About halfway along the dirt road between Gracias and La Esperanza is San Juan, where a rough dirt road turns south 24 kilometers to Erandique, an exceptionally beautiful, rural colonial town set amid the Sierra de las Neblinas. The mountains around Erandique were the old stomping grounds of Lenca warrior Lempira when he waged his guerrilla war against the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.

Erandique has three parques (squares), each fronted by a small but very fine colonial-era church. Formerly, each of the squares had a massive ceiba tree in front, planted more than a century ago, but now only two survive. One of these remaining two ceibas was nearly split in half when struck by lightning. The one intact tree is impressively huge, dwarfing the square and the church behind it. A large statue to Lempira now stands in the center of the main square.

Bemused visitors to Erandique may find themselves surrounded by men, women, and children asking if they would like to buy opals. As it turns out, the surrounding countryside is one of the most famous areas in the Americas for the precious stone. Several different grades of opals are mined nearby, including black, white, river, garden, rainbow, milk, and the valuable aurora opals. Honduran opals are considered particularly valuable because of the frequent presence of scarlet coloring. Local campesinos are also always turning up obsidian arrowheads and other objects from pre-Columbian and conquest times and often trying to sell them to visitors for very little money.

Apart from the occasional opal-buyer, Erandique doesn’t receive many foreign visitors, so you may be the recipient of a few curious but usually good-natured stares from town residents. Anyone with a modicum of openness and minimal Spanish will quickly find the friendly townsfolk ready to chat about the town or the world at large. The town’s annual festival is held on January 20 in honor of an Sebastián, and holidays for San Antonio (June 13), Lempira (July 20), and the Virgen de La Merced (September 8) are also observed. Gladys Nolasco in San Juan also has information on tourist activities in Erandique.

Reportedly, Hotel Steven (Barrio Gualmaca, US$5.50 s, US$8 d) has comfortable rooms, hot showers, cable TV, and good prices. Lodging is also available at Hotel Sinai and Hotel Torre Fuerte. There are a couple of basic comedores with standard típico food. There are also a couple of Internet cafés (domestic and international calls can be made from the one near the central park), a gas station, and a small medical clinic.

Getting to Erandique

One minibus runs between Gracias and Erandique daily, leaving Erandique early in the morning for the 2.5-hour, US$2 trip. Another bus leaves at 5 a.m. for the four-hour trip to La Esperanza, US$2.50. Finding a jalón on one of the regularly passing pickup trucks is frequently possible.