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.
