The El Puente archeological park in Honduras' Copán department will become a more regular part of visitors' itineraries with the completion of a 6.25-km paved access road linking the Mayan site to the main highway.

El Puente, which is still being investigated by a team of archeologists from the Honduran Anthropology and History Institute with financing from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, was inaugurated as a park in 1994.

The road, which was financed by the IDB, was officially inaugurated earlier this year by Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores, other senior officials and the IDB's representative in Honduras, Fernando Cossío.

The second most important archeological site in Honduras after Copán, the temples and pyramids of El Puente occupy an area of some 500 hectares in a fertile valley ringed by mountains. The 5.5-hectare park includes an interpretive museum built in the colonial style.

El Puente was first described by a Danish explorer in 1935, but the site had to wait until 1984 to become the subject of scientific investigation and mapping by teams of Japanese archeologists.

The site is made up of 210 structures, of which the nine principal ones have been studied and restored. These, together with a series of elongated structures that still lie covered with earth, form five well-defined plazas.

The park includes a building housing administrative offices, facilities for the sale of tickets and publications, an exhibition hall containing material on the history of the exploration of the site, a cafeteria, a gift shop and a scale model of how the site originally looked.

While in the department of Copán, President Flores also inaugurated a 10.5-km paved road link between the communities of Corquín and Cucuyagua. The road, which also was financed by the IDB, will help integrate this formerly isolated area into the national economy.

The Corquín area also has considerable potential for tourism. The mountainous region includes the Celaque National Park, the most notable cloud forest in Honduras. In addition, the area's waterfalls and bathing resorts attract many visitors.