"Capital and Largest City in Honduras" Top 5 Page for this destination Tegucigalpa by atufft

Tegucigalpa, or Tegus as it is commonly referred, has an uncertain etymological origin for its name, although it is most commonly believed to be derived from a word in the Nahuatl language, and was at any rate the name already given to this region at the time the Spanish arrived in the 1500's. Paired with sister city Comayagüela, which is on the other side of the Choluteca River, this urban metropolis fills a surprisingly small mountain valley in central Honduras. Historically, the city was late in development, becoming the Honduran capital in 1880, although it served as the capital of the short lived Central American Republic, before again becoming the capital of Honduras in 1937.

View of Tegus from Santa Lucia

Although the city has all the trappings of uncontrolled growth and sagging infrastructure found in any Central American capital, Tegus is somewhat smaller in population than either San Jose, Costa Rica, or Guatemala City, from my estimation. It is not too difficult to drive into and out of the Historic part of the city, even during an X-mas eve day as we did. We didn't want to hang around too long because there are many other parts of Honduras of greater interest, quite frankly, so we braved our way into the center, walked along the pedestrian mall, then drove out of the city to visit Santa Lucia at sunset, and stay the night in Valle de Angeles.