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Tela is a town in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast of the department of Atlantida.
History Tela is a popular destination for hondurans on holidays, here the famous bar "El Delfin" in the Tela beach
Tela became an important port in the early 1900s as headquarters of the Tela Railroad Company, later the United Fruit Company whose Honduran headquarters was there until 1970. The town's long dock burned in 1994. A hasty replacement, opened in January 1995, collapsed due to high winds, and the remnant is now used for fishing.
The town had an extensive railyard in which trains were used to run all the way out to the dock. Passenger trains still run twice a week from Tela to Puerto Cortés, the only routes in the country still served by trains.
Geography leftTela has an area is of 1163.3 square kilometres (449.2 square miles). To the west of town lie many miles of commercial African palm plantations.
Three national parks are within easy reach of the town, Lancetilla. To the west, Jeanette Kawas National Park.
Garifuna villages nearby Tela is one of various towns on the Caribbean Coast of Central America with many Garifuna villages nearby. Heading east along the beach from Tela, one first comes to Ensenada aldea, and then, beyond Punta del Triunfo de la Cruz, to the aldea of Triunfo de la Cruz; to the west along the beach, are San Juan aldea, which bleeds into Tela's western edge, then Tornabé aldea, and mi or so beyond Tornabé, the tiny caserio of Miami.
Culture View of the dock and beaches in the bay of Tela
Tela's patron saint is San Antonio
. Every June, the town holds its festival in honor of San Antonio, with parades and parties throughout the week.
Tela is one of the most popular beach destinations for Honduran beachgoers. It draws especially well in Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, when many tens of thousands of Hondurans crowd into town to party, drink, lie on the beach and swim in the Caribbean.
Iglesia San Antonio
Most Teleños are Catholic; the town's
Infrastructure Tela has paved roads throughout its downtown. Many of the outlying barrios have paved
Virtually all buildings in and around the aldea of Tela have running water, flush toilets and electricity. Many farther aldeas and caserios have no running water or electricity; some are made up entirely of bamboo or thatch huts.
Downtown Tela's
Tela
In addition to the downtown grocery store and the town market, in the barrios, nearly every street corner has its own
"pulpería"--a small shop in the front of a family house, which sells milk, eggs, juice, beans and other everyday needs to the neighborhood.
There is a public school in Tela, and at least six smaller private schools, three of which are bilingual, teaching English along with Spanish.
Visiting Tela In the western side of town, known as "Tela Nuevo", is the Telamar Hotel, a walled-in compound that formerly served as the housing for the American administrators of the United Fruit Company.
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