Erandique

Erandique is a municipality in the Honduran department of Lempira.

Erandique,is one of the several municipalities of the Lempira department. One has to travel 65 km from the city of Gracias passing by San Juan (del Caite). A second road that leads to Erandique is going by the town of "Dolores" in Intibuca. Also this roads leads to the municipality of San Francisco. The main disadvantage of this second road is that is not repaired often.If one enters from San Juan, Erandique has one exit to San Francisco and the other to the rest of the municipalities such as San Andrés and so on.

History

It was founded back in 1600 under the name of "Cerquin", due to its location on the west of Cerquin hill. It was registered in 1,733 in the volume II of the Real State book, dated in November 28th. According to the tales from elderly citizens the original act was lost and it was replaced in February 14th 1882, in the administration of Dr Marco Aurelio Soto. It is one of the oldest municipalities and it became a city in March 3rd 1932.

Geography

Erandique is still surrounded by many Pine forests, also one can see groups of Liquidambar in smaller scale. Also there are many steep hills, big and small. The weather is mostly cool all along the year, except in the dry season. The predominant soil is derived from volcanic rocks. Duirng the rainy season, this soil that forms from the degradation of the rocks becomes extremely slippery. And it removes the material from the slopes on the road.

Boundaries

Its boundaries are:
*North : Santa Cruz munipality and Intibuca department.
*South : Piraera and San Francisco munipalities.
*East : Intibuca department.
*West : San Andrés and Gualcince minicipalities.

*Surface Extents: 294 km²

Resources

The Coffee plantations have great importance, but they are located in the near villages and mountains at higher elevation from Erandique downtown, such as "Cerquin" hill. There for it is a gathering point of coffee and it also procceses the grains. Next main activities are the crops of corn and bean. It is common to find vegetable and cattle in short amounts. currently there is electricity and telecommunications services from the national company and mobile phone services. It is very important to tell that a small hospital works in Erandique, it has an ambulance service and the serious cases are taken to Gracias. It is worth mentioning that a group of US volunteers run a small clinic to help the poorest. There is daily one departure to both cities Gracias and La Esperanza. There is one gas station and several places to fix flat tires. A sad note for the pine forest is that people still uses it as firewoods to cook food.

Population

In Erandique a great number of descendants from native indians can be seen, and that represents half of the population. The cross-breed representes the other half, showing white skin. During the holidays and other activities is when the direct descendants are seen, they still prefer to live isolated.

*Population: The figure was 11,700 in 2001. An estimate was based on this, in order to have the figure of 13,845 people for 2008.
*Villages: 15
*Settlements: 132

Tourism

The landscapes in Erandique are very beautiful due to Pine and Liquidambar forests. People are nice and welcoming. There is a Cable TV company. There are a couple of places for internet access. There are also several places to enjoy the typical food and only one that offers more variety of dishes, suhc as shrimps and a Seafood soup, since the owner is from La Ceiba city. When it comes down to hotels, there are 3 options, but the only recommended is "Hotel Esteven", with comfortable ruins, hot showers, cable TV, good prices. In downtown the visitor can watch many old houses build with adobes. Some streets are paved with rocks and there are 2 very old churches to visit.

*Local Holidays: "San Sebastian" day on January 20th. "Virgen de La Merced" on September 8th, "San Antonio" on June 13th. Also on July 20th it is celebrated "Lempira" national day for the first national hero who fought the spanish conquerors.