El Esquilinchuche is a small village in the municipality of

Juticalpa Juticalpa () is the capital of Olancho Department in Honduras, with a population of 69,850 (2020 calculation), and the municipal seat of Juticalpa Municipality. Situated in a broad river valley alongside the Rio Juticalpa, the town is a commerci ...

Olancho Olancho is the largest of all the 18 departments into which Honduras is divided. The department covers a total surface area of 24,057 km² and has an estimated 2015 population of 537,306 inhabitants. The departmental capital is Juticalpa, w ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

Topography and access

El Esquilinchuche sits on a low rise that forms the banks of the flood plain of the

Guayape Guayape is a municipality in the west of the Honduran department of Olancho, west of Salamá, south of Yocón and north of Concordia. Guayape is divided into three huge territories. Some even covering the river. The lands are divided by the ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

that lies approximately 2 km to the south during the dry season, but comes to within 400 m during the annual

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

floods A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

. Esquilinchuche is connected to the main

highway from Jutiquile, via a loop consisting of 10 km of dirt road, passing through the other small towns of San Marcos de Jutiquile, and El Portrero de Casas, then through Esquilinchuche, continuing to loop back to the main highway via the highway junction closer to

Catacamas Catacamas is a city, with a population of 59,990 (2020 calculation), and a municipality in the Olancho Department of Honduras. It is the largest municipality in Central America in terms of area. Overview Catacamas, called the ''Florida City ...

leading through the small town of Arimis, by 6 km of dirt road. The villages of Las Tablas and La Pusunca can also be accessed through a connecting road junction in San Marcos de Jutiquile. A temporary wooden toll bridge is set up every year during the dry season south of Esquilinchuche crossing the

Guayape River The Guayape River (Spanish: Río Guayape) is a major river that drains much of the Department of Olancho and central Honduras. The largest tributary to the Guayape is the Río Jalán, which joins it at El Plomo, not far from the town of Jutical ...

and taken down during the wet season when the river grows from one that can be waded to a torrent that is often over 1 km in width.

Government

Esquilinchuche is loosely governed by a local group of

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

elders known as the 'patronato'. There are no governmental offices of any kind to be found in Esquilinchuche or the surrounding small towns.

The name

El Esquilinchuche is known by its residents to be named for a large tree with sparse long leaves (approximately 1.5 x 8 inch) and prominent white five petaled flowers that once grew in abundance in the town. The Esquilinchuche tree has a very soft wood and is identifiable by the milky sap that oozes out when any branch is cut. Today there are no Esquilinchuche trees in El Esquilinchuche. The tree is said to be named for Esquiline Hill, one of the famous seven hills of Ancient

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Flowers and leaves of the Esquilinchuche Tree

Residents and town amenities

The residents of this mostly agricultural community for the most part dedicate themselves to agricultural pursuits. The several small stores ("''pulperias''") are set in the living rooms of houses. There are no lodging or other amenities to be found other than freshly prepared foods occasionally offered by some ''pulperias''. El Esquilinchuche boasts a fine

Catholic church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, a large

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

field, and good quality residential fresh

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

from a water tower or "''pila''" set on a low

hill A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct Summit (topography), summit. Terminology The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally con ...

next to the Rivera

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

Electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

first came to the community in the early 1990s. Cell phones now are in common use among the residents of this

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

that in 2005 boasted one

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

. During Hurricane Mitch in 1998 the

lapped at the edges of the town, swallowing three residences that had been built a few feet below the level of the rest of the town. Other than some livestock, there were no fatalities. Image:Esquilinchuche_pastoral_scene.JPG, A member of the Esquilinchuche patronato with some of his grandchildren and cattle Image:Esquilinchuche_washing_machine.JPG, A pila, commonly used for washing both clothing and dishes in Honduras Image:Esquilinchuche_post_delivery.JPG, Delivery of some 'Carbon' posts in Esquilinchuche Image:Esquilinchuche_Baptism_Ceremony.JPG, A baptism ceremony in El Esquilinchuche Image:Esquilinchuche Wedding.JPG, An Esquilinchuche wedding parade in April 2008, the main ceremony was held in

{{coord missing, Honduras Populated places in Honduras