HONDURAS

HONDURAS.

Year of National Sovereignty.
Soldado Bay, in Guanaja Island.
First stamp in an airmail set of 16, issued on 01.05.1972.
Face value: 0.04 Honduran lempira.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Printed by Lito Maia, Porto, Portugal.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 783.
- Scott No. C515.
- StampWorld No. 814.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 795.
- Yvert et Tellier No. PA469.

The Soldado Bay (Bahía del Soldado) is located on the western coast of the island of Guanaja, in the archipelago of the Islas de la Bahía, in the Caribbean Sea, north of Honduras. Christopher Columbus arrived on the island, precisely at Soldado beach, on July 30, 1502, during his fourth and last trip to the American continent, and he named it Isla de los Pinos; the island was populated by members of the Pech ethnic group. It was subjected to the Spanish, the English and the Dutch. In 1859 England ceded the archipelago (called Colony of the Bay Islands) to the Republic of Honduras. In 2012, the island was populated by about 4,500 inhabitants.

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Thanks to Daniel Mathieu for his contribution (http://lettresdumonde.blogspot.com/)

HONDURAS

HONDURAS.

Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park.
Airmail Minisheet issued on 08.02.2013 (dated 2012).
Face value: 3 x 15 and 3 x 15 (= 120) Honduran lempiras.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Published by HONDUCOR, Empresa de Correos de Honduras.

Catalogs
- Michel No. BL102.
- Scott No. C1307.
- StampWorld No. 2034/2039.

Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Blanca Jeannette Kawas) is located in the municipality of Tela, on the northern Caribbean coast of the Atlántida department of Honduras. The park covers an area of 781.62 km² (301.79 sq mi) and has an maximal altitude of some 900 m (2,953 ft). It was established on November 4, 1994 as Punta Sal National Park. Its name was changed to Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park in honor of Jeannette Kawas, an environmental activist who was murdered on February 6, 1995 for her work trying to keep the palm plantations out of the park. The park is made up of varied marine, terrestrial and wetlands ecosystems with a large number of species. These ecosystems include beaches, tropical forests, inundated forests, mangrove forests, lagoons and rivers.

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Thanks to Dragan Buškulić for his contribution (https://worldofstamp2.wordpress.com/).

HONDURAS

HONDURAS.

Map of Caratasca Lagoon (Laguna de Caratasca).
50th Anniversary of the Pan American Institute of Geography and History.
"1928-1978. Homenaje al Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia".
Airmail. First stamp in a set of 4, issued on 15.09.1979.
Face value: 0.05 Honduran lempira.
Printing by Lito Maia, Porto, Portugal.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 954.
- Scott No. C676.
- StampWorld No. 987.

The Caratasca Lagoon is located in the department of Gracias a Dios, in northeastern Honduras. It covers an area of ​​1110 km² (430 sq mi) along the coast of the Caribbean Sea. In reality, the lagoon is made up of several lagoons interconnected by natural channels, including the Tara lagoon, which empties into the sea.

This lagoon and the region where it is located, the Mosquitia (Moskitia, or Mosquito Coast), caused a border conflict with Nicaragua at the end of the 19th century, and both countries agreed to resort to arbitration by King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The award agreed with Honduras; Nicaragua did not accept the ruling, but again lost the litigation in the Court of Justice of The Hague, which determined in 1928 that “the government of the Republic of Nicaragua is under an obligation to give effect to the award made on 23 december 1906 by his majesty the king of Spain and in particular to comply with any measures for this purpose which it will be for the Court to determine ”. (Great Britain and Colombia, which also claimed the territory, were also involved in the conflict.)