Honda is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. The population of the municipality was 26,873 as of the 2005http://www.dane.gov.co/files/censo2005/regiones/tolima/honda.pdf census. Along with Líbano

Líbano, Tolima

Líbano is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia. The population of the municipality was 39,785 as of the 1993 census. Along with Honda, Tolima, Líbano is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Líbano-Honda.-History:...

, Honda is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of Líbano-Honda. The main industries of Honda are tourism, fishing, and cattle-ranching.

Toponymy (name origin)

Honda takes its name from the Ondaimas, the indigenous people that inhabited the banks of the Magdalena river

Magdalena River

The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...

 and the region where the city lies today.

Honda is called "the City of Bridges" with more than 25 of them on the rivers Magdalena

Magdalena River

The Magdalena River is the principal river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as...

, Gualí, Guarinó

Guarino

Guarino is an Italian name that is derived from the Germanic German wara meaning ‘to guard’, ‘to protect’ and means "who defends protects". The name refer to several notable people:* First Name** Guarin, Siculo-Norman general...

, and Quebrada Seca

Quebrada Seca

The Quebrada Seca River is a river in Peru with a length of 29.3 km, and a slope of 7.2 per cent....

. It is also called the "City of Peace" as it escaped most of the violence of the 1950s.

History

Honda was founded on August 24, 1539 by Francisco Nuñez Pedroso. The "golden age" of the city was between 1850 and 1910 when the Magdalena river constituted the only means of transportation between the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 coast and the inland city of Bogotá. The city was the main river port of the country and all the imported goods and articles arrived in Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

through the port of Honda.