Jan 31, 2008

Mexican Music Critic

Mexico's ambassador to Germany has voiced his displeasure over a popular German song that allegedly disparages the North American country.

The song, which has been on the German charts for 10 weeks, features as its chorus the charming refrain "Finger in the butt, Mexico." (The German version, "Finger im Po, Mexiko," rhymes.)

Source: Der Spiegel

I´m trying to get his email address so I can sent him the Molotov's gracious Pinche gringo, puñetero lyrics

Jan 27, 2008

Photos, Slideshows and Videos of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas

A fast look at what is the best in Catemaco.
Usually a dozen photos with a short description, also includes links to slideshows.

Links to our and many other good videos of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas

These links will take you to http://www.catemaco.info/ pages.

Jan 26, 2008

Catemaco carnitas


When an ejidatario (owner of acreage in a communal ownership village) sells a ranch is he socially obligated to throw a party for his former fellow ejidatarios. The norm is carnitas (slow cooked chunks of meat). And beer! Lots of beer!

Depending on the size ranch, different size animals are sacrificed, ranging from a sheep, to a pig, a young steer, or a cow.

The ranch we bought in Sontecomapan, near Catemaco, is 23 hectares, not large, but also not small, actually the size of 40 cases of beer.

When it becomes our turn, I'm thinking of grilling turkey hot dogs. At least my dogs won´t roll around in bloodstained soil.


Jan 23, 2008

Catemaco translations

The latest local chief of tourism has promised to provide English lessons to the tourism providers in Catemaco.

So, presumably in the future, instead of "Lancha, Lancha", you will be hearing "Boat, Boat" while being accosted by hundreds of vagrants along the Laguna Catemaco shore.

Meanwhile GOOGLE has apparently stepped up to the challenge to provide functional Spanish to English translations, by opening a possibility to correct the GOOGLE translation via a button available on the right of the GOOGLE screen saying "Suggest a better translation".

The message appears after having made a translation on the far bottom right of the screen.

This is a wonderful step in the right direction of improving the current atrocious Spanish to English and viceversa translations.

Jan 22, 2008

Catemaco in depth

The authors conducted a high-resolution multi-proxy analysis of pollen, charcoal particles and diatoms found in the sediments of Lago Verde (18°36'46" N, 95°20'52"W) -- a small closed-basin lake on the outskirts of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (a volcanic field on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico) -- which covered the past 2000 years.

What was learned?

The five Mexican researchers say their data "provide evidence that the densest tropical forest cover and the deepest lake of the last two millennia were coeval with the Little Ice Age, with two deep lake phases that follow the Sporer and Maunder minima in solar activity." In addition, they suggest that "the high tropical pollen accumulation rates limit the Little Ice Age's winter cooling to a maximum of 2°C," and they conclude that the "tropical vegetation expansion during the Little Ice Age is best explained by a reduction in the extent of the dry season as a consequence of increased meridional flow leading to higher winter precipitation."

WOW - Laguna Verde is about the size of a dishpan and not much deeper, near La Nueva Victoria, a few kilometers off the coast of The Gulf of Mexico.

Basically what they are saying is that lots of vegetation inhibits colder temperatures during ice ages, which is very good to know during the current epoch of global warming.

Maybe we should bulldoze the remaining trees to stay cooler!

Source: CO2 Science

Jan 15, 2008

Los Tuxtlas - The last jungle


This is an excellent slideshow with descriptions in English and Spanish made in Germany.
View it here: slideshare.net

Jan 11, 2008

Shocking Catemaco

Most small grocery stores, use an electric cooler as their cashier counter. Since they are usally fairly tall, Catemaco store owners try to hire tall people to man them, but often the person attending the counter is so short that only their nose reaches above the counter.

This happened to me today when leaning on a counter.

hey - I just got a shock
yes, I know.
Whaddayou mean you know?
I reported it to the one in charge.
Whaddayou mean the one in charge? You've been running this store for 3 years.
Yes, but it is not my problem.


Hey, Lady, don´t touch the pinche counter!
Please don´t insult my customers!