My husband, Maurice, and I had a remarkable trip to Honduras, Dec. 31, ’05-Jan. 10, ’06, thanks to Maya Temple Tours (Lobby Hotel & Suites Copantl, Residential Los Arcos, San Pedro Sula, Honduras; phone [504] 509 0555 or visit www.mayatempletours.com).

We dealt with Maya Temple Tours’ Dilcia Arriaga, explaining our interests: outdoor activities, cultural events, archaeological sights and so on. She arranged a full timetable for the two of us for a final cost of $4,100, land only, which included a full-time bilingual guide (Luis Cruz, the best we have ever had) and transportation in a van with air-conditioning.

Highlights were visits to a banana plantation, pineapple plantation and crocodile farm. We saw the entire process of production and readying the products for export, whether boxes of bananas or salted crocodile skins.

We hiked at the Lodge at Pico Bonito, rafted on the Congrejal River, took a canopy tour across the river and through the jungle, spent a morning at the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens, toured El Fuerte fort at Omoa and got close to macaws and other jungle birds at Macaw Mountain. A horseback expedition to La Pintada was topped off at Hacienda San Lucas with an authentic Mayan meal. Finally, we enjoyed some R&R on the beach at Tela.

Another night, we were treated to a lively dance program put on by the Garifunas followed by a dinner with perhaps the best shrimp I have ever tasted. By the way, on this tour all of the meals, in small local restaurants, were delicious.

We highly recommend Maya Temple Tours should you visit beautiful Honduras before it gets overrun with tourists. You will note we totally bypassed the diving experiences at Roatan, preferring to explore the jungle and mountain areas.

— JACKIE BLACK, Apache Junction, AZ