El Progreso () is a city, with a population of 120,600 (2023 calculation), and a municipality located in the Honduran department of

Yoro Yoro, with a population of 101,849 (2022 calculation), is the capital city of the Yoro Department of Honduras and the municipal seat of Yoro Municipality. It is notable for a local event known as Lluvia de Peces, where it is claimed that strong ...

. Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport of

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 701, ...

is located west of the city. To the east of the city is the mountain range of Mico Quemado (Burned Monkey). El Progreso is located at a crossroads. Due to its strategic location, many travellers or tourists pass through El Progreso in one way or another. Many travellers going to

Tela Tela is a town, with a population of 39,920 (2023 calculation), and a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the Atlántida department, department of Atlantida. History Colonial era Tela was founded by th ...

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...

, La Lima, and

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

make a connection here or use it as a rest area. The territorial extension of the municipality is . Of this territory, is defined as urban and as rural. The municipality is also divided into three geographic zones that comprise more than 100

barrio ''Barrio'' () is a Spanish language, Spanish word that means "Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter" or "neighborhood". In the modern Spanish language, it is generally defined as each area of a city delimited by functional (e.g. residential, comm ...

s, which are home to more than 90,000 people. The climate of the city is humid.

Demographics

At the time of the 2013 Honduras census, San Francisco del Valle municipality had a population of 202,980 (2025). Of these, 81.07% were

Mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...

, 16.12%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.53% Indigenous (1.04% Chʼortiʼ, 0.28%

Lenca The Lenca,are an Indigenous people from present day southwest Honduras and eastern El Salvador in Central America. They historically spoke various dialects of the Lencan languages such as Chilanga, Putun (Potón), and Kotik, but today are nat ...

), 1.04% Black or Afro-Honduran and 0.24% others. 95,711 son hombres, un 47.15% y 107,269 mujeres un 52.85%
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), bases de datos en línea
/ref> https://oee.unah.edu.hn/assets/Perfiles-Sociodemograficos/Yoro-18/Reporte-de-1804-Yoro-El-Progreso.pdf

Economy

Due to its fertile lands, El Progreso is a city of agricultural tradition. The areas surrounding the city include various plantations producing products such as

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

, bananas, and vegetables. Besides agriculture, the inhabitants of El Progreso also devote themselves to cattle ranching and to the production and trade of textiles. Given El Progreso's location as a crossroads several fast food franchises have been established in the city to satisfy the demands of travellers. The Copprome Orphanage is based in this city. Additionally, a new, modern mall from the Honduran "Plaza" chain of shopping centres has been constructed on the outskirts of the city. The mall, named Megaplaza, officially opened in the winter of 2007, and features a large food court with a vast array of Honduran and American fast food companies, several cell phone stores, an arcade, and department stores including Carrion, the largest in Central America. Megaplaza is also home to a new stadium seating-style cinema screening films from the US and Latin America.

Geography

Mico Quemado

The mountain chain of Mico Quemado is one of the main attractions of the city. It is located to the east of el Progreso, facing the great Valley of Sula (Valle de Sula). More than of this mountain chain are protected by the Honduran Central Government. This is due to its ecological wealth, which is inhabited by a great quantity of plants and exotic animals. The area is also important for the inhabitants of the city because it is the source for the city's water system. El Progreso is sometimes called ''"the bicycle City"'' because many of their people use the bicycle as a faster and more economical mode of transportation. This is perhaps a reflection on the relative poverty among the working class, as many of the city streets remain unpaved, and economic development has remained uneven.

Ulúa River

The

Ulúa River The Ulúa River (, ) is a river in western Honduras. It rises in the central mountainous area of the country close to La Paz and runs approximately due northwards to the east end of the Gulf of Honduras at . En route, it is joined by the Sula ...

is one of the biggest and most important rivers of Honduras. This river has its birth in the department of Intibucá under the name of Rio Grande de Otoro. The river runs through the departments of Santa Bárbara, Cortés,

and Atlántida. It is fed by Higuito River, Mejocote River, Jicatuyo River, Pelo River, Comayagua River and Sulaco River. In addition; many other creeks help to its development. The total length of Ulua River is . Due to its might, the Ulúa River is also a dangerous river. During cyclones or torrential rains it has a tendency to grow excessively, therefore causing damages to the cities where it runs.

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was an extremely deadly and catastrophic Atlantic hurricane, which became the second-deadliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin on record. Mitch caused 11,374 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately ...

crept ashore on 29 October 1998 and lingered until 3 November, leaving as much as 3 feet of rain in its wake as it lingered and meandered northward. This resulted in epic flooding and total devastation of the Ulúa basin. Recovery is still incomplete after a decade later. El Progreso is home to entrepreneurs such as Juan Bendeck and Alejandro “El Chino” Lagos.

References