Catemaco ducks

Beautiful Laguna Cacemaco in central coastal Veracruz is hot spot vacation resort for Canadian & US ducks. For that matter, my native Popoluca partner tells me, there used to be so many ducks on the laguna that it was hard to see the laguna. And she says "they tasted very good".

Laguna Catemaco is a shallow lake, less than 24ft ( 7m) average depth, and that is a statistic from 8 years ago. The continuing depredation of the hills surrounding the ignored Mexican Laguna Catemaco preserve has probably produced another decrease of the average depth of the laguna by another foot (33 cm) or more through flushing of its hillside debris, communal defecation and perhaps abeyances to the local Chachiuhlicu goddess.

A new Canadian study now revals the real depth of the real duck doodoo. And considering the number of ducks hanging around Laguna Catemaco this is a serious concern. Statistically someone can probably project when Catemaco will be filled in by duck feces, unless, of course the Maxacapan laundries or the liria aquatica (water hyacinths) do it first.

The local gringo culinary expert Vandammed has suggested possibly renamed duck meat to be served as duck l'orange , to coordinate with the local carne de chango, which in its origin has mainly been eaten to the point of extermination, and now only exists as roast pork.

By the way, most of the wintering birds that look like ducks are actually grebes.

Catemaco Water

I am probably paranoid because I think the current water wars in beautiful downtown Catemaco occured after I moved next to the water company and embarrased them them to clean up their act.

Or maybe not, because:
1. The water is not fit for human consumption
2. The water pressure is less than than a prostate´s inflamed outflow.
3. Water pressure in the uphill communities of beautiful uptown Catemaco is so low that holding tanks get filled maybe once or twice a week.
4. The flavor of the water is so obnoxious, even my dogs prefer to drink out of rain gutters.

Catemaco depends on deep water wells to provide municipal water. The city lost one of its major wells because the city permitted the still dysfunctional sewage system to penetrate the well area. Aside from that, the city could probably drill a dozen wells to capture the surrounding hill aquifers.

A quirk in Mexican law allows people not to pay their water bills, (obviously Carlos Slim of Telmex never heard of this). Aside from that, the water lines are so broken that who knows what percentage actually dribbles out of the pipes after being pumped into them.

So to make up for all that, there are now 8 companies in Catemaco, racing around the city and competing to sell bottled water at 12-14 pesos per 5 gallon (19l) jug. Meanwhile, someone in Xalapa promised to install a municipal water tower in the hills to provide pressured water.

Considering the rain quantities in Los Tuxtlas, it may seem to be ridiculous to complain about water shortages. Shortages actually exist in most communities surrounding Los Tuxtlas. Primarily because everyone shits in their water supply.

Meanwhile, I dug a 3.5 meter well and I get to sprinkle my neighborhood or anyone that walks along. That probably caused the rash of water abuse comments to Xalapa that obligated (4 inspectors, so far), to consider my water abuse, or maybe that goes under the rubric DWG (driving while Gringo).

Catemaco laundry

Zeigt her eure Füße, zeigt her eure Schuh´, und sehet den fleißigen Waschfrauen zu: Sie waschen, sie waschen, sie waschen den ganzen Tag. My mother used to sing this song to my children. Basically the song describes women who spend much of their life washing clothes for their family. Probably, in her youth, my mother and her mother, in the early 20th century, did exactly that. They washed clothes by hand in any available source of water.

In 2006 the women of Catemaco are living like my mother´s mother, just a hair breadth away from passing humongous Mexican owned 500,000 pesos Utility Vehicles. And beautiful downtown Catemaco celebrates its thousands of bathers on the shores of Laguna Catemaco.

That little bit of washing detergent combined with the e-coli effluent from the Catemaco shores possibly creates a natural chemical mix that one of those neoliberal cosmetic companies should investigate for possible international merchandising as a pesticide.

Sweet Lady Anne of Catemaco

Doña Ana is one of those jewels of Catemaco, Veracruz who help the pueblo survive the onslaught of dozens of buses, filled with tourists, bearing trash.

She and her compañeras, mostly women, begin the day before sunrise, sweeping the streets of the downtown touristic areas. Her 50 gallon drum container and dilapidated hand truck carry upward of 300 pounds to a central collection point in front of the central market. Her children bought a cellphone for this tough little lady. It gives her the strength to carry on.

Clean Catemaco

Doña Ana is one of those jewels of Catemaco, Veracruz who help the pueblo survive the onslaught of dozens of bus loads, filled with trash bearing tourists.

She and her compañeras, mostly women, begin the day before sunrise, sweeping the streets of the downtown touristic areas. Her 50 gallon drum container and dilapidated hand truck cart upward of 200 lbs to a central collection point in back of the central market.

Recently her children bought a cellphone for this tough little lady. It gives her the strength to sweep along.

Catemaco beep beep

When I first arrived in Catemaco I bitched about he noise of the fire crackers.
So, they exploded a few users of those toys, and tried to put a stop to that.

Then it became popular to run small vehicles around Catemaco and announce whatever was going on in town. That became limited by the price of gasoline.

NOW - there is a generation of beep-beep cabrones passing along on their motorbikes pushing to sell tortillas.

There are umpteen street merchants in Catemaco, most have their distinctive call, perhaps not sweet to my ears, but nothing like these idiots and their horn honkings to sell tortillas.
Perhaps it´s time to explode a few bearers of tortillas. What an awful thought.