Honduras – Isla del Tigre

Me & Shop Keeper Lady

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The gigantic Bay of Fonseca joins three countries by sea – El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Before our trip, I thought we’d spend months here, enjoying each country in turn by dinghy. Boy was I wrong. The bay is almost a no-go for cruisers – there are very few protected anchorages, there’s a lot of industrial traffic, and virtually no beaches for dinghy landings. Honduras has one little island, Isla del Tigre, near its shore, but to see more of it, we’d have to go up yet another muddy river with unforgiving tides to mind. We decided the island would suffice for now – we’d get the passport stamps but recognized we wouldn’t see much of Honduras.

Amapala is the teeny town on the teeny Tigre Island, which has an amazing view of the Bay. The first thing we noticed were the paint jobs on the pangas. Wow. Sure, El Salvador and Mexico paint their pangas bright colors. Honduras EMBELLISHES their pangas – complete with hand-drawn logos – mostly of sports brands. One panga had all the logos – Nike, Adidas, Puma, maybe a Facebook was thrown in there, Air Jordan… Don’t tell the trademark police. Bright colors covered the buildings on shore too. Being there reminded me of Aruba and Curaçao – you can tell the Caribbean influence carries far.

Our check-in was easy peasy and free, and the Port Captain was delighted to have us. He gave us his cell # and said, “Call me if you need anything at all.” He also informed us that Honduran pupusas are much better than El Salvador’s and shared some fresh-baked bread from his lunch.

The Immigration officer was also friendly, but he felt sad over the rampant corruption in his country. The most recent election had been a farce, and everyone was in with the narcos anyway. He told us he started out as a police officer, but was forced out when he wouldn’t participate in the grifting and shakedowns. Isla del Tigre was a safe haven from all that mess, and under no circumstances should we go to the mainland. (This time we heeded the warning since we weren’t planning to go anyway.)

In fact, the last couple of years in Honduran government reads like a tabloid. (Wait. Shoot. So does ours in the US.) Quick recap: Xiomara Castro took office in 2022 promising to clean up corruption. Then in 2024 a video surfaced of her brother-in-law negotiating cartel money for her 2013 campaign. Oops. The 2025 election was disputed – fraud allegations, the works – and Nasry Asfura took over in January 2026. Meanwhile, Trump pardoned ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández, who’d been convicted on drug charges. Then leaked recordings surfaced (dubbed “Hondurasgate,” naturally) suggesting foreign money was behind the pardon. Fun fun.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that other Hondurans we met were kinda down too.

Due to the massive 10’+ tides, we could only stay ~4-6 hours ashore at a time. Provisioning was nearly impossible except for the very basics, and street food vending didn’t seem to be a thing. Mostly we just sat outside a little shop that sold beer, and I chatted as best I could with the proprietor and her family. They themselves just sat all day, sold the odd item or two, and bore the ferocious heat.

On the last day we took a tuk-tuk around half of the island to try out one of the beach restaurants on the ocean side. There we soaked up the scene as families gathered on wobbly plastic chairs and watched as pangas did donuts towing as many bodies as would fit on the ever-present inflatable weenie. I took one of my favorite photos of the trip and we had lots of fresh seafood and cold beer.

I’m definitely curious about the interior of Honduras. On the Caribbean side they have Roatán, the world famous diving destination – but that’s probably Honduras’s Cabo. I imagine that, like El Salvador, it has plenty of hidden gems to discover and lovely people to meet. Maybe next time.