Other Definitions
tela (dest)
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TelaTela is a municipality in Honduras. It sits on the North Coast of Honduras on the Caribbean Sea. It is one of 8 municipalities in the department of Atlntida. The name Tela is derived from its original name, Triunfo de la Cruz, which became shortened in time to "de la Cruz", and finally just to "Tela". There is still a small village about 2 miles east of town called Triunfo de la Cruz. The town became an important port in the early 1900s, when it bacame the headquarters of the Tela Railroad Company, which was, in truth, what became the United Fruit Company. Until the 1970s, Tela was the Honduran headquarters of the United Fruit Company. The town's long dock burned in 1994; a quickly built replacement stood for only a month after it opened in January 1995, when it collapsed after a night of high winds. The few hundred feet of the dock that still stand are now used only as a place for the locals to fish. The town had an estensive railyard, now mostly unused. Until the dock burned in 1994, trains ran all the way out to the end of the dock. Passenger trains still run twice a week from Tela to San Pedro Sula and Puerto Corts, the only routes in the country still served by trains. (Originally the country had extensive lines running all over the North Coast. The lines were never meant to serve primarily for passengers; they were built to serve the vast banana plantations of the north coast.) To the west of town lie many miles of African palm plantations. Three national parks are within easy reach of the town, Lancetilla Botanical Garden lies to the south of town; it was originally the experimental botanical station for the fruit company. To the east is Punto Izopo National Wildlife refuge. To the west, Janette Kawas National Park. The park was originally Punta Sal National Park, but the Honduran government changed the name in the late 1990s to honor a local Telea, Janette Kawas, an environmental activist who was slain in early 1995 for her work trying to keep the palm plantations out of the park. Central American highway number 13 runs by town just to the south. San Pedro Sula is about 93 kilometers (60 miles) to the west along the highway; Atlntida's departmental capital, La Ceiba, lies 98 kilometers (60-65 miles) along the highway to the east.
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