La Tigra National Park ( es, Parque Nacional La Tigra) was the first

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

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 ...

, by decree No. 976-80 whose principal objective is "The Conservation, Ecologic Preservation and Maintenance of The Hydrologic Potential of this Reserve". It was established on 1 January 1980 and covers an area of 238 square kilometers. It has an altitude of between 1,800 and 2,185 metres. In addition to its natural environment and history, the La Tigra Mountain with its

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

tropical vegetation Tropical vegetation is any vegetation in tropical latitudes. Plant life that occurs in climates that are warm year-round is in general more biologically diverse that in other latitudes. Some tropical areas may receive abundant rain the whole ye ...

also provides more than 30% of the necessities of the capital city,

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

, and 100% of the bordering communities and has been protected since the early 1920s, evidence of this are the

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s of

Jutiapa Jutiapa is a city and a municipality in the Jutiapa department of Guatemala. Located 124 km from the city of Guatemala City, at an altitude of 892 m (2,926 ft),

. It is a cloud forest with an area of , located from Tegucigalpa. The park is located 25 km north of Tegucigalpa. It has four access points, but for visiting purposes 2 routes are mainly used: the highway leading to El Hatillo and the highway leading to Valle de Ángeles, San Juancito and Cantarranas. The park provides two Visitor Center and Eco Lodges, one in the community of Jutiapa and the other in the community of El Rosario. To access the first one, taking the road to El Hatillo () will do it, spending approximately 50 minutes to reach it, passing through several communities on its way. To access the second one, at just 1½ of Tegucigalpa the road to Valle de Angeles, San Juancito () located in the village of El Rosario will lead to Rosario's Visitors' Center., at an elevation of . This last one equipped for several activities, including a museum. The Park with its is divided in two zones: nucleus and buffer. The nucleus zone () of the park counts with 8 hiking trails that cross it, adding up to more than , from which, two of them connect both visitors' centers.

Flora and fauna

In what fauna concerns, its consists of approximately 3 species of

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

s, 13 species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s (2 rare and 2 venomous), over 200 species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s (migratory and resident) distributed in 39 families and 13 orders and 31 species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, 6 of which are endangered, 2 threatened and 2 are considered rare.

Bromeliads The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

and the giants of the forest;

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

s, encino,

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

, ceibo – the sacred tree of the

Mayans The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical reg ...

. Also

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

trees, which are the main food source for the

quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

Visitor information

To access the park, contact with the park's governing body offices is necessary. Visitors can refer to its web page, where orientation about the park, its requirements and regulations are provided.

Activities

Canopy

This adventure consists of 1 kilometer with 7 cables, 2 hanging bridges, and 10 platforms (some of which are located 25 meters above the ground).

References

External links