Catemaco Dog Walk

Green spaces are an anomaly in beautiful downtown Catemaco City, Veracruz, located amidst the lush splendor of the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas. Possibly the beach side of the Malecon could be considered a green area, but that beach is usually just a boat parking lot. So where can my dogs poop?

A beautiful spit of land called “La Punta” juts into Laguna Catemaco from the city’s northern end. About a quarter mile (500 meters) of pristine shore line stretches between The Hotel Koniapan and the Restaurant Gorel in Playa Espagoya/ Play Isla.

Early mornings I love to run my dogs through the area. (Incidentally I did not arrive here with dogs. They adopted me here.)

If I walk at the break of dawn, the sonorous rumblings of the Howler monkeys on Isla Agaltepec fill the air. The path is often just a foot wide, and when the laguna is full, as occurs only after heavy rains, the path leads through water. The first time that happened I had to carry one of my dogs. The other dog apparently has a water hound in his ancestry.

Tegogoleros usually are hard at work here diving for their famous Catemaco snails, and frequently dozens of shore birds watch their antics.

At the beginning or end of the trail, depending where I entered it, a large tree provides shelter for a large wino community. That would be a nuisance anywhere else, but here in Catemaco they are gentle human beings who greet me with choruses of “Buenos Dias“. By then the path widens into a dirt road which then becomes paved in front of the Hotel Koniapan.

By now, the dogs have to disappear because further passing into Catemaco is inadvisable. Every city block has a few canine owners resentful of any intrusion. Fortunately I just live a block away.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco wants to be even more beautiful by extending its Malecon a mile further north, across this particular dog walk and through some trespassing construction on Laguna Catemaco shore.

The project arose from a royal edict by Catemaco’s current mayor.
The cost of the project is alleged to be in the neighborhood of 70 million pesos. So Catemaco floated a 16 million peso loan in 2005, repayable in 10 years. The funds allegedly are for part of the Malecon construction. Meanwhile in 2005, the municipio (county government) also spent 750,000 pesos for studies of the project, and added another 316,395 pesos this year. Legal costs are piling up because most property owners along the route have filed amparos (injunctions) against the project. Most of the property along the route is owned by outsiders from Catemaco, including some very rich ones from San Andres Tuxtla.

A nice old lady from Mexico City is allegedly demanding 10,000 pesos per square meter (11 square feet) for her little piece of Laguna front. Since Mexico mayors are limited to a single 3 year term, it looks rather doubtful that the Malecon expansion project will start in the current term, and the next mayor will have enough trouble thinking about paying back the 16 million peso loan while scheming his own projects.

So my dogs will probably have a beautiful dog run for a while longer.
Many more photos: - tuxtlas.com - Events - Dog Walk

Catemaco Restaurant News

Hardly a day goes by in beautiful downtown Catemaco without a change in the local restaurant industry.

At present the move from plastic to wood is in full swing. Apparently the makers of Corona Beer plastic chairs discovered it was just as cheap to have underpaid Mexican labor make wooden chairs and tables than shipping plastic chairs from China.

Aesthetically these wooden chairs are more attractive than the plastic ones. Comfort-wise they are questionable especially after reading the article on big American butts. Mexico - Land of Little Butts.

Don Alfredo, the giant of the Catemaco hamburger business has finally opened a new locale, “Casa de los Caballos”, behind the cathedral, corner of Hidalgo. He has maintained his “bohemian atmosphere”, offers a pleasant place to snack and chat or play a mean game of chess, and is in serious competion with the church goers on weekends at 5 in the morning.

Another former hole in the wall, within the strip mall buttressing the cathedral, has changed hands. It now occupies triple the space, pays 8,000 pesos in rent, and offers Sunday buffets. So far I have not made it beyond breakfast, barely, at “La Nueva Percherona”.

The former Tanaxpi restaurant, lately known as a furniture store, has changed hands again. I hope no tonto puts in a farmacia or diaper store. It’s amazing what incompetent rich people decide to start as a business here.

Don Marcos is back attending his business at “Restaurante Melmar” below the fountain of the Catemaco plaza, after extensive surgery. His tacos de cochinita pibil are as good as ever.

The wonderful cooking lady of (”El Caracol”) who moved her mini seafood restaurant near the highway at the Catemaco hospital to a mega location behind the Hotel Playa Cristal, has lost me as a customer. Not because of her food, which is still good, but probably because it was more fun to eat with the exhaust fumes at the edge of the road than in a formal setting.

Nanciyaga almost lost me as a breakfast customer after their pastry chef experimented with a new type of cinnamon roll without cinnamon. After international complaints, he hopefully came to his senses.

“La Changada” on the malecon recently remodeled to accommodate all those people that never go there. They held an independence day party and hired one of those noisy mini-car announcers and some musicians, and filled up. Good for them! Unfortunately the place continues like a ghost town, despite being a pretty place to sit and watch the laguna across the street.
Without mention, another dozen eateries either opened in Catemaco or changed ownership. Most of them should change cities.

The owner of the chicken joint across from the Catemaco hospital, (”El Xalapeño”) is so busy and I guess so rich, possibly because he opened another joint in San Andres)), he closes whenever he feel like it, which is usually when I want his chicken. I desperately need a replacement.

And why do I have to travel to San Andres Tuxtla to eat churros?

Reference: - http://www.catemaco.info/restaurant/index.html

Catholic Catemaco

On early Sunday morning hundreds were leaving beautiful downtown Catemaco to attend canonization ceremonies in Xalapa, Veracruz.

Rafael Guizar y Valencia, who became a saint yesterday, was known in life for his piety and kindness to the poor. Born in 1878, he cared for the wounded and dying in Mexico’s 1910-17 revolution. Ordained bishop for Veracruz State while in Cuba in 1919, he was variously driven out of his diocese and exiled, including a 2 year stay in Texas during Mexico’s late 1920’s bloody catholic rebellion.

In 1931 the Governor of Veracruz ordered Guízar’s arrest and execution. After the bishop appeared at the governor’s mansion and challenged the governor to carry out the execution himself, the governor backed down.
He died in 1938 and was reburied at the Xalapa, Veracruz cathedral in 1951. His popularity continued rising through 1995, when he was beatified (first step to sainthood).
Catholicism requires two attributable miracles for a saint to get his halo. Restored fertility of a sterile woman and remission of an invitro hare lip clinched Saint Rafael Guizar y Valencia’s title. In addition a posthumous excavation in 1951 allegedly found his body preserved.

He joins Mexico’s other 27 saints, including Saint Felipe de Jesus, a Mexican monk who was crucified in Japan; the possibly never existent Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, alleged to have socialized with the “Virgin of Guadalupe”, Mexico’s revered patroness, and 25 saints appointed wholesale by Pope John Paul II who canonized 482 people and beatified 1,338 – more than all his predecessors over the past 500 years combined.

Although app. 85% of the population of Mexico is officially Catholic, less than half are considered practicing Catholics.

The church is in crisis. Many Mexican Indians are abandoning it to become evangelical Protestants. The church cannot even recruit enough Mexican men to serve as priests and its moral influence is waning, similar to what is occuring north of the Rio Grande.

The Catholic church had been one of Mexico’s prime blood suckers from conquest to the Mexican Revolution, resulting in an extreme antclerical constitution in 1917. After that Revolution, another war started in Mexico, the so-called Cristero War of rebelling catholics (1926-1929), in which the government closed churches, forbade the people to worship, and killed priests caught giving mass. Thereafter during the PRI’s long authoritarian rule, church and state were kept strictly separated.

Only after a constitutional change in 1992 did Mexico establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Nowadays relations between the two are at an all-time high, with Vicente Fox the first openly practicing Catholic president of Mexico, and the previous Pope having made 5 trips to Mexico.

Mexican’s catholicsm has helped convert most southern US States into bastions of their faith. So now “missionary” can be used interchangeably with “illegal alien”. Even a Santo Pollero (Saint Illegal Alien Smuggler), has been added to the “missionary” litany.

¡San Rafael Guízar y Valencia, ruega por nosotros!

References:
Mexico celebrates 25 new saints.
Toribio Romo - Mexico’s Benefactor of Illegal Aliens.

Garzas of Catemaco

In beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, the second noticeable item, right after shills hawking “lancha, lancha” are big white birds (Garzas, cattle egrets) hawking “krah krah”.

These former illegal immigrants from Africa first appeared in Veracruz in the late 1950’s, but since then, they have replaced many other locally nesting species. There are entire areas on the Catemaco Malecon painted white with bird dung, and most locals know to only cross these areas with umbrellas or large hats.

Occasionally an innocent tourist parks in some of these areas and returns to find his former red car to be converted into a Daliesque scheme of red and white blobs.

The government of Catemaco is obsessed with providing free boats, motors, fish stocks and other supports to more than 1000 registered fishermen around Laguna Catemaco starving for anything bigger than a gold fish.

Those white birds, that shit up and down the Catemaco Malecon are an excellent source of protein and should be considered part of the Catemaco diet. After all, Catemaco has eaten most of its wild life to extinction, and now glorifies monkey meat disguised as roast pork on most of its restaurant menus.

I am looking forward to eating Garza al Tachogobi, Garza frita, Garza a la Veracruzana, etc.

Abstract: The study assessed the proximate composition, mineral contents and in vitro digestibility of meat of cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) found in the Federal College of Agriculture, Nigeria. It was scarified, defeathered, dissected, oven dried, ground and analyzed using standard methods. The life weight of the samples was 300±10.20 g. The sample contained 76.72% DM crude protein, 0.14% crude fibre and ash 6.41%. It had low level of crude fat (2.14%). The energy level was 365.46 Kcal. …… The nutritive composition of the sample compared with other sources of conventional protein and minerals. Based on these results, it is suggested that nutritional qualities of cattle egret should be harnessed.

Catemaco Handicap

Political correctness has still not invaded Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz.

The most common term for handicapped people used by locals here is menosvalidos, which literally describes a handicapped person as “less valid”. The Mexican government has moved up a step and is focusing on only the word incapacitados, “incapable ones” which still sounds like an insult to many handicapped people. Puerto Rico at least calls a handicapped person, persona impedida, which loosely translates to “person with impediments”.

Well, at least some building codes have been adjusted to accommodate the “incapable” ones. The new Aurera Walmart franchise in San Andres Tuxtla is a succinct example.
A very modern steel and concrete two story shell features several oversize handicapped parking spaces, and 25 steps to climb to the second floor where the store is located, and a long heavily sloped ramp for shopping cart traffic.

Personally, I have trouble controlling a full shopping cart when rolling down hill. And I sympathize with any “incapable” or “less valid person” trying to either climb the steps, or roll up that slope on a crutch, walker or wheelchair!

Obviously Walmart considers the handicapped and probably the elderly as less valid and less welcome shoppers, otherwise they would have built an elevator!

Fortunately Walmart does not discriminate, they use the same insulting store design in other cities besides San Andres Tuxtla.

But here, in beautiful downtown Catemaco, I hate to say, my 10 miles shopping trip along insulting roads leads me directly to the one floor Soriana store in San Andres.

Catemaco - Lazaro Cardenas

20 miles away from beautiful downtown Catemaco nestles the idyllic village of Lazaro Cardenas nestled between two tall volcanic hills. The surrounding landscape consists of compound curves severely cut by arroyos. Numerous rapid flowing creeks have created small waterfalls with clear cool water, and the sides of the roads are dressed in bromeliads, ferns and philodendrons.

Most potreros (fenced cattle ranges) are tree fenced and contribute to the significant bird and butterfly population. Once in the village a local guide can be hired for a trail walk to Laguna Zacatal, 3 kilometers away.

The road leading from La Palma is covered in gravel and badly eroded in some places. Several creeks need to be crossed, fortunately all have rocky substratum. Nevertheless only high rise vehicle are recommended.

Two cattle gates partially block the road. The first gate is the dividing line between Catemaco and San Andres counties. Near the middle of the road, a wonderful view of Laguna Sontecomapan beckons in the distance. A bit further along a trail to the right leads to Laguna El Charco, stocked with mojarra. The owner may allow you to bring your fishing gear.

Reference:

http://www.tuxtlas.com/san_andres_tuxtla/lazaro_cardenas/