Pissed off in Catemaco

My Popoluca had pissed me off and I ran away.

I crossed Laguna Catemaco to climb into the Santa Marta volcanic hills, said hello to an old guy in Tatahuicapan who had previously been friendly to me and asked him if the road was clear to El Paraiso. Three hours later in 4x4 I am still climbing cattle trails until finaly I stall out with a presumable transmission problem.

The village was not far away and I walked. And all stared and gave me the evil eye which is a sort of double crossing your index finger. And they said possibly tomorrow a car will arrive to take me back to the nearest other village. And I asked for hospice and was invited to sleep in the bed slatterns of a son who had emigrated to the US.

And they fed me something of cactus mixed with chicken and I avoided choking until the old man invited me to his personal stash and we sat and drank it and watched a million stars and talked about televison which he had seen in the low lying villages and wanted to have for his village.
None of this Jorge Castaneda stuff for me. By that time I was making google eyes at one of his resident daughters, but that rotgut finally kicked in and I passed out, I think. And absolutely nothing mystical happened.

At 5:30 am, on a gorgeous cloudless but full moon sky filled with zillions of points of light the promised pickup truck arrived.

And hundreds of mini parrots screamed while we hauled down the mountain.

Catemaco Island Fever

Beautiful isolated downtown Catemaco can get on your nerves after a while and a trip to the "big smoke" becomes a necessity.

Usually it is a daytrip to Veracruz City that stills the hungers of a capitalist heart for blueberry jam, roast beef, bagels and other culinary delights. But actually spending time in another city offering different flavored restaurants, cultural institutions and beehive activity is required to maintain a former city dweller's equilibrium.

So we took off a few days and headed for the major Veracruz cities, Xalapa & Veracruz to visit friends and family. The roads were mostly passable, the traffic, except for isolated spots was tolerable, the weather was beautiful and the return trip to Catemaco evoked many memories.
Most notable was the burgeoning in both cities of major road and other construction, the invasion of major international franchises from Subway to Costco, and the proliferation of political propaganda.

Xalapa was refreshingly cool this time of year. Its restaurants have multiplied and its hotels apparently are competing for most pricey in the state. The usually comfortable Howard Johnson Hotel tried to rip me off for 1300 pesos, that last year cost 850 and 4 years ago, 650, without any improvements in the facility. (They buckled and only raped me for 960 with the usual gorgeous view off the fifth floor).

The Xalapa Museum was still worth it after my fifth trip, the sushi in an unnamed restaurant was mediocre and the mole and trout in Xico were still superb, and we only wasted the usual few hours sightseeing the city while getting lost, as usual. (Take a taxi to get around, they are cheap.)
On the return from Xalapa, we stopped for the first time in La Antigua, an exit almost unmarked before the last toll booth on the Tampico / Veracruz toll road. This is actually the home of the first permanent European residence in the continental US, and an insult to any historian of America's history. Nevertheless it is a pleasant place to lunch in one of the dozens of riverside restaurants and even to take a boat ride.Entering Veracruz from the north was the usual mind reader puzzle along a totally screwed up corridor but placed us safely into downtown where, if you are not familiar, the thousands of superfluous traffic signs along Mexico roads are ABSENT.
Fortunately we found our new hotel, and I am still debating whether to recommend it, both for price and comfort, on my list of 12 hotels that I have stayed at in Veracruz City. Try your own luck.

A giant movie theater still provided us with a treat not available in Los Tuxtlas, and of course, I laughed in the wrong parts, because my companions did not get the joke in the subtitles. (I don´t understand how Mexico can counterfeit movies within 24 hours but not provide translations in 48 hours. Yeah, English is difficult!)

Shopping in the "best" Plaza de las Americas was still FAAAAR from any US shopping mall, but still good enough for me to hesitate to return my Popoluca and our credit card to my favorite Veracruz city. (Catemaco thinks it is a city, actually it qualifies as a town).

If you are familiar with Veracruz, bypass it via the Coatzacoalco exit shortly after the last toll booth and drive about 15 miles along a substandard 2 lane highway to Paso del Toro to Los Tuxtlas. If you are not familiar - VISIT VERACRUZ CITY - it is worth it.

Catemaco Lagunas

Lagunas are the crown jewels of attractions in the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas in Veracruz, Mexico.

From mystic Laguna Catemaco to jungle rimmed Laguna Escondida and the mangroves of Laguna Sontecomapan, the Tuxtlas have an amazing variety of aquatic paradises.

The terms laguna (lagoon) and lago (lake) are used interchangeably in Spanish to the distress of nitpickers.

Not all of the Tuxtlas lagunas are crater lakes. Most of their depth is relatively shallow. The deepest is 100 feet, (30 meters). Extremely shallow Laguna Sontecomapan is a true lagoon with access to the Gulf of Mexico. Laguna Catemaco was created when lava flow obstructed a valley. Some are only seasonal watering holes. But many others are possibly collapsed cones of small volcanoes now filled with water.

Unfortunately, many of the smaller lakes are inaccessible. From Catemaco though, Lagunas Chalchoapan, Ampopal, Encantada, Amolapan and Escondida are within easy reach.

All these lakes retain the region’s history. Studies of laguna sediment cores have demonstrated 5000 years of agricultural activity in Los Tuxtlas.

The best way to enjoy these lagunas is to sit ashore with a cold Corona beer and enjoy the view. The second best way is to rent a kayak, paddle the shores and visit an island or two. And if you are really enthusiastic, you can walk around them. (50 km around Laguna Catemaco or 2 km around Laguna Ampopal).

Catemaco Darien Gap

The continent of America does not exist. The Darien Gap, an impassable wilderness on the border between Columbia and Panama separates the continent into a northern and southern half.

And despite years of Gringo economic colonization of anything south of the US borders, that gap has persisted, allegededly to prevent South American cattle illnesses, and probably South American emigration to the US fatherland.

Catemaco has its own Darien Gap.Laguna Catemaco is an almost 50 kilometer circle, primarily surrounded by cattle ranches, rich vacation home owners from San Andres Tuxtla and PEMEX colonies, cattle ranches, a gringo eploiter of the local fauna, various ram shackle communities and the the shores of beautiful downtown Catemaco.To circumnavigate those 50 kilometers is now a 90 kilometer trip because of a gap between the villages of Las Margaritas and Bajos de Mimiahua/El Porvenir. The gap effectively blocks off convenient access to the southern interior Tuxtlas and its potential economic impact of visitors/buyers/traders from the municipios of Soteapan and Hueyapan, almost 1/4 of Catemaco´s surface area, and a pottential short cut to the Minatitlan airport.A bridging road of the Gap has been frequently proposed but has been affected by the mañana syndrome.

Despite recent proposals and announcements, the gap road again is in abeyance, possibly because of local misguided ecologists' attempts to divert the road in order to protect a scraggly area of second growth trees.

The potentials of a Laguna Catemaco circumnavigation road are huge. Cattle growers and agriculturists would have better access. Tourists would be enthralled by a road that does not require two hours to get there and 2 hours back on the same road. Merchants would be thrilled with new markets and the Mexican environmental protection agency, PROFEPA, might actually use the road to see what´s really going on in the backyards of beautiful Catemaco. Sports fans by the hundreds would probably scramble to do 50 KM runs, bike rides or walks. And local inhabitants would be pleased to take a Sunday drive around THEIR laguna.

Cerro Pipiapan in Catemaco

Just to get a little exercise, hundreds of joggers, walkers and bicyclers clutter the Malecon in Catemaco Veracruz, starting before sunrise. Even tourists join in the huffing and puffing, climbing the measly 144 steps of the Eyipantla waterfall.

But Catemaco has a hidden treasure for physical exercise aficinados.More than 500 hand fitted stone steps lead straight up the slopes of Cerro Pipiapan to a communication transmission tower. Remnant jungle foliage closes in on each step and in the early morning hours hundreds of rare birds chirp over the loud slither of various snakes and other creeping crawlers.

Locals claim it has been 5 months since they last saw the cub of one of the few remaining pairs of mountain lions (tigres) in Los Tuxtlas. The view on top is fantastic. Both Laguna Catemaco and Laguna Sontecomapan bare their distant hearts to the intrepid observer.

Unfortunately that is only true for the intrepid criminal jumping a fence, and climbing hand over hand a few meters up the transmission tower. Otherwise, after 500 or so steps, the cardiac workout gets a headache when realizing the tower platform is totally overgrown with impermeable bamboo and has no view.

The tower is reachable off the road to Sontecomapan, about a mile northeast after the Coyame turnoff, at the "RMO Pipiapan" sign then up about 2 miles on a poor dirt road towards the village of Vista Hermosa.