Catemaco Measures

I've been measuring, and so apparently has a government agency in Catemaco, trying to figure out whether water runs downhill. The purported intent is to renew the water supply lines of the city, which relatively has no problem, while the out lying hill communities all still depend on "whenever" deliveries of water by "pipas" (600 gallon water trucks).

About 10 years ago, the state of Veracruz analyzed Catemaco, and promoted the suggestion that nothing over 4 stories should be built in Catemaco. So of course, the first one to erect a 5 story apartment building without an elevator or parking lot was the then and now cacique (political boss) of Los Tuxtlas, Jorge Uscanga.

A few years ago, a now dead gringo, in cahoots with the then mayor, snagged a piece of federal property on the Malecon of Catemaco and began to build what I call the "Hotel Monster". He dropped dead and his daughter is now looking for 7 millon pesos for a concrete abortion. That one too was planned to go above 5 stories.

There are a few homes in Catemaco desperate to have a view of the lake, and some reach as high as six stories.

My current favorite is the owner of a lot, a block west of the Malecon, who happily lived in a one story shack, but apparently got rich off something and is now in the process of erecting a fifth story on his 20x40 foot lot without ever having provided foundations.

But that's O.K. In Catemaco, and the way I see it, in most of Mexico, where you can invent your own building codes, while waiting for the zone's next earthquake, which incidentally has affected much of Veracruz but has fortunately bypassed Catemaco. Or maybe that was because everyone lived in grass shacks, because there is no mortar presence before 1896.

Anyway, as for measures, the Catemaco lake is supposed to be 340 meter above sea level. That varies, by which Mexican rocket scientist you want to believe, by about 50 meters. That little bit of altitude really matters! Because generally the higher you are the cooler you are. The "sea breezes" of the lake help to cool Catemaco from the now intolerable heat indexes in the lowlands of Veracruz.

The Catemaco lake is now near its record lows, which seriously affects the local hydroelectric plant which was responsible for flooding Catemaco a year ago. (supposedy on orders from the then Veracruz governor more worried about down stream flooding).

If you read catemaco.info, you would know that some believe that more water disappears from the lake than gets channelled through its only outlet, the "Rio Grande de Catemaco". Some believe there are cracks in the lake bottom that permit water to sieve out. Again, if you saw the fault map hidden somewhere in catemaco.info, that seems plausible.

Anyway my unprofessional measure of the lake height between high and low is 8 feet, at the extreme, which I have only seen once in 9 years. At present the lake could descend another 6 inches. After that, I will seriously consider that something "pulled the plug".

Update: Ironically a 6.5 or 6.7 earthquake epicentered about 80 miles to the SE shook the area a day after posting this. Some felt it, I didn't. But it was earthshaking news in hundreds of writeups.