Garífuna Villages

Introducing Garífuna Villages

Several Garífuna villages are within easy reach of Tela. All of them are on the coast, with rustic houses right on the beach, fishing canoes resting on the sand and tiny restaurants serving delicious Garífuna food; the specialties are seafood soups and fish cooked in coconut. Although you can, in theory, quite easily walk to all these villages along the beaches, it is not always safe. They are mostly tranquil little places, although thefts and the occasional assault have been reported. Instead you could bus it or take a guided tour or a taxi along the access roads.

All villages have places to stay and at least a couple of restaurants beside the beach specializing in seafood (of course).

The closest village is attractive little La Ensenada, 3km east along the arc of the beach from Tela, just before you reach the point, Punta Triunfo, crowned by the Cerro El Triunfo de la Cruz. There are seafood restaurants in La Ensenada (although most are only open on the weekend) and places to drink along the beach.

The larger village of El Triunfo de la Cruz can be reached by regular buses from Tela, departing from the corner on the east side of the market. It is the largest, most developed of the Garífuna villages, and doesn’t have the same peaceful feeling of the other villages. There are a couple of reasonable places to stay.

On the other side of Tela, to the west, is Tornabé, another Garífuna village, 8km away. It is a largish village.

Past Tornabé, the beach road becomes rougher and can only be negotiated by 4WD. It continues for several more kilometers to Miami, a beautiful but basic village on a narrow sandbar between the Caribbean Sea and the Laguna de los Micos. This area may well change beyond recognition. The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a controversial ‘soft’ loan for a giant hotel complex and golf club to be built in the area – hardly a big step towards ecologically and culturally sensitive tourism. The ground was being prepared by builders at the time of research.

Last updated: Oct 20, 2009