Poor Catemaco

While I was not looking, Catemaco, Veracruz suddenly became richer.

The municipio moved up from #1209 to #1303 on the descending poverty scale, out of 2445 Mexican counties. And it has now joined the glorious ranks of medium poverty places just one rank below low poverty.

In addition, only 64% of the working population now earns less than 2 minimum wages per day (95 pesos), while just 5 years before the report, 82% were in that position. Furthermore, only 23% now live in houses with dirt floors and only 43% of those older than 15, have less than an elementary education.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco has thus become the richest county in Los Tuxtlas, distantly followed by neighbor San Andres Tuxtla at #1107 and really poor neighbor Soteapan at #141.
The local and state governments are fighting almost daily over responsibility for this magnificent achievement since they were published.

Personally I attribute it to my having arrived here and my spending a lot of money on the proverbial wine, women, song and construction projects. A few more benefactors like me, and Catemaco would probably rise another 10 points.

Meanwhile though, I will bet anyone 12 3 pound mojarras, that Catemaco is in the top 1% in the world of number of Christmas light bulbs per inhabitant, (excluding Chinese light bulb factories). Arriving in Catemaco now is almost like entering a “magic village”.

At least until the helpful locals steal the rest of the decorations, which are now disappearing daily from the 1/2 mile stretch before entering downtown. This is obviously an attempt at decreasing the 2 1/2 peso per KW electricity cost for the municipio.

Now that is what I call Christmas esprit!


Reference: CONAPO -Índices de marginación 2005
http://www.conapo.gob.mx/publicaciones/indice2005.htm

Catemaco Panorama

Catemaco BIG is beautiful

Being rich, handsome and driving a giant SUV is possibly the biggest status symbol in Mexico. (Probably in the US, too). Unfortunately the rich to poor distribution in beautiful downtown Catemaco is a little out of whack.

Catemaco, of course, is a tourist destination, so the frequency of Cadillac Escalade, Mercedes, BMW, Hummer, and volcanic dimensioned Ford and Chevrolet models may be excused as neighboring cities visitors out for their weekend SUV drive.

But, in my almost daily walks around Catemaco City, I see a lot of these cars parked in front of homes, possibly worth half as much as the car. Of course I cannot see the cars behind the customary 8 feet walls that any self respecting Mexican will erect to revert to his possible "gachupines" (Spanish born) roots.

Nevertheless my latest table napkin calculations show that there are more expensive cars in Catemaco than what the Catemaco government receives as its allowance from the state and federal governments. (Less than 6 million dollars).

And here I thought I was living in an impoverished area of Mexico.

El Azuzul

El Azuzul is a swamp at the north end of downtown Catemaco, Veracruz. Supposedly it is inhabited by fresh water shrimp, one or two of the almost extinct local turtles, maybe a tiny crocodile or two, and of course some goblins. In the "old days" the swamp was connected to Laguna Catemaco and served as a reservoir of bait shrimp for the local fishermen.

Since then, a short causeway separating the swamp from the laguna was developed which has now become Playa Espagoya, one of the Catemaco beaches that tourists are advised to use for swimming, in order to avoid getting chopped by boat propellers elsewhere.

Of course, with customary foresight, no culverts were installed. So, El Azuzul depends on sub surface percolation to keep its waters level with Laguna Catemaco. And of course when it rains a lot, the area becomes flooded.

A rich Catemaco hotel owner now occupies one corner of the swamp. He must have been reading the Noah section of the bible. His walls are 15 feet tall, topped with electric stunners. Maybe one day his whole castle will float out to the lake to form a new island.

Another hotel owner is now proposing to convert the swamp to a deification of the Olmec gods. Meanwhile the local neighbors of the swamp are praying for mosquito relief.

See more lagunita El Azuzul photos here:

Catemaco - Venice of Los Tuxtlas

Beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz occupies several hills and vales along the shore of Laguna Catemaco and the foothills of Volcano San Martin Tuxtla.

Unfortunately because not enough people took the opportunity to run for the northern border, the city’s hill sides are now Mexican versions of shoe string Levitz towns or maybe gold rush slums. The concepts of common sense, city planning, or zoning restriction apparently never occupied the minds of Catemaco municipal politicians.

So now, where in the good old days, rivulets ran off the hills to meander towards the placid waters of Laguna Catemao, these rivulets have been channelled, diverted, ignored, and blessed by Catemaco inhabitants.

And in the year 2007, Catemaco inhabitants are still paying the price.
About a dozen times annually, heavy rains create torrid rivers carrying tons of garbage, soil and rocks, beginning in the destructed Catemaco hill sides, and then coursing through the narrow streets of Catemaco. Dozens of homes have been built upon these waterways, including the city’s largest nightclub and a dilapitated bar on the laguna’s shore. Entire city blocks have been cemented over annual rivers, containing who knows how many rats, plastic bottles and abandoned bicycles.

So now obviously the political priority is to build more city board walks which will only be accessible by walking through frequent streams of sewage which bisect the town into often foul smelling quarters.

Aside from this rant, this is truely a pueblo magico! And it would be even more so, if one of those DO GOOD NGOs which are spending millions of dollars in the area, would provide free bus tickets to the border for local politicians.

See the Catemaco in the rain movie:

Catemaco Dog Walk

Green spaces are an anomaly in beautiful downtown Catemaco City, Veracruz, located amidst the lush splendor of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas. Possibly the beach side of the Malecon could be considered a green area, but that beach is usually just a boat parking lot. So where can my dogs poop?

A beautiful spit of land called “La Punta” juts into Laguna Catemaco from the city’s northern end. About a quarter mile (500 meters) of pristine shore line stretches between The Hotel Koniapan and the Restaurant Gorel in Playa Espagoya/ Play Isla.

Early mornings I love to run my dogs through the area. (Incidentally I did not arrive here with dogs. They adopted me here.)

If I walk at the break of dawn, the sonorous rumblings of the Howler monkeys on Isla Agaltepec fill the air. The path is often just a foot wide, and when the laguna is full, as occurs only after heavy rains, the path leads through water. The first time that happened I had to carry one of my dogs. The other dog apparently has a water hound in his ancestry.

Tegogoleros usually are hard at work here diving for their famous Catemaco snails, and frequently dozens of shore birds watch their antics.

At the beginning or end of the trail, depending where I entered it, a large tree provides shelter for a large wino community. That would be a nuisance anywhere else, but here in Catemaco they are gentle human beings who greet me with choruses of “Buenos Dias“. By then the path widens into a dirt road which then becomes paved in front of the Hotel Koniapan.

By now, the dogs have to disappear because further passing into Catemaco is inadvisable. Every city block has a few canine owners resentful of any intrusion. Fortunately I just live a block away.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco wants to be even more beautiful by extending its Malecon a mile further north, across this particular dog walk and through some trespassing construction on Laguna Catemaco shore.

The project arose from a royal edict by Catemaco’s current mayor.
The cost of the project is alleged to be in the neighborhood of 70 million pesos. So Catemaco floated a 16 million peso loan in 2005, repayable in 10 years. The funds allegedly are for part of the Malecon construction. Meanwhile in 2005, the municipio (county government) also spent 750,000 pesos for studies of the project, and added another 316,395 pesos this year. Legal costs are piling up because most property owners along the route have filed amparos (injunctions) against the project. Most of the property along the route is owned by outsiders from Catemaco, including some very rich ones from San Andres Tuxtla.

A nice old lady from Mexico City is allegedly demanding 10,000 pesos per square meter (11 square feet) for her little piece of Laguna front. Since Mexico mayors are limited to a single 3 year term, it looks rather doubtful that the Malecon expansion project will start in the current term, and the next mayor will have enough trouble thinking about paying back the 16 million peso loan while scheming his own projects.

So my dogs will probably have a beautiful dog run for a while longer.
Many more photos: - tuxtlas.com - Events - Dog Walk