Trujillo

Christopher Columbus landed near Trujillo on 14 August 1502, on his fourth and final voyage, the first time he touched the Central American mainland. He called the place Punta de Caxinas. In 1524 Hernán Cortés sent Cristóbal de Olid to found an outpost near the Guaimoreto lagoon; when Olid tried to set up his own realm, Francisco de las Casas removed him. Las Casas moved the settlement to the present site for its larger natural harbour and renamed it Trujillo; the town was formally founded on 18 May 1525.

Trujillo became a shipping point for gold and silver from the interior and, under Spanish rule, the capital of Honduras, until its exposed position led the capital to move inland to Comayagua. Around 1550 the Spanish built the Fortress of Santa Bárbara, but it could not hold off pirates or rival powers: French raiders sacked the town in 1558, the Dutch burned it in 1633, the largest gathering of pirates in history took place nearby in 1683, and the town was destroyed several times before 1797. For much of the 18th century the Spanish all but abandoned it as indefensible.

After independence in 1821 Trujillo began to prosper again. In 1860 the American filibuster William Walker, who had seized power in Nicaragua, captured the town, but he was defeated, taken prisoner and executed here on 12 September 1860; his grave is a local attraction. More recently the town has been discussed as a site for a proposed charter city, a plan that met with scepticism and controversy, especially over its supposed disregard for local Garífuna culture.

Trujillo carries two cultures side by side. The town itself is mestizo, Spanish-speaking and Catholic, proud of its long colonial history and of its fortress, its cathedral and its coat of arms, granted by Emperor Charles V, which shows a burning golden castle for the citizens' fights against pirates.

Along the beaches, the Garífuna fishing villages of Santa Fe, San Antonio and Guadalupe keep a culture of their own. The Garífuna, descended from Carib and African people exiled from St Vincent by the British in 1797, landed on Roatán and spread along the mainland coast. Their language, dance and music were proclaimed by UNESCO in 2001 a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and their food and music give the coast around Trujillo much of its character.

The town's literary and historical associations add to its identity. The American writer O. Henry lived here for a time and based the town of Coralio in his book Of Cabbages and Kings on Trujillo; that fictional town, the grave of William Walker and the memory of pirate raids are all part of how Trujillo presents itself to visitors, while the old fortress houses a museum of the region's pre-Hispanic, colonial and republican past and its many cultures.

The city had about 22,750 people in a 2023 calculation, and it is the capital of Colón department, with government offices, schools and a cathedral serving a wide area. The municipality extends well beyond the town and took in 198 hamlets in 2013.

Today it is a small port and beach town, living from government, fishing and modest tourism. Historically, Trujillo was known for its cattle industry, raising cattle mainly for the Honduran market rather than for export. Nearby Puerto Castilla, on a peninsula to the north, was once a United Fruit Company division and is now a port controlled by the national port authority.

Life is slow and centred on the old town, the square and the beach. Fishing boats work from the Garífuna villages, and comedores serve lunch to office workers and families. Isolation shapes much of daily life: the coast road is long, and the region's land conflicts and drug trafficking have left their mark on the department of Colón.

Trujillo eats from the Caribbean. Seafood is the speciality of the restaurants on the beach below the fort, and in the coastal areas seafood and some meats are prepared in many ways, including with coconut milk. Rice and beans is a popular side dish on the Caribbean coast, and tajadas, fried green bananas, often come with refried beans.

The Garífuna villages nearby keep a cooking tradition of their own. Tapado is a seafood soup made with coconut milk and plantains; hudutu is pounded plantain; machuca is green plantain mashed with coconut; and ereba is cassava bread, a staple and an important part of Garífuna identity. Sopa de caracol, conch soup, and tapado are typical soups of north-coast towns such as Puerto Cortés, Tela, La Ceiba and Trujillo.

Mainland Honduran food fills the rest of the menu. The baleada, a flour tortilla folded over refried beans, crumbled cheese and cream, is believed to have originated on the north coast, and plato típico, one of the national dishes, is meat served with refried beans, plantains, chorizo, cheese, chismol salsa and tortillas. Horchata and agua de nance are common drinks with meals.