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

Catemaco Wish List

I wish that subtropical beautiful downtown Catemaco would live up to its reputation, instead of freezing my butt off for most of January and early February. The weather has been schizophrenic alternating between 13c (56)f and 32c (90f), almost every few few days.

I travelled a lot lately, and am proud to report that Veracruz retains its crown as "most likely to have a blowout". Damn, some of those roads north of Veracruz city are bad, at present. The Los Tuxtlas roads, at the moment, are passable. Check with me tomorow!

There are rumors of a new hotel in Catemaco. Wow, that'll really excite all the other ones that are starving because they maintain CANCUN prices in the off season. Be careful, please!, the gringopagodoble effect is prevalent.

Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas are possibly one of the most photogenic areas in Mexico. For a serious photographer that is only true about 15-30 days a year. Usually the magnificent views in all directions are encumbered by haze caused by the burning of residential trash, dust clouds from dirt roads, and possibly from sandstorms in the Sahara. But when there is a clear day in Catemaco, when you can see forever, my heart sings, and I don`t wish I were elsewhere.

Catemaco screwed up again and is on the list of the most mismanaged places in Veracruz. Apparently the last mayor forgot to include attributions of half of is 86 million pesos yearly budget, which is about enough to buy 4 happy meals for every inhabitant of Catemaco. The state of Veracruz is not far behind. Standard & Poor revoked its credit ratings because of shenanigans in its financings, which declare Veracruz to be one of the most indebted states in Mexico. Curiously, the present governor of Veracruz  initiated most of the questionable transactions.

Meanwhile, the country of Mèxico keeps hanging in there, despite being riled by a mickey mouse TV show in England. Apparently a real Mexican was hurt in the recent troubles in Egypt and a dozen or two were evacuated.
I have been watching that situation and it very much reminds me of Mexico, not so much because of its incompetent and corrupt political leadership, but because of the anger and hope of all the young gunslingers on the street. Let's send them some ZETAS.

The Catemaco brujo's granddaughter

The kid is strange. But what can you expect when the daughter of the most famous brujo in Catemaco marries a hippy gringo and her daughter gets raised in Texas. The brujo and the gringo are dead.

Here are the kid's ramblings:
Crzy Down South

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 Mayor

After I came to to beautiful downtown Catemaco almost 9 years ago, a Populuca enchanted me and for a few years I did not see straight.

My Popoluca is a political rabblerouser who had led attacks on the municipal palace and otherwise made a municipal nuisance of herself in earlier years, while also having been instrumental in seeing her candidates elected.

So, I thought, let's run her for presidente municipal (that's equivalent to mayor), thinking that a respected woman, in a magnified person to person campaign would have a good shot to be elected.

What will it cost, I asked? 2 to 3 million pesos they said. In a county of 45 thousand where almost all make less than 10 dollars a day, that has no TV station, no radio, and no newspaper, and where 60% do not or barely read, I asked!

Yep, they said. And to guarantee a win would be more like 5 million.

So I started counting my pesos, and had some more discussions with my Popoluca. She had some wonderful ideas to eliminate waste in governmental activities, focus on supporting the underprivileged of Catemaco, initiate a preservation effort for the area, and similar feel goods.

But also she wanted to put her family to work, skim off the contractors doing work for the municipio and amass a fortune to pay me back and prepare for the next political campaign.

Instead I took her to California to go shopping.
I won, (financially, that is).