From Santa Rosa de Copán, highway CA-4 heads southwest through low valleys before climbing through the eastern flanks of the Cordillera de Merendón. El Portillo , a small, shabby roadside hamlet, marks the highest stretch of paved road in the country, at 2010m. Fifteen kilometres beyond the pass is NUEVA OCOTEPEQUE , the last town in Honduras before the border with both El Salvador and Guatemala and served by several buses a day from Santa Rosa. Modern and unremarkable - it was founded after a flood destroyed the colonial village of Ocotepeque in 1934 - the town is redeemed by its setting at the base of the towering Cerro el Sillón (2310m). Most visitors pass straight through en route to El Salvador or Guatemala, but if you need to stay the best budget option is Mini Hotel Turista (up to US$10), next to the main square, while the Hotel Maya Chortí (tel 653 3377; US$15-25), two blocks from the bus station, has very pleasant and good-value rooms, all with TV and a/c. The Banco de Occidente, just up from the hotel, changes dollars cash and travellers' cheques, but you'll get better rates for Guatemalan quetzales and Salvadorean colones at the borders.

Southeast of town lies the Reserve Biológica la Fraternidad , or the Bosque Montecristo . Cerro Montecristo, at the centre of the reserve, is where the borders of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras meet. Access from the Honduran side is extremely difficult; the visitor centre and few tourist facilities that exist are reached through Metapán in El Salvador.