Catemaco Amazonas

Amazon is the nickname of a funeral director in Catemaco. For the past ten years he has been one of the few promoters of tourism in the area. 

The photos are from his first DVD from Catemaco, published in 2002.

 Pick up your free copy in his crypt at El Cerrito in the center of Catemaco.

see some of his videos herei:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Catemacoturismo?blend=1&ob=0

Into the Mystic of Los Tuxtlas...

Into the Mystic of Los Tuxtlas...

David L. Biller

SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012 AT 11:29PM

When I told the editor of National Geographic en Español that I was going to explore the Los Tuxtlas region of Veracruz state over the holidays with my brother, Anson, he asked me to dig around in the small city of Catemaco. He had always been interested in publishing a story on Catemaco’s famed witchcraft, but wasn’t sure there was one to be told; the abundance of stories in Mexican publications touting the witch’s abilities were always one-sided and, frankly, very uninteresting.

So I set about researching witchcraft in a Mexico City library; an important introduction, among other sources, was “La Magia en Los Tuxtlas” (The Magic in Los Tuxtlas) by Marcela Olavarrieta. Anson and I headed for Catemaco on December 31, and arrived just before midnight. We walked straight into our first mystical custom: “quemando el viejo.” (burning the old man).  Catemaco’s residents had made effigies filled with hay, newspaper, sawdust and fireworks, and were spraying them with lighter fluid then lighting them afire. The rite serves to do away with the past year, and start anew with a blank slate. Children no more than five years old lit fireworks and threw them at us. The streets were filled with smoke, thorough which we could see the flaming body after flaming body between the one-story houses. We escaped to the malecon (boardwalk), where the trees’ branches were filled with hundreds of birds and it smelled strongly of guano. Bats were wheeling across the lake’s surface.....

An absolutely MUST read:

http://davidbiller.com/on-assignment/into-the-mystic-of-los-tuxtlas.html

New York Time's Catemaco

Mexico's richest man keeps buying chunks of the New York Times, Maybe that has something to do with this strange article about one aspect of Catemaco's brujo tourism.

CATEMACO JOURNAL

Driven to Cast Charms Against Drug Lords’ Darker Forces

more about brujos, here

Catemaco video

About the extorsion of brujos, fat monkeys and the growth of ecotourism.

Catemaco Swedes

A few months ago, two Scandinavian women left Catemaco after 4 months of studying monkeys in the Tropical Fauna and Wildlife Park on Mount Pipapan.

They also left behind a blog with some wonderful photos and insights of the area. 

Yesterday a new Swedish woman arrived. I am sure she will do as well. 

Welcome her and learn some Swedish while you are at it:

http://mexicanmonkeybusiness.blogspot.com/

Catemaco ROOOARRRR

Speedboat races on the Laguna.

Catemaco Facebook

Facebook is the worst aspect of the internet since Al Gore invented it. I thoroughly dislike the site because of its conformity, restrictions and unintelligible set of instructions to do anything beyond a basic profile. Heck AOL groups was better than that 15 years ago, and I have been desperately waiting for GOOGLE to come up with a Facebook killer. But I suspect I missed the lancha.

I now have 1500 Facebook "friends". The local mayor has 4400. That makes Catemaco Noticias the second most popular destination for anything related to Catemaco on the Facebook internet. I accumulated  maybe a quarter of these "friends" by fishing for Catemaco residents or natives. But from there it snowballed with "friend" applications pouring in.

Until a few months ago it was very difficult to list Catemaco as a place of origin or residence, that's why the following figures are suspect. Of my 1500 "friends" about 275 list Catemaco as their hometown, another 275+/- list Catemaco as their residence. Obviously there is an overlap, and I estimate that perhaps a maximum of 500 have anything to do with Catemaco. And in true Facebook stupidity the 99 or more percent Spanish speakers whose home or residence is Catemaco, get to read about their town on a Wikipedia English version.

Curiously the mayor's 4400 friends show about the same distribution. And that is noteworthy because it demonstrates the reinforcement that his page gets from the political effort that his PRI party is making to dominate the political aspect of Facebook in preparation for the next Mexican presidential election.

Most of my "friends" seem to have the IQ of one of the monkeys on the islands of Catemaco, and I spend considerable time clicking on the little X next to their names to have them disappear from my Facebook "news wall", so that I don`t have to read their drivel.  But surprisingly there are many with informed commentary and some gorgeous photos. And I actually dug up some old pals and made a handful of new acquantainces.

My objective is for my 1500 "friends" to read my drivel, not the other way around. And that has been successful. Sites that I have linked to on www.catemaco.info have shown considerable increase in readership.

My Facebook sites:

Catemaco Noticias - original, locked, discontinued

Catemaco Agenda - new, open (successor to Don Gringo Notas because it allows comments that I can gleefully delete if they come from river rats.)
Catemaco Tourism - reserved for the nice things of Catemaco

And yes I have a personal Facebook page, but that is so locked and private, that even I have a hard time entering it.

Catemaco Drool

Possibly one of the best videos of the Catemaco mountains that I've seen

Catemaco History

Since the advent of the announcement that a local aficionado of antiquaria intends to open his personal museum in Catemaco, I have noticed a substantial increase in local concerns about local history. Newspapers are publishing antique photos, websites are dredging their drawers, even Facebook people publish their historic attic.

The museum plans its inauguration on Feb 26, and hopefully will still be around next year.  My preliminary views make it a "must" visit in Catemaco. Unfortunately it is in a hidden area behind the Catemaco baseball field, near the entrance to Catemaco. By now most locals are aware of the future museum and will point you in the right direction.

Over the years, I have bought, collected, stolen and copied dozens of local historic photos., despite local owners resistance to share them. Take a look, and expect see a lot more on Feb 26. in the
"Galeria fotografica y objetos antiguos de Catemaco"

Update
Visit the museum's page 

Photo credit: micatemaco.com

I'm jealous in Catemaco

I just found this website from 2009 of a pair of bikers who took some remarkably clear photos of both their way here and their stay here.
Adventure Rider - 2 pages.

And then apparently a lady author snuck into town and penned something involving Catemaco, like demon-possessed monkeys. Apparently she did her research at La Finca.
Shady Lady.

Meanwhile some intrepid foreigners discovered the benefits of a trailer park costing less than half the jewel of Tepetapan, just a few hundred feet from my "Milpa".
USA & Meh-i-co

Just further down the road around the Laguna, another happy couple depressed themselves at Rancho Bahia Escondida.
Madame Vagabond

Meanwhile back in the neighboring "big smoke" San Andrès, someone named "beachbubba" did some fine work on how to get to beautiful downtown Catemaco, (20 minutes from the big smoke).
Tourtuxtlas

It's gringo tourist season, hurrah, because the Mexes are staying home.

Catemaco Time Machine

Remember the good ol' days, when it only took 30 minutes to fly from Veracruz to San Andrès?

Here is a tourism brochure from 1956.

Santiago Tuxtla - Land of Beauty

Catemaco "mìstico"

Last year, a young gringo spent a few months in Catemaco and wrote an article for the National Geographic Magazine's Spanish edition.

Its focus on primarily brujos may be interesting to anyone not familiar with the area, but a cold shower for residents who expected more from National Geographic.

Here is the Google translated link:

Catemaco Mìstico, por David Biller

National Geographic

Gringo Lions in Catemaco

Veracruz newspapers are falling all over themselves praising the appearance of the governor's wife in Catemaco for the initiation of the international eyeglasses campaign "First comes Vision" (la vista primero). In the fine print they mention something about Wisconsin.

So I did a little research.

Apparently the Wisconsin Lions Club for the past 10 years has made annual pilgrimages to Mexico to deliver eyglasses and provide vision examinations to thousands in impoverished towns. Usually they pick three towns in Veracruz, and this year it was Catemaco's turn.

Thousands of Lions are involved in Wisconsin collecting eyeglasses throughout the year. The collection is then turned over to trained inmates in the Wisconsin prison system for repair, regrinding and refurbishing.

 A team of mostly retired Lions, including several ophtalmologists, then make the annual trips, to distribute the up to 10 thousand pairs of eyeglasses, and work 12 hours days for up to a week to fit them to their wearers.

This year their Wisconsin Lions Foundation also collected 13 thousand dollars to donate to schools for the blind in Veracruz that were damaged in the recent floods.

Here in Catemaco they are being assisted by fellow Mexican Lions. And of course they created a great photo opportunity for a dozen politicians and functionaries to steal the limelight.

These Lions deserve heartfelt thanks and a lot of respect for demonstrating the humanitarian heart of the US people that is nowadays so overshadowed by negative reporting in foreign lands.

Thank You Lions. ROAAAAAR.

Visit their page 

Wisconsin Lions Mission to Mexico

Catemaco Marsupilami

The French are making a monkey out of Catemaco, or maybe it's a leopard, or a dog.

They recently started shooting the film "Marsupilami" in the jungle of  the "La Jungla" campground and other choice locations around Los Tuxtlas. The main character is a popular French cartoon animal, and I presume the scenes shot here will be backdrops to its antics.



Update: This is one of my more stupid posts on Catemaco News, so I really do not understand its popularity.

Anyway, the movie crowd was here,  and barely anyone noticed them. They bought a mess of potted plants to create stage sets, and upon use, tried to sell them locally for inflated prices. Some of their plaster casts are still adorning local dives.

As of 5 nov 2011 I still do not know if that flick ever hit a screen anywhere.

Catemaco Press

Old Folks Alert!
Nice plug about Catemaco in MexicoConnect
Scouting Mexico retirement scenes

Getting out of Catemaco

Don´t get your hopes up, Bozos!

The two young Scandinavian women who lived 4 months in beautiful downtown Catemaco and who studied spider monkeys in the Tropical Fauna and Flora Park left here during the nadir of the Veracruz weather mess.

While here one woman published a few wonderful anecdotes about the area in her blog. Apparently it took her a month to recover, but she finally reminisced about her last day here. A good read!

Read Pia goes International!

Catemaco Publicity

I just ran a Google search on beautiful downtown Catemaco.

Google lists 628,000 (August 2010) references for Catemaco, of which 569,000 are in Spanish and a whopping 61,800 are in English - while the much bigger and economically more important city of San Andres Tuxtla rates 400,000 references but only about 34,200 in English.

But Catemaco is definitely moving up in the world. The same figures for 2006 were 161,000 references for Catemaco, of which 96,600 were in Spanish and a comparatively enormous 47,800 were in English.

One would think that Catemaco festers with English speakers. But far from it. All the non - Mexicans (gringos) in Catemaco would not even fill one of the smaller restaurants on the Malecon, and their touristy faces are almost invisible among the Mexican hordes.

Interestingly of those 628 thousand current Google  references, 190,000 include brujos but only about 700 mentioned brujo in 2006.

Excerpted from the draft section of catemaco.info - Business,

Beautiful small town Catemaco

AHA! Maybe I have to change my generic description of  "beautiful downtown Catemaco" to beautiful small town Catemaco".

Geo-Mexico just gave a heads-up on a book listing 101 beautiful small towns in Mexico, and included Los Tuxtlas, which I presume includes Catemaco.

You can buy it here
One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico
By Guillermo Garcia-Oropeza, Cristobal Garcia Sanchez
280 pages, 2008

Catemaco Brujos

Mexico Connect recently published an article on the current local brujo scene:
Catemaco: Mexico's cradle of sorcery and witchcraft
Although the author has half of her facts wrong, the article is still a good read.

Catemaco & Los Tuxtlas A to Z

The Veracruz newpaper AZ recently included a supplement featuring most of the marvels of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas, including several pages in English.

The supplement is not available on the internet anymore, but I saved it. It is a 68 page, 36MB,  PDF document, that may be a little slow downloading. If you wait, it is worthwhile reading, and the photos are marvelous.

Read AZ Fascinación por Los Tuxtlas