Catemaco Submarines

A new transportation route has finally opened for the access starved neighborhood of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas. After being saddled with second class roads connecting to major cities, an air field preserved as a cow pasture and a port on the edge of destruction, relief seems to be arriving from Colombia.

Apparently Colombian drug lords are mass producing submarines for shipping their merchandise along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, while hugging the coast lines. At present the scheduled itineraries include the Yucatan, from where it is just a short snorkel to Catemaco, and then the Texas coast. Presumably these vessels costing around a million dollars US each will be able to accomodate passengers on their return trip.

Possibly to accomodate this future traffic or at least the stampede of sail boaters from the Texas and Florida gulf coast intent on anchoring in Veracruz, the Governor today announced the building of a marina in the port of Veracruz as part of the nautical ladder supposedly extending to Belize. Catemaco, (that is La Barra) must be next on the list.

And I can't wait for a travel agency to offer submarine trips from Galveston or even Miami to Catemaco. What a way to see the Gulf of Mexico!
Photo: Mexican spoil sports


For more information check out Mexidata.info, one of the finer low key sources for Mexico insights.

Catemaco Airports

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The two airports serving Catemaco are Veracruz and Minatitlan. At present both are about 3 hours drive from Catemaco. Car rental is available at both.

An airfield is under construction in San Andrés Tuxtla, but probably will not be in service for several more years.

On a direct route the Canticas airport is considerably closer to Catemaco and with decent roads would be accessible within 1 1/2 hours. At present access is only via Mex 180 via Acayucan and dependent on using the tollroad because the free road is usually choked with traffic, and takes almost 3 hours.

Several projects have been played with for many years to improve the situation.

1. Access via Soteapan
This is actually doable now, but only via dirt roads, and a long detour around Laguna Catemaco because the Tepeyaga peninsula still blocks fast access to Catemaco. Funding is in place to pave the "Brecha de Maiz", a road linking Soteapan to near Las Margaritas. The Tepeyaga link (from near Las Margaritas to Catemaco via Pozolapan is also approved but is in the usual nevernever land of Mexican politics.

2. Access via the coastal Highway
Another dream project has recently received new attention. At present there is no road connecting Catemaco to the southern coast from La Barra via Arrecifes to Tatahuicapan.
The dirt road from Arrecifes is now under construction and several miles have been paved. The stretch from Arrecifes to La Barra or Sontecomapan is basically a horse trail usable only by high lift vehicles preferably with 4x4 and equipped with a snorkel during rainy weather.

Stay tuned in 2015!

Arriving in Catemaco

By boat:
The only navigable port is Balzapote with no facilities aside from anchorage. Further shallow draft access is in Laguna Sontecomapan and Laguna del Ostion.
Rio San Juan is navigable by shallow draft, low mast vessels to within 20 km of San Andres Tuxtla through the port of Alvarado. And if you honk long enough, a taxi will probably show up to take you to Catemaco.We recently met a crew that had paddled from New Orleans in a sea kayak who said the coast was unbelievably beautiful.

By horse:
Unfortunately most of the shores and other terrain is cattle fenced. Nevertheless you can saddle up in Veracruz, hopefully on a horse that knows how to swim, and work your way along the beach with only a few inland detours to avoid rocky cliffs and arrive safely in Catemaco. Once here, you can park your tired horse and rent-a-horse in Pozolapan or on the coast.

By bus:
Mexico and Catemaco has a fabulous, inexpensive bus system, separated into multiple classes from luxury, to first class, second class, and to very low cost chicken buses serving local areas. As of now no luxury buses stop in Catemaco, but first class is sufficiently luxurious. At present, first class drops you on the Malecon in Catemaco. Second class buses stop on the carretera, a mile away. Inter county buses leave from the center of the city.

By taxi:
Taxis are so inexpensive, that sometimes it pays to take a taxi from Veracruz airport for maybe 1300 pesos for a 3 hour ride. Local taxis start at 15 pesos and have the "gringopagadoble" syndrome. If there is a road in any type of condition, there usually runs a pirata (communal taxi / pickup truck). Two stations serve the piratas, one on the northeast end for coastal northeast laguna destinations, another near the southeast end for remaining laguna destinations and trips further south.

By plane:
A historic landing field in San Andres Tuxtla is just that. History! There is talk of rebuilding it, though. Meanwhile the governor gets here by helicopter. I wish I could afford that.The closest airports are Minatitlan/Coatzacoalcos and Veracruz, app 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours drive away. Veracruz has direct connections to Mexico City, Houston, Cancun and Monterrey. Coatzacoalcos connects to Mexico City and now maybe Houston.

By train:
The last train pulled out of San Andres Tuxtla in 1992. At present passenger rail traffic in Mexico has disappeared except for some short touristic routes in other states.

By foot, or hitchhiking:
It has been done and I have the list of hit and run pedestrians to prove it. Hitchhiking is not common in Mexico.

By bike -pedal or motor:
It is being done and is suicidal! A lot of roads are very narrow, most have no curbs, and the phrase "road courtesy"; has no equivalent Spanish translation. I wish the drivers luck. They need it. Especially that wonderful father who pedaled through here with a small kid in a bike trailer.

Catemaco Buses

A few months ago I made some notes on bus crashes in Mexico and this is how it began:

Fortunately no major bus crashes have occurred in or near Catemaco, Veracruz for several years. That is a wonderful record. Nevertheless bus crashes are daily occurrences in Mexico and are usually barely included in news broadcasts.

(67 died, 23 died, 7 died, etc.- these were mostly inter- village travelers or pilgrims, not worthy of mentioning by occurrence.) The number of bus traffic dead are substantially above the air plane dead of Mexico, but barely receive international mentions, possibly because major bus owners are political tyrannosaurs in Mexico.

Along with the rest of Central and South America, no exact statistics are available on the number of crashes or dead in any of these countries except for the occasional news blurbs in the major newspapers.

And, believe me, there are dozens of crashes every week! Anyone who ever had the chance to ride a third class bus in either Mexico or anywhere in the world will attest to the adrenaline flow incurred by travelling so called "chicken buses", called thus, because of the prevalence of livestock carried on the bus, and the suicidal attitudes of its drivers.

The major bus lines (first & second class) of Mexico have now placed a speed limit on their chauffeurs and created an almost safe sentiment of traveling across Mexico. Just remind the other unregulated bus driving fool traveling 75 miles per hour down the hill with 70 people aboard.

Wednesday night, 7 passengers died after their second class bus plunged off the bridge in Alvarado, 90 km north of Catemaco. That bridge has been a nightmare of construction for more than 3 years, with the only visible results being airconditioned toll collection booths. That bridge also controls beautiful downtown Catemaco's access to the north.

Do a Google search: "Google Search - bus crash mexico -"new mexico" and get a real appreciation for the number of passenger deaths on Mexican highways on this "Dia de Muertos".

Air Catemaco

Until some pendejo in the 1960´s closed down the San Andres Tuxtla airport and converted it into a football field and the usual questionable "fraccionamiento", the beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz area actually had air access.

A few planes had previously crashed around Cordoba and other places, but what the hell - during those times that was to be expected. Nowadays the only way to fly to Los Tuxtlas is on the governors or one of his cronies helicopter.

For years, flying into Veracruz from Mexico City was considered one of the most expensive flights in the world, except for maybe flying into Saigon or Baghdad. The cause was and is the usual stranglehold over Mexican business by dinosaured privileged national companies like the Mexicana/Aeronaves combination. Things are looking up. Several discount airlines are circling Veracruz and Coatzacoalcos, - the closest airports to Catemaco. It´s now possible to fly roundtrip to Toluca, next to Mexico City for less than 100 bucks.

They are even talking about building an airport in the San Andres Tuxtla area.That goes under the usual rubric "Mexico Talking", including highways to Montepio, around the Laguna, or across to Minatitlan.

I would just like to see an ultralight aircraft taking passengers to see the wonders of Los Tuxtlas. To hell with those thousands of tourists that want to spend their money here.