On the tourism level, three tiny house based hotelitos are now offering rooms from 149 pesos per double and up. The hotel Las Brisas added a few rooms and a handful of ecotouristic enterprises popped up around the Laguna. The coast saw a new small hotel in Playa Hermosa, and a tourist train now zips around Catemaco.
Bus fares went up again, the promised airport and heliport are at a standstill, and the owner of the Hotel Prashanti now intermittently offers sightseeing flights over the Laguna and the surrounding volcanoes.
A new road opened to Punta Puntilla at the northern end of Los Tuxtlas, but the existing road network was ignored and is now again in deplorable condition.
Shopping improved exponentially with the opening of mini versions of two chain stores in Catemaco, Aurrera and Coppel. La Casa de Los Tesoros opened with a nice selection of handicrafts from throughout Mexico, finally giving tourists a chance to spend some serious money.
In the last month of the year a promising good Spanish restaurant opened, but my favorite place closed earlier in the year after struggling for 4 months.
The city government as usual excelled in idiocies, tearing down the welcome arch to the entrance of Catemaco and painting red the curbs and guard rails of the Malecon.
Weather was benign, with a mini drought extending the dry season in the spring, less than usual rains in the summer and fall, and the absence of major storms and washouts.
Crime stayed about the same with a few murders and the usual extorsions and kidnappings so common throughout Mexico. Rumors of Mafia style rackets intruding on the city are whispered but not reported.
Politics enthralled most of the underprivileged with massive vote buying during the mid year elections and 10's of thousands of political handouts of chickens and food baskets setting the stage for next year's elections.
Population growth seems to be absent, but there do seem to be a few extra gringo snowbirds in town.
Prices kept creeping upward and the Guadalajara Reporter renewed its survey, tracking food costs.
A GOOD NEW YEAR TO ALL
