10 souvenirs to buy in Honduras

by Katie Hammel on

A hammock
Hammocks aren’t just places for tourists to relax, they are a way of life for the people in Honduras. A lack of modern conveniences like air-conditioning in a place where the tropical heat can be oppressive means that families tend to do their socializing and relaxing outdoors. So everywhere you look, hung between trees or strung up on porches, you’ll see a hammock. Bring a little bit of Honduran life back with you by purchasing one for a souvenir. If it matters to you, just ask to make sure that yours was made in Honduras. Especially in Copan, many of the hammocks sold are actually made in Guatemala. The quality is just as good as those made in Honduras and the cost is the same – about $35.

Coffee liquor
With all the coffee produced in Honduras, it’s no surprise that coffee liquor is a popular souvenir. Drunk straight or added to milk, the liquor is rich with a smooth coffee taste. Large bottles sell for $6-8.

Mahogany
Honduran Mahogany has long been prized for its durability, beauty and resistance to cracking when carved. If you can’t quite afford to buy a set of intricately designed Mahogany doors, take home a carved Mahogany box instead. Small boxes range from $30-$50 while large trunks can cost upwards of $150. On a smaller scale, a necklace made of Mahogany beads will cost under $10.


Coffee
Copan, in the northwest of the country, is the heart of coffee production in Honduras. You you can find coffee, and coffee from Copan, anywhere in the country, but you’ll find a greater selection nearer to the source. Available in beans or ground up, a small bag will cost you about $3 .

A corn husk doll
The Maya Chorti, descendants of the ancient Maya culture, still make traditional corn husk dolls. Spend an afternoon walking the hilly cobbled streets of Copan Ruins and you’ll probably see some children selling the dolls, which cost just $1 each.

Pottery
For centuries, the women of Honduras have been making Lencan pottery by hand. The pottery is traditionally decorated in patterns using brown, black, white, cream, red and grey. Every pattern is different as it’s all done by hand. Prices can vary widely depending on what part of the country you purchase it, but most small pieces should be under $10.


Jade
The Mayans sculpted Jade into figures representing gods; now shops all over Copan Ruins sell replicas alongside beautiful Jade rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Prices can fluctuate wildly and, unless you are knowledgeable about gemstones, it can be hard to tell if what you are looking at is real Jade. One test is to feel the stone – if it is cold to the touch, it’s real. Depending on the quality and size, Jade pieces can cost up to a few hundred dollars.

Coconut shell jewelry
For a cheaper jewelry souvenir, pick up some earrings made of coconut shell. You can find them at the crowded Guamilito Market in San Pedro Sula or for sale from the many vendors who sell local crafts in the Bay Islands. A pair of earrings or a necklace will be $2-3.

Mayan figures
Sure, it’s a bit like buying a souvenir tequila bottle in the town of Tequila, but if you have an interest in Mayan culture, don’t forget to pick up a small stelae. Modeled after the stelae of the ruins at Copan, you can find figures of Mayan ruler 18 Rabbit for $7-15.

Cigars
When many of the cigar producing families of Cuba left the country to escape Castro, they settled in Honduras and resumed the cultivation and processing of tobacco for cigars. Now some of the world’s best cigars come from Honduras. The San Pedro Sula airport even has a cigar bar, complete with walk-in humidor. If you aren’t an aficionado, just a casual smoker, you can pick up a box of good quality Honduras cigars for about $7.

Most vendors in Honduras accept both lempiras and dollars, though you may get a better exchange rate by paying in lempiras. And feel free to negotiate on price. Many vendors are willing to haggle, especially in the current economy. Don’t take advantage of the situation, but do offer the price you are willing to pay.

This trip was paid for by the Honduras Institute of Tourism, but the views expressed are entirely my own.

You can read other posts from my series on Honduras here.

Crazy Dutch souvenirs – a pictorial ode to wooden shoes, windmills and more

by Annie Scott on


When it comes to wooden shoe and windmill souvenirs, apparently The Netherlands just can’t get enough. I started photographing them right away when I got to Holland, but couldn’t have imagined the creative lengths to which the Dutch would go. Remember that scene in Forrest Gump when Bubba lists off different kinds of shrimp, seemingly for hours? Well, if you can imagine it, there’s probably a wooden shoe with a picture of it on it somewhere in Amsterdam.

Other commonly sighted souvenirs included Delft Blue wares (including the NSFW salt and pepper shakers in the gallery — blue indeed!), tulips and well, I don’t want to spoil the gallery for you. It holds wonders of which you’ve never dreamed (how about a wooden shoe with little wooden shoes growing out of it like tulips?). Have a look through so that next time a friend of yours goes to Amsterdam, you’ll know what crazy artifact to request they bring you.
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This trip was paid for by the Netherlands Board of Tourism, but the ideas and opinions expressed in the article above are 100% my own.

Cool travel souvenir: Hotel door hangers

by Katie Hammel on

Much of my apartment is decorated with travel souvenirs. The ceramic wine carafe I bought in Cinque Terre sits on the bar. Pictures I found at the Buenos Aires San Telmo Sunday market line the wall. Postcards bought in Iceland are propped on the fireplace mantel. I love being surrounding by reminders of my adventures, so I was intrigued and inspired when I saw this collection of vintage hotel room door hangers.

Michael Leibowitz says on his website that the collection belonged to his recently deceased grandfather, who had covered a wall of his study with “do not disturb” signs from hotels around the world. Locations represented in his collection range across the globe and include Athens, Bangkok, Budapest, Hawaii, Paris, New Zealand, Florence, Tasmania, and Tokyo.

There are signs from hotels like the Beirut Phoenicia Intercontinental, and from countries such as Yugoslavia, that no longer exist, and there are hangers from iconic hotels like the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok that have been around for over 100 years. It’s a beautiful set with designs ranging from simple to elegant to totally retro. And it’s inspired me to start my own collection. While I’m not going to start displaying them on my wall just yet, I think that years from now they’ll be interesting to look at as a memory of my travels.

What’s your favorite travel trinket to collect and how do you display your memories? Whether you collect matchbooks you store in a jar or or postcards you display on a wall, tell me about your favorite travel souvenirs in the comments below.

New Zealander auctions off Paris Hilton’s boarding pass

by Katie Hammel on

A man flying from New Zealand to Fiji on August 12th found a little surprise at his business class seat. Slipped between the pages of his in-flight magazine was the boarding pass of celebutant Paris Hilton, who had traveled to Fiji a few days prior.

Rather than toss the pass, the man decided to put it up for sale on a New Zealand auction site. Despite his claim that is “certainly has no other value” aside from being an unusual bit of memorabilia, as it “doesn’t smell of her perfume, have anything to do with panties”, the bids started rolling in. The price increased, and the man decided to donate the proceeds of the sale to a local charity.

The auction closed Monday at NZ$710 (US$485). So how would Paris feel if she knew her boarding pass was being auctioned off? Well, she did know – she posted a link on twitter, calling the story “random”.

[via Jaunted]

Do you collect souvenirs? Or “youvenirs?”

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Upon returning from many trips abroad, I find I am unable to part with what many would consider the “garbage” that accumulates during your travels. I’m not talking about banana peels or tissues – more like readily disposable items such as mass transit tickets, nightclub flyers and entrance passes to monuments.

For example, I have a used subway ticket from Stockholm that I like to keep in my messenger bag. Or there’s the pack of playing cards I picked up in Buenos Aires. Each item is relatively mundane and not really worth displaying, yet it holds a highly personal story.

Every time I stumble upon these items again during my day-to-day life, it causes me to pause for a moment, remembering where the item came from and how I acquired it. For instance, I remember the 20 random minutes I spent in the crowded Stockholm subway station office trying to buy the tickets pictured above. Or that rainy day in Buenos Aires where we had nothing to do and decided to play poker, wandering around for about an hour in search of cards and trying to explain the concept of “playing cards” to local store owners in Spanish.

What do you do with these items? The more ambitious put them in scrapbooks, but I like to think of these disposable travel items as something altogether different – as “youvenirs.” What is a youvenir you might ask? For me, it’s any highly personal travel memento with little monetary value – that fleeting item that you’ve managed to hold onto because of a memorable experience or highly personal anecdote.
It’s for this reason that a youvenir is fundamentally different than a souvenir. Souvenirs are items you purchased with the intention of remembering and commemorating your trip – that beautiful colored glass bottle, an embroided sweatshirt that says “San Francisco” or a jar of Spanish olives you bought in Madrid.

I find myself collecting fewer and fewer souvenirs these days – there’s something about artificially buying an item just to remind me of a place that rings false. But a youvenir on the other hand is grounded in my personal experiences. As artists like Marcel Duchamp or Robert Rauschenberg have demonstrated, there is something profoundly interesting about everyday objects – something mundane and disposable yet incredibly meaningful depending on your personal context and experience with it.

I like to think that the more each of us travel, the less we acquire souvenirs so we can “brag” or give gifts to our friends and instead begin collecting youvenirs – items that have little monetary value but speak specifically to the unique emotions and experiences each of us attaches to travel.

What do you think about the concept of youvenirs? Do you have any memorable items you’ve acquired that would qualfiy? Click below to see our gallery of examples of “youvenirs” and leave some comments about your own favorite youvenirs below.

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