The white rats of Catemaco

It is almost impossible to see a collection of photos of beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz without a closeup photo of small white herons. And it is also almost impossible to walk along the shore of Catemaco without personally encountering some of the habits of these lovely birds.

Dozens of benches invitingly placed to enjoy the spectacular views of the lagoon are now wrapped in white. Many previously green trees now resemble scenes of snow in Minnesota. Hundreds of feet of walkways previously colored a pretty terracotta color are now covered in white effluent. And so are the Malecon railings presumably designed to stop visitors from chasing after the poor birds and wringing their necks.

These so-called garzas (cow birds, garza ganadera, bulbulus ibis), were originally blown in from Africa to the Caribbean in the early 1950's and by 1963 had established a foothold in Mexico. By now these illegal immigrants have occupied most of tropical humid North and South America.

These birds love nesting along open water, but do not like to eat fish. Their main diet is small insects and anything that moves, including small lizards and mice. Although relatively small, about 20 inches tall and weighing less than a pound, the bird's digestive system would proudly belong to an ostrich.

Ranchers love these birds because they spend their days hanging out around cows catching insects and picking off ticks of their livestock. They nest communally and rear between 2 and 3 chicks once a year.

And they have become a plague in Catemaco.

The Catemaco community has made numerous efforts to control the garza population, ranging from the importation of squirrels, long strings attached to branches to shake the birds out of trees, firecrackers, bells, etc. The only practical solution has been to reduce their nesting trees. I will not say that is the reason for the horrible deforestation of Los Tuxtlas, but it certainly is one of the reasons for the disappearance of trees on properties near the shore of Laguna Catemaco.

I am personally being affected by these little monsters. One crapped on my head yesterday. And today one dumped on my Popoluca.

I intend to get even!

Here are some inexpensive proposals for the local government to consider and implement:

1) Nutritional Studies have been conducted of these birds, and although meagerly fleshed, their nutritional value should be promoted as a welcome addition to the pots of the many poor people in Catemaco. At present no one eats these birds, just their gummy eggs. The larger Chachalaca wild birds are the preferred choice of local gourmets. Local chefs should seriously consider promoting the garzas as local specialty dishes such as "garza a la tachagobi, garza Veracruzana, and even garza tacos in a mole sauce. After all there are 1000's making a living here selling fake monkey meat and slimy snails.

2) The competing drug & political cartels expending their ammunition in most communities of Veracruz should be invited to Catemaco for target practice. Hopefully that will improve their aim and decrease the bird population.

3) All small boys instead of being stuffed with teeth rotting candies and other sweets on Children's Day should receive personal slingshots. There are enough pebbles along the laguna shore to provide ammunition. And little boys require no training in the use of these inexpensive tools.

4) Nesting trees should be replaced by plastic folding trees as used in some of the Apocalypto jungle scenes. Perhaps Mel Gibson could donate a bunch.

5) The local government is lately hell bent on throwing parties on the streets of Catemaco. These parties should be moved under nesting trees and the SUV-sized loudspeakers should be turned skyward to disturb the resting communities of garzas.

6) Ultralight aircraft should be used to intercept Garzas returning from their feeding grounds and chase them back to Africa, or maybe San Andrés Tuxtla.

7) More tree branch hanging ropes should be installed and the hundreds of shills lining the Malecon accosting tourists with boat tour or brujo spiels, should be compelled to forcefully yank on a rope to shake some branches after each uttering of "lancha, lancha."

8) Politicians bus in hundreds or thousands of poor neighboring villagers to attend glorification events. These events should be relocated underneath nesting trees and the villagers should be invited to bring pots and pans to bang on. The political speeches will probably stun the birds and after falling off the trees can then be stored in the pots and carried back home.

9) Down pillows are the preferred luxury head rests of those who can afford them. At present cheap Chinese labor produces them. The federal and Veracruz government which are falling all over each other trying to create sustainable development should seriously spend some of the zillions of pesos being mostly wasted and teach the poor crowds how to pluck garzas, preferably the little ones before fledging which have the softest down. A Catemaco Pillow factory would be a welcome addition on the economic front of Los Tuxtlas.

10) Fidel, the Veracruz governor is apparently handing out free red paint (his party color). Catemaco has already applied hundreds of gallons painting lampposts and railing to better show off the color combination of white poop on red. The next step should be to paint the nesting trees red. This should confuse the garzas and will possibly redirect them to other places.

Meanwhile, I strongly advise you to wear a hat in Catemaco and not to park anywhere where the black or grey pavement is actually white. Then you will have a very enjoyable visit to our paradise.


Photo: misplaced source

Butterflies of Los Tuxtlas

Photo by bevscott107.
This lady has photographed and identified 95 butterfly species in Veracruz, mostly around Xalapa. Most of these beauties also reside in Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas.
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562101628fRgRxX

Boas on the rocks

Those wonderful folks at DEMATAC have done it again.

Intent on protecting the wilds and wildlife of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas, they have managed to add a thrill for those exuberating over dangling off a 180 foot cliff above the yawning gulf waters in front of a pirate cave.

DEMATAC decided to release a few boa constrictors in the area to entertain the rappellers.
Now can you imagine dangling off that rope with a boa staring down at you?

Shades of Anaconda!
Just another foible from beautiful downtown Catemaco, just a short drive away from Roca Partida, rappelling headquarters of Los Tuxtlas.

Catemaco Monkey Islands

This is for you all of you who never had the thrill of walking along Mexico's most beautiful lake while being accosted by vultures shouting "Lancha Lancha".

In 1974 an animal "research" project imported macaque monkeys from Thailand onto an island in Laguna Catemaco. Presumably this was to be a breeding facility of monkeys for vivisectionists. Nothing is mentioned about that subject anywhere, but why would anyone import foreign monkeys into an area that was already aware of the imminent extinction of its resident monkeys?

A few years later the monkey colony was abandoned and fishermen in Catemaco recognized a golden opportunity and started offering boat rides to the monkey islands to visitors from the beach of beautiful downtown, Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico.

This monkey opportunity developed into one of the major cash earners for many local fishermen (there is an absence of fisherwomen), so that by now more than 70 small boats, seating up to 20 people in front of noisy outboard motors are authorized to transport tourists to see the monkeys and the scenery along the way.

The current transport charge is 50 pesos per person or 350 pesos for a private boat, and during the apex of the tourist season, the smog, noise and wakes of dozens of small boats compete to cast noxious spells on novice tourists on this laguna of enchantment.

During the off season, these boat rides are actually very pleasant. Unfortunately during any time, none of the boat operators speak English. The boat tour will stop at Nanciyaga, Laguna Catemaco's "famous jungle" resort, and if you like, you can exit, tour Nanciyaga, and return on a later boat.

If you ever have the chance to do so, hire either a sailboat or the pontoon boat and spend half a leisurely and unforgettable day on the lake. The cost is not much more than what some over priced local hotels charge for a room.

Catemaco Birds

Not a day passes without someone quoting that beautiful downtown Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz have 500 plus some bird species , including sea birds, migratory birds, birds that were blown in by a wind, birds that noone has seen for 100 years, and others.

The recent NAOC (4th North American Ornithological Conference) in Veracruz produced a lot of Mexican and US birders visiting Catemaco. I found them in Montepio, Playa Azul and the roads above Coyame.

Here is a list of birds that have magically disappeared in Los Tuxtlas and Catemaco, the pueblo magico.
tuxlas.com - Extinct, Rare & Endangered Species in Veracruz, Mexico

Garzas of Catemaco

In beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, the second noticeable item, right after shills hawking “lancha, lancha” are big white birds (Garzas, cattle egrets) hawking “krah krah”.

These former illegal immigrants from Africa first appeared in Veracruz in the late 1950’s, but since then, they have replaced many other locally nesting species. There are entire areas on the Catemaco Malecon painted white with bird dung, and most locals know to only cross these areas with umbrellas or large hats.

Occasionally an innocent tourist parks in some of these areas and returns to find his former red car to be converted into a Daliesque scheme of red and white blobs.

The government of Catemaco is obsessed with providing free boats, motors, fish stocks and other supports to more than 1000 registered fishermen around Laguna Catemaco starving for anything bigger than a gold fish.

Those white birds, that shit up and down the Catemaco Malecon are an excellent source of protein and should be considered part of the Catemaco diet. After all, Catemaco has eaten most of its wild life to extinction, and now glorifies monkey meat disguised as roast pork on most of its restaurant menus.

I am looking forward to eating Garza al Tachogobi, Garza frita, Garza a la Veracruzana, etc.

Abstract: The study assessed the proximate composition, mineral contents and in vitro digestibility of meat of cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) found in the Federal College of Agriculture, Nigeria. It was scarified, defeathered, dissected, oven dried, ground and analyzed using standard methods. The life weight of the samples was 300±10.20 g. The sample contained 76.72% DM crude protein, 0.14% crude fibre and ash 6.41%. It had low level of crude fat (2.14%). The energy level was 365.46 Kcal. …… The nutritive composition of the sample compared with other sources of conventional protein and minerals. Based on these results, it is suggested that nutritional qualities of cattle egret should be harnessed.

Catemaco birding

William J Schaldach Jr. was one of the pioneers of wildlife study and specifically ornithology in Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. He died before publishing any of his thousands of fragments of historical lore in readable form. His last effort to annotate the birds of Veracruz died with him, but remains in a provisional form on the tuxtlas.com website.

A new addition to the knowledge of the birds of Veracruz is a simplified check list which should become a backpack item for any birder visiting beautiful downtown Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas, because most of the birds represented in the list, are also present in Los Tuxtlas.

References:
tuxtlas.com - William J. Schaldach Jr.’s Annotated Birds of Veracruz
endemicos.org - Check-List of the Birds of Veracruz (Listado de las Aves de Veracruz, Mexico)

Catemaco monkeys

More than 30 years ago some, probably illegal immigrants, started inhabiting some of the islands off the shores of beautiful downtown Catemaco. And just like immigrants elsewhere they multiplied.

Visiting Catemaco´s Monkey Islands in Veraruz, Mexico is a well described voyage on numerous international web sites.For some unknown reason, the University of Veracruz, Mexico stocked one of the islands in Laguna Catemaco with imported Macaque monkeys from Thailand to do a research study in 1974.

Before the study was concluded, Catemaco fishermen discovered the profitability of motoring tourists to the island to view monkeys in a natural habitat. Over the years this monkey visiting trip has turned into a hard cash earner for much of the Catemaco population, obviously noticeable by the many shrieking shills along the Laguna shore inviting tourists to take a boat ride.

Despite the shills, the boat ride is a wonderful experience to see parts of Laguna Catemaco, the shore view of Catemaco City and the absolutely marvelous view of the Laguna´s neighboring volcancic hills. As for the monkeys, they are officially maintained by a research station of the University on the shores of the Laguna and in addition receive the equivalent of food stamps (bananas) from the Catemaco government and boat operators. Essentially these monkeys are abandoned, but seem to be content in their island environment.

The University in the meantime has established a large colony of Mexican endangered monkeys on Agaltepec Island in 1988, which is prominently visible on the boat trip. That island, though, is off limits to tourist visitors.

The going rate for voyages to the islands, which also includes Spanish commentaried visits to many other of the Laguna shores features, is usually 50 pesos per person, or 350 pesos per boat with a minimum of 6 passengers. Boats range from 12 -20 passengers, and during the off season the boats will make the trip for 250 pesos, distributable among as many people as want to pay for the trip. Wearing a life jacket is recommended for non-swimmers, although I have never heard of a mishap on the Laguna waters.

OOPS lady drowned in 2007

Catemaco Fishing

Licking my chops. One of the finest fighting & eating fishes in the world.

Now look at the Mexican coastline.
Veracruz to Coatzacoalcos. What do you see? Zip, Nada, Zilch.There is NO sport fishing within that range.

Now, if you want to sit on a 5 foot wide panga and reel in the BIG ONE, --- be my guest (only first 2 accepted, conditional on having life insurance valid in Mexico), else hire one of any surf enabled boat to do your own thing.
The gulf of Mexico is terribly overfished, species are disappearing faster than I can eat them.

Catemaco love bites

Running your hands across the sweet skin of your partner is one of the pleasures of a communal relationship.

Running your hand across a bunch of slightly infected bumps is another story. Pinolillos (seed ticks) are a menace in Los Tuxtlas. These tiny seed ticks own pastures and every cow that walks them. AND, unfortunately, they will attack most humans that walk the pastures, ususually within their underwear. AND, even more unfortunate, it is hard to avoid pastures when walking across country.

I have had some success with "DEEP WOODS OFF" and would recommend that product to anyone visiting mother nature beyond beautiful downtown Catemaco. Meanwhile, after the above precaution, the next best thing is a mutual thorough scrub in the shower after a walk on the wild side, while scraping off these tiny monsters with your fingernails.

If these minute little buggers have a chance to grow inside the skin they can produce some serious boils. Generally, they are not known to to transmit any particular disease, except for a damn itch.

Unfriendly neighbors

Most of my neighbors, on the left, on the right, in front, and in back, are very personable people whom I´m glad to have met.

But there are some creepy crawlies below my feet that I wish would take the midnight bus to the USA border.

Big black scorpions and tiny little brown scorpions abound, and are hunting for my toes or trying to make a home in my shoes. I really don´t know which ones are dangerously poisonous, I just indiscriminately terminate all without prejudice in beautiful downtown AND uptown Catemaco.