TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Several hundred migrants have gathered at a bus terminal in northern Honduras in preparation to head towards the United States, local television reported on Friday, seeking to flee poverty and a lack of jobs in the Central American nation.

       Hoy Mismo news channel estimated that about 300 people had gathered at the Gran Terminal bus station in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, largely young people and families holding children.

       The caravan, expected to leave on Saturday, would mark the first such group of Honduran migrants traveling north during the administration of leftist President Xiomara Castro, who took office at the start of 2022.

       The government of Honduras estimates that about 64% of the country's 10 million inhabitants live in poverty.

       "In Honduras it's bad, there's no milpa (grain crops), there's no work, you have to go look for a living in the United States," Wilfredo Bonilla, traveling with friends from Honduras' periodically drought-hit south, told Hoy Mismo.

       The Honduras migration and security ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

       (Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by Sarah Morland: Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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