Ocotepeque is a town and municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Honduran

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

 department of Ocotepeque.

Located 15 miles from the Honduran–Salvadoran

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

 border as well as the Honduran–Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

n border, Ocotepeque is one of the first municipalities encountered when traveling between the countries. One area of interest near the town is the Trifinio biosphere reserve

Trifinio biosphere reserve

The Trifinio biosphere reserve is located where El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras meet their border, thus the prefix tri in its name. It covers an area of 221 km² and was created in 1987 to protect the Montecristo's cloud forest and its rare flora and fauna...

, a nature preserve shared among Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

The city of Esquipulas

Esquipulas

Esquipulas is a town in the Guatemalan departmentof Chiquimula on the border with Honduras. It serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name...

, Guatemala is near Ocotepeque and is home to what many consider to be the most sacred shrine in Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

.