Pais y capital: Honduras y Tegucigalpa

Honduras officially the Republic of Honduras. It was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras which became the modern-day state of Belize The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras a large inlet of the Sea Caribbean.

Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spain which introduced its now predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.

The area of Honduras is about 112,492 km² and the population exceeds eight million. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone.

GEOGRAPHY

Honduras borders the Caribbean Sea on the north coast and the Pacific Ocean on the south through the Gulf of Fonseca. It mostly lies between latitudes 13º and 17ºN and longitudes 83º and 90ºW.

The climate varies from tropical in the lowlands to temperate in the mountains. The central and southern regions are relatively hotter and less humid than the northern coast.

The Honduran territory consists mainly of mountains, but there are narrow plains along the coasts, a large undeveloped lowland jungle La Mosquitia region in the northeast, and the heavily populated lowland Sula valley in the northwest. In La Mosquitia, lies the UNESCO world-heritage site Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve, with the Coco River which divides the country from Nicaragua.

Economy

The economy has continued to grow slowly, but the distribution of wealth remains very polarized with average wages remaining low. Economic growth in the last few years has averaged 7% a year, one of the highest rates in Latin America, but 50% of the population, approximately 3.7 million people, still remains below the poverty line It is estimated that there are more than 1.2 million people who are un employed, the rate of unemployment standing at 27.9%. According to the Human Development Index, Honduras is the sixth poorest/least developed country in Latin America, after Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Guyana, and Bolivia..

The government operates both the electricity (ENEE) and land-line telephone services (HONDUTEL), as ENEE receives heavy subsidies for its chronic financial problems. HONDUTEL, however, is no longer a monopoly, as the telecommunication sector was opened.

After years of decline against the U.S. dollar, lempira recently stabilized at around 19 lempiras per dollar. In June 2008, the exchange rate between U.S. dollar and lempira