Santa Cruz is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Honduran

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 department of Lempira.

Santa Cruz is one of the most hidden municipalities of the Lempira department. It is 70 km away from the city of Gracias

Gracias

Gracias is a small Honduran town/municipality that was founded in 1536, and has a population of approximately 25,000 people...

, 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

Erandique

Erandique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira.Erandique, is one of the several municipalities of the Lempira department. One has to travel 65 km from the city of Gracias passing by San Juan . A second road that leads to Erandique is going by the town of "Dolores" in...

. On October 26th 1926 it was granted the title of municipality in the administration of president Miguel Paz Barahona.

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 colors 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 color of their leaves according to the season of the year.

Boundaries

Its boundaries are:

• North : La Campa
  La Campa
  La Campa is a municipality and an aldea, or small town, in the Honduran Department of Lempira, located about 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...
  
   municipality.
• South : Erandique
  Erandique
  Erandique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira.Erandique, is one of the several municipalities of the Lempira department. One has to travel 65 km from the city of Gracias passing by San Juan . A second road that leads to Erandique is going by the town of "Dolores" in...
  
   and San Andrés
  San Andrés, Lempira
  San Andrés is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira. It is notable as the principal site in Honduras for the mining of andesite opals from Las Colinas deposit near Sosoal, which is in the municipality. This mining is largely performed by artisanal miners, rather than on an industrial...
  
   municipalities.
• East : Intibuca department.
• West : San Andrés
  San Andrés, Lempira
  San Andrés is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira. It is notable as the principal site in Honduras for the mining of andesite opals from Las Colinas deposit near Sosoal, which is in the municipality. This mining is largely performed by artisanal miners, rather than on an industrial...
  
  municipalitiy.

• Surface Extents: 150 km²

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.

• Population:For the year 2001 this municipality had 4,929 people, this figure was the base for an estimate, resulting in 5,993 people for the year of 2008.
• Villages: 6
• Settlements: 61

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 colors, 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.

• Local Holidays: "Santa Cruz" day on 3 May and "San Francisco" day on 4 October.

External links