Catemaco to the Yucatan

With haunts of the "south will rise again" southern Veracruz sugar cane farmers have successfully cut the only roads leading from the rest of Mexico to the Yucatan. After first blocking the bridge leading from Catemaco south to Acayucan/Villahermosa, they have now also blocked the cuoata (toll road) south of Acayucan.

This is a political gambit involving the payment of price supports to sugar mills. It is also a pain in the butt for anyone traveling these highways. Usually these common blockages last only a few hours, until the Veracruz governor sends in some sugar coated promises.

We recently round tripped the Yucatan from Catemaco to Villahermosa, Campeche, Merida, Tulum and Chetumal/Belize. Once you get the hell out of Veracruz, the roads are surprisingly good, only marred by long stretches of new road construction. Highways are very well marked and frequently give you a choice of different mileages to the next city. Speed controls are almost non existant and we often puffed along at 100 miles per hour.

Once out of the majorcities, you need to be a mind reader to know which turn to take. We proudly got lost trying to find Celestun, leaving Merida, short cutting from Chichen Itza and entering Tulum from the inland side. The worst nightmare was trying to leave downtown Chetumal.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip and the only pertinent advise is to NEVER ask a Mexican pedestrian for directions. Their usual sense of courtesy does not allow admitting they don´t know and instead they will fabricate some twists and turns to keep you happy. This is especially true in rural areas where the concept of roads is frequently presumed to include horse trails.

My Popoluca taught me the most pertinent trick. Hire a taxi to lead you where you are going! It works.
Photo: "My historic ruins" of Uxmal

Catemaco Crime Wave

Naturally someone had to upset my enjoyment of the Christmas shenanigans in beautiful downtown Catemaco. A good friend who had left the so called "war zone" of Oaxaca for the peaceful environs of Laguna Catemaco called desperately wanting to borrow my machine pistol for the next few days.

Apparently he is being victimized by an extorsion phone call demanding the magnificent sum of 15,000 pesos or they'd kill his family. Naturally I rushed my phone recorder, caller ID equipment and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Green Label to his rescue. My gun, unfortunately was glued to my fingers, so I had to call another friend to share his arsenal with this poor under gunned soul.

I've been somewhat following the frequency of phone extorsions in Mexico, so it was no surprise to me that the local police commander calmly stated something like "Oh, yeah, we have reports of 6 of these calls today, with 4 from your colonia (neighborhood)". As an afterthought the corrupt greedy SOB mentioned he would be willing to negotiate a settlement.

After hearing that, I thought to myself that the recent report of 110,000 of these type of calls in Mexico City this year, were probably a Florida undercount.

There are unfortunately no statistics of how many victims actually paid, or whether anyone, anywhere was hurt because of one of these calls.

Nevertheless, it is a frightening experience to receive one of these extorsion calls, and that is why I was so willing to share the local rarity of my green Johnnie Walker, but not my gun.

Catemaco Monster

"early in 1969 the good citizens residing around Lake Catemaco in Mexico began to see their pet monster again"

Apparently John A. Keel in his book "The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings"  mentions a huge black serpent with two heads being sighted in the laguna.

Does anyone have the complete description?

Merry xmas , y'all

Photo: pagetutor.com

Funniest story of 2008 about Mexico

Kidnapping of US antikidnapping consultant rattles Mexico

Catemaco corruption

After years of being involved in a property possession fight, we finally received an official judgement declaring us owners of the contested property.

This legal maneuver, occupying more than two years was never a priority to us so we never paid the customary bribes to advance its case in court. NOW after finally receiving an ultimate court decision in our favor, the frigging judge who is supposed to officially publish the judgement wants 20,000 pesos.

Guess what? We paid him.! Just another beautiful downtown Catemaco vignette.

Catemaco Virgins

I have never seen so many Virgins in my life.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco was overrun by thousands, or maybe 10's of thousands of placard bearers in the last week. Most all featured a likeness either on their sweatpants, foreheads, windshields, mobile phones, etc. of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Spirituality seems to have soared in Catemaco in the last few years. Maybe this has something to do with global warming, or the lower than average temperatures in Los Tuxtlas.

The Catemaco Virgen celebration is not just a local phenomena. Pilgims regularly arrive here by the busloads from most of southern Mexico. During the festivities surrounding her various "anniversaries", thousands of impoverished pilgrims arrive on foot treks from the communities south of Catemaco in the Santa Marta volcanoes where apparently there is a Virgin statue shortage.

The religious folks, throughout the week, run their processions before 6 am, the more sleepy taxis and driveable religious vehicles have their fun in the afternoons and the party crowd does their thing with beauty contests of virginal high school students in the evening. All are accompanied by choruses or the equivalent of bull horns or oom-pah-pah music.

I should have posted this on one of those "I love Mexico" blogs where people love reading about the shenanigans of the have-nots of Mexico, before returning to their quiet, isolated life in mortgaged homes in Anywhere, USA.

PLEASE! if this keeps on going, invite me!

A little history: The shrine of the Catemaco Virgin

Photo: Diario Eyipantla

Catemaco Crime

Beautiful downtown Catemaco is allegedly becoming a retirement home.

The ZETAs, one of the most feared drug gangs in Mexico, are supposedly declaring Catemaco a protected turf without the reported Mafia style protection rackets and kidnappings now so popular on the Mexican gulf coast.

Welcome home ZETAS!

They can not be any worse than the corrupt national and state politicians who have scooped up prime pieces of real estate in Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas and stolen a large percentage of Catemaco's yearly fiscal budget.

Current US newspapers are in a frenzy over Mexican drug related killings. What they, and most foreign tourists, forget is that Mexico is an extraordinarily violent country. Fortunately most of the violence is bestowed on fellow Mexicans, leaving gringos virtually unscathed.

Murder rates traditionally have been 3 to 4 times higher in Mexico than the US! And that includes flawed Mexican statistics which are know to to depend on bullets in the heart to be reported as heart attacks.

So who cares about a few thousand druggies wasting each other!

I know you don't believe me, so here are the somewhat outdated statistics:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita

Movies of Catemaco

There is no reason to come visit us in beautiful downtown Catemaco. Just stay home and enjoy the local scenery portrayed in dozens of films, TV shows, and documentaries.

Here is a sample of some of them:

Apocalypto (2006)

USA, director: Mel Gibson, star: Rudy Youngblood.

Piedras verdes (2001)

México, director: Ángel Flores Torres, star: Osvaldo Benavides.

Hijos del viento (2000)

Spain, director:José Miguel Juárez, star: José Sancho.

Nanciyaga (1998)

México, director: Julio Fons, star: Felipe Fulop.

Ámbar (1994)

México, director: Luis Estrada, star: Martin Altomaro.

Enfermeras en la Linea: El accidente del vuelo 7 (1993)

USA (TV), director: Larry Shaw, star: Lindsey Wagner, Jennifer Lopez.

Medicine Man  (1992)

USA, director: John McTiernan, star: Sean Connery.

Mina, viento de libertad (1977)

Cuba / México, director: Antonio Eceiza, star: Pedro Armendáriz Jr.. 

Muerte en el jardin,  (1956)

France / México, director: Luis Buñuel, star: Simone Signoret.

Sombra Verde, (1954)

México, director Roberto Galvadon, star: Ricardo Montalban

See More: Movies of Catemaco 

Catemaco Recipes

I hope you enjoy the home cooking in beautiful downtown Catemaco as much as I do.


MOGO-MOGO OF MALE BANANA
6 TEETH OF GARLIC
5 SPOONFULS OF BUTTER
2 LITERS OF WATER
4 MALE BANANAS Or PINTONES
SALT NECESSARY
SUGAR To the PLEASURE IT FORMS TO PREPARE ITSELF:

IN A POT WITH WATER And SALT, IT IS PUT TO COOK GREEN The MALE BANANA BETWEEN And PREVIOUSLY BARE And CUT PINTÓN IN WHEELS. Meanwhile, GARLIC PLASTADOS FRY THEMSELVES IN The BUTTER WITHOUT THEY GET TO BURN ITSELF.

The COOKED BANANA SLIPS Of the WATER And IT CRUSHES SMOOTHLY STRIKING IT WITH A WOOD SPOON. THE HOT BUTTER IS ADDED TO HIM IN WHICH GARLIC FRIED THEMSELVES. ONE RIPENS WITH SALT And SUGAR. ONE USES IT WARMS UP FOR The BREAKFAST Or IT HAS SUPPER And IT IS ACCOMPANIED BY HOT CHOCOLATE.
 
You get the drift, I hope

Source: Venavernos