I chuckled when the Catemaco tourism director recently admitted to a 40% occupancy rate instead of the expected 80% during the recently deceased tourist season. He blamed it on newspapers that reported that it was raining in Veracruz, and of course on insecurity. Even at 40%, I think he was stroking his thing.
Insecurity, though is really becoming a cause celebre. This last month Veracruz City and State has been horrifying with murder rates not seen since the 1980's when the targets were politicians instead of narcos. I expected it, but I would much rather have been wrong.
Of course the director did not mention that less than 2 years ago, the principal paid for attraction in Catemaco raised its rates from 50 to 80 pesos per person for a boat ride to see monkeys.
The key element of Catemaco Tourism is boat trips around the Catemaco Lake, across Laguna Sontecomapan and to a much minor degree, along the coast.
Catemaco Lake tourism began with the introduction of southeast Asian monkeys to a small island within the lake in the 1970's. Fishermen soon discovered the profitability of hauling tourists to see these monkeys, and by now there are more than 154 permissions to operate tourist boats on the lake. 52 of those are owned by cooperatives, 102 others are owned by 39 individuals, (based on outdated statistics from 2000).
All but one of the boats is operated with environmentally damaging 2 cycle outboard engnes. All the boats were apparenty produced on the same set of 2 molds, with mostly 12, plus 16, 20 and 24 passenger configurations. None of the boats have flush decks, none are suitable for anyone with the least handicap, none provide adequate ingress and egress, and none are weather proof.
Almost all boats are shabby, uncomfortable and driven by taciturn drivers, most of whom are not owners but employees.
Additionally they have pretty much wasted and destroyed much of the Catemaco shoreline with flotsam, glass shards, every boat repair and maintenance chemical available and just your nice general household trash from visitors.
Current tariffs for the 1 hour tour are 80 pesos per passenger with a minimum of 450 per boat, including 6 passengers. Other rates are negotiable, and the 100 or more shills promoting the rides are reputed to rip off the unaware.
Because of inclement weather, boats operate perhaps only 2/3 of the year.
The best experiences I ever had on the lake were the rental of a now gone catamaran, shared with friends to many destinations on the lake. The Cat failed, first because of importation legalities and then because of partner squabbles.
Personally I would like to see a a few 50 to 100 seater party boats on the lake, suitable for lunch, dinner moonlight and "see the monkey" cruises.
So called "six pack" and larger weatherproof cabin cruisers with comfortable seating, an ice chest and onboard toilet would be a welcome addition. Even a few captained speed boats would do wonders for well heeled visitors.
A few rental Hobie Cats would really look great on the lake, and a few rental captained sail boats would do wonders for the lake`s skyline. But please, dear god, pass a law against unthrottled rental jet skies.
I agree with a past proposal to erect a boat pier in the laguna on La Punta (proposed, studied, and supposedly funded in 2006), but ignored by succeeding administrations. Even a local Belgian's idea of importing a few hundred sail boats was a good, but I thought unfeasible, idea.
The idea of a boat pier is wagging its tail again this year, with supposedly an 11 million peso construction going up near La Ola restaurant. At best this is a band aid, and a political rip off.
Catemaco needs a Marina/harbor with seawalls to keep the small boats out of harm's way. If you have ever seen teams of up to 20 men sweating and cursing to haul each of the 150 plus boats on shore before a dozen weather events, you would understand my suggestion.
Of course, I would like to see most of these boats disappear to be replaced with less and bigger boats with lower rates for the big ones.
But that would mean a political war in Catemaco.
But that would mean a political war in Catemaco.
Meanwhile something that would really help would be to prepare an accurate script describing the stops and sights of the boat trip, and forcing operators to memorize the script and convey it to passengers. And shucks, maybe one of them could advertise a trip in English or German or whatever.
Soon: Catemaco Lanchas - in Spanish
All my posts on the subject of Catemaco Tourism are drafts for Spanish transformations and meanwhile serve to annoy local politicians and tourism promoters who read them in Google translations. I keep publishing and disappearing them while footballing items with a few friends. Readership of regulars of the blog, compared to the thousands of my regular publications mostly in Spanish, is so minute, I care less who else reads it. See all parts:
http://www.catemaco.info/s/catemaco/3/turismo.html
All my posts on the subject of Catemaco Tourism are drafts for Spanish transformations and meanwhile serve to annoy local politicians and tourism promoters who read them in Google translations. I keep publishing and disappearing them while footballing items with a few friends. Readership of regulars of the blog, compared to the thousands of my regular publications mostly in Spanish, is so minute, I care less who else reads it. See all parts:
http://www.catemaco.info/s/catemaco/3/turismo.html
