Things To Do in Valle de Angeles

The city centers around a small central park with a church, which is surrounded by a handful of small restaurants, and numerous roads that radiate out and are nearly all filled with shops. Most visitors are content to while away the days strolling through shops, staring at the inspiring mountain vistas, and dining in small country eateries.

The Casa de la Cultura on the park, beside Jalapeños restaurant, has contemporary art and craft exhibitions from local artists, though it won't take you more than a couple of minutes to walk through.

If you are looking to get some of that fresh mountain air in your lungs, the most popular hike from town is to the Las Golondrinas Waterfall. The trip begins about 1km (1/2 mile) outside of town, on the road to San Juancito, and runs through the pine forests and vegetation reminiscent of Parque Nacional La Tigra nearby. Ask anyone for directions to La Cascada or ask a taxi to drop you there. The trail is well marked, though not simple. The steep hike up will take roughly 2 hours.

Though there aren't any organized tours or good trails, La Florida restaurant outside of town on the road to Tegucigalpa offers horseback riding on short excursions (the rides are more popular with children than adults).

An artisan school that was erected several decades ago in Valle de Ángeles has led to numerous handicraft shops in the surrounding streets, though most of the items sold here are produced in other parts of the country. The exception is the goods here are made of the assortment of precious metals, such as gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and zinc, that were long extracted from area mines.

Locally made silver earrings and matching necklaces, gold rings, silver-plated mirrors, or picture frames are good buys and quite cheap compared to what you would spend in the U.S. or Europe. With the downturn of the mines, these items are not as plentiful or of as good quality as they once were.

Most of the shops sell more or less the same array of goods and none are particularly noteworthy. There are few specialty shops. Most sell some leather goods that come from mountain areas in the western part of the country, Lenca pottery from the Gracias area, junco straw mats from outside of Santa Bárbara, classic and contemporary paintings and prints from artists from Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, and wood carvings from the North Coast.