Brus Laguna
Some 30km east along the coast from Palacios, on the southeastern edge of the Laguna de Brus, is the friendly Miskito town of BRUS LAGUNA. The town is mostly seen by visitors as they are coming or going – regular flights connect the town with La Ceiba, and guides and boats can be hired for multi-day trips, travelling up the Río Sigre into the southern reaches of the Río Plátano reserve.
La Mosquitia history and politics
Before the Spanish arrived, La Mosquitia belonged to the Pech and Sumu. Initial contact with Europeans was comparatively benign, as the Spanish preferred to concentrate instead on the mineral-rich lands of the interior. Relations with Europeans intensified when the British began seeking a foothold on the mainland in the seventeenth century, establishing settlements on the coast at Black River (now Palacios) and Brewer’s Lagoon (Brus Laguna), whose inhabitants – the so-called “shoremen” – engaged in logging, trading, smuggling and fighting the Spanish.
Britain’s claim to La Mosquitia, made nominally to protect the shoremen, though really intended to ensure a transit route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, supposedly ended in 1786, when all Central American territories except Belize were ceded to the Spanish. In the 1820s, however, taking advantage of post-independence chaos, Britain again encouraged settlement on the Mosquito Coast and by 1844 had all but formally announced a protectorate in the area. Not until 1859 and the British–American Treaty of Cruz Wyke did Britain formally end all claims to the region.
The initial impact of mestizo Honduran culture on La Mosquitia was slight. Since the creation of the administrative department of Gracias a Dios in 1959, however, indigenous cultures have gradually become diluted: Spanish is now the main language, and the government encourages mestizo settlers to migrate here in search of land. Pech, Miskito and Garífuna communities have become more vocal in recent years in demanding respect for their cultural differences and in calling for an expansion of health, education and transport infrastructures.
Palacios
Sited on what was once the British settlement of Black River, PALACIOS lies just west of one of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve’s three coastal lagoons, Laguna Ibans. This is frequently the starting point for organized trips to the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, and, for independent travellers, a logical place from which to begin exploration of the region.
Dotted along the Caribbean shoreline around Palacios is a cluster of interesting Garífuna villages, including Batalla, just to the west of town across the Palacios lagoon, and Plaplaya, about 8km to the east, where a turtle project has been established. Highly endangered giant leatherbacks, the largest species in the world (reaching up to 3m in length and 900kg in weight), nest in the beaches around the village between April and June. Rais Ta and Belén are also worth visiting.
Puerto Lempira
Capital of the department of Gracias a Dios, PUERTO LEMPIRA is the largest town in La Mosquitia, with a population of eleven thousand. Set on the southeastern edge of the biggest of the coastal lagoons, Laguna de Caratasca, some 110km east of Brus Laguna, the town survives on government administration and small-scale fishing and shrimping. Like Brus Laguna, Puerto Lempira is mostly used by travellers as a transit hub – flights connect it with the rest of Honduras, and it’s close to the border with Nicaragua.