Valle is one of the smallest departments in Honduras, at the far south of the country, on the Gulf of Fonseca, the great Pacific bay shared with El Salvador and Nicaragua. The gulf was discovered by the Spanish in 1522, when Gil González Dávila and the pilot Andrés Niño named it in honor of Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca. Its first inhabitants were the Chorotega, one of the last migrations arrived from central Mesoamerica.
The department was created on July 11, 1893, during the government of Domingo Vásquez, and received its name in honor of José Cecilio del Valle, the founding father of Central American independence born in neighboring Choluteca. It is a hot land of plains, estuaries and mangroves, with an economy tied to fishing, shrimp, salt and agriculture.
The Goascorán River, which empties into the gulf, marks the border with El Salvador, and the wide tides and mangroves define a coastal landscape very different from the Honduran Caribbean.
The historic heart of the department is the Isla del Tigre, an inactive volcanic cone of about 783 meters that rises from the Gulf of Fonseca and where Amapala sits. The port of Amapala was founded on October 17, 1833 and, for much of history, was the only port of Honduras on the Pacific. Its name derives from Nahuatl and is said to allude to 'near the amate trees'.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Amapala was a prosperous and cosmopolitan port, a point of entry for merchandise and travelers, with mansions, foreign consulates and an air of prosperity that can still be felt in its streets. It was declared a free port in 1868 and briefly became the capital of Honduras: on August 27, 1876, Dr. Marco Aurelio Soto inaugurated his provisional government there before moving to Tegucigalpa. Figures of Central American exile and politics passed through Amapala.
Its importance lasted until port operations moved to the mainland, leaving Amapala as a town frozen in time, today revalued for its historic charm.
The department's main port today is San Lorenzo, an active port and industrial city on the gulf, home to the port of Henecán, in the bay of Boca de Edecán. It was there that, in 1978-1979, the southern port and customs operations were officially transferred, which until then had had their center in Amapala.
San Lorenzo thus became the gateway of Honduran Pacific commerce and the center of the thriving shrimp industry of the south, with its shrimp-farming ponds, its packing plants and its intense export activity. The transfer of maritime trade marked the decline of Amapala and the rise of San Lorenzo as a new economic pole.
In recent years, the Honduran state has promoted plans to reactivate the port of Amapala as part of a great logistics project that seeks to turn the island into a strategic hub, connecting it to the mainland by road, in an attempt to restore its former prominence.
The department of Valle offers a landscape different from that of the Caribbean: that of the Honduran Pacific, with its wide tides, its mangroves full of life and its sunsets over the Gulf of Fonseca, framed by the volcanoes of El Salvador and Nicaragua. The islands of Tigre, Zacate Grande, Exposición, Conejo and others dot the gulf and offer beaches of dark volcanic sand, lookouts and views of three countries.
The estuaries are essential for shrimp farming and for coastal biodiversity, with protected mangrove areas such as the bay of Chismuyo and San Bernardo, a refuge for water birds and a singular fauna. Artisanal fishing, salt extraction and shrimp farming sustain the life of the coastal communities.
Amapala, with its beaches and its history, has become a getaway destination for discovering the coastal life of the Pacific and enjoying its seafood.
Together with Choluteca, Valle forms the southern region of Honduras, of a hot and dry climate, whose identity revolves around the gulf, fishing, shrimp farming and a coastal life very different from that of the country's mountainous interior. The relentless sun, the mangroves and the leisurely pace of the fishing towns mark the character of this corner of the Pacific.
The proximity of the borders with El Salvador and Nicaragua, in a gulf shared by the three countries, has made Valle a zone of exchange and, at times, of historic boundary disputes, partially resolved by international bodies. The gulf is a shared marine space, with a management that involves the three nations.
Small in size but great in history, Valle condenses the Honduras of the Pacific: that of the volcanoes, the estuaries, the shrimp and the old port of Amapala that was once the capital of the country.