and San Sebastián municipalities.

*Surface Extents: 172 km²

Resources

La Campa is not on a good elevation for coffee plantations. It balances that great flat surfaces proper for sowing vegetables. A enormous advantage it has consists of lots of water springs and there are several place to go for a swim or just to cool off a little. Most of this springs come from Celaque national park.

Population

Half of the people in La Campa have cross-breed traits and the other half are descendants of native indians. These last are especially seen in the surrounding villages.

*Population: For 2001 the figure of inhabitants was 4,238. Accordign to estimates by the National Intitue of Statistics for 2008 there will be 5,048.
*Villages: 5
*Settlements: 49

Tourism

There are many visits to this place organized by some hotels in Gracias. It is part of "Colosuca" path and its well preserved church is one of the attractions. There is a small but very comfortable hotel with cable TV and other accommodations. There are 2 places for internet access and one of then is the Mayor's office. It has a small soccer stadium, in which inter village and inter municipalities tournaments are played. People are nice and welcoming. Hopefully there are many grociries stores.
*Local Holidays: "San Matias" day;February 15 thru 28th.