After we left Xalapa, we first headed east then south to Catemaco. It is a picturesque town on the shore of a lake of the same name. When we arrived, there were no other RV’s in the park that we could see, but the lake was inviting and we settled in for the night despite the lack of sewers or running water at out spaces. They were also asking too much and we negotiated a better price for several days. Meanwhile, we arranged for a special boat ride the next day for $350 pesos for six people. Happily, a German couple arrived late in an older Class A, Horst and Anna, and they joined our little group the next day for a lake tour.
How we all parked in this little space:
The restaurant where we had great food at a great price, 1/2 the cost of in the US but high by Mexico standards of pricing:
The boats the tourists take to tour the lake, ours was arranged for the next day:
Up the street:
Dusk over the lake. It’s just across the street from where I’m parked:
Next day our boat waiting for us:
And we’re off:
The greyhound surveys, seemed he was a natural sailor:
Lazy birds:
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This area has been inhabited for thousands of years. It was in ancient times, a resort area. Although there are few ruins, there is some reason to believe that at one spring at the north end of the lake, bubbling warm fresh water through mud, has drawn people for centuries for soothing mud baths. There were constructions that have been rebuilt and reproductions of ancient statuary akin to the works that would have been here a thousand years ago and have been reset at ancient positions, though the actual statues are long missing. We toured the area, it’s called an ‘eco preserve’ area by locals, and some of the profits from our tickets are put back into preserving the flora and fauna. The pictures you see here are of the rebuilt buildings and reproductions of typical statuary, mostly historically accurate in that they are appropriate gods and goddesses of the indigenous peoples of the area. These first few pictures are as we motored the lake near the western shore for views of the egrets and a few nice estates.
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Their are 3 kinds of birds in this shot…we were told that the two smaller species, one mostly black, and the other mostly white with yellow feet, sometimes get drunk and walk on the wild side, producing the larger and heavier 3rd type of egret that was nearest the top of this tree. It’s dark with yellow feet, and they always seem larger then their parents. Or so the guide told us. You can see that it appears twice as large as it’s neighbors near it as well as larger then those perched below.
The weather was a little spooky, what with the clouds rolling over and sometimes threatening to rain, but it was mostly mild with a temp around 74F and no rain all day…
We approach the sanctuary:
Pay our $35 pesos and cross the suspension bridge with our guide:
A restored walkway:
One of the ceremonial circles:
A little local color:
This goddess takes on the sins of the petitioner or something, that’s the meaning of the black around her mouth. At first I just thought she needed a shave.
This was the sweat lodge. Water would be poured onto hot rocks for steam:
One of the interesting buildings that I forget the meaning of:
This use to be the area where they got the mud, now I’m not sure:
Some kids enjoying a swing:
There’s a gator out there somewhere. They were almost hunted to extinction by the locals but these are protected:
These lizards are rescued from the wild as eggs, grow up here, then are released at age 3 or 4. They handle that treatment well and after release are hunting on their own quickly. The locals eat to many of them which is why they need to be protected here:
On our way back from the ‘Eco Preserve’, we passed Monkey Island that some idiot thought would be a good place to release a few imported Indonesian Short Tailed Macaques. They’ve been overfed ever since but have never made it from this island to the mainland. The 2-3 year old animals are captured and sold to zoos all over the world., which maintains the tribe population at around 20 individuals. One alpha male, female adults, and then the kids. Tourists have been overfeeding them since they got here. As you can see, they are fat, but not as unhealthy (I’m told) as they use to be because of a change in the treats the tourists are now allowed to give them. Before there were too many treats, now it’s protein instead. As you can imagine, the dog went nuts when he saw these little hairy people…but the monkeys could have cared less:
That tour only took 3 hours so the rest of the day we wandered around downtown Catemaco while I looked for some stuff called Microdyn. It’s based on iodine I believe and it’s used for purifying water and veggies. Took quite a while to find it, had to go to 4 stores. This town is a quintessentially Mexican village. I’ve been through many villages down here now and this one really gets my vote as one of the more interesting and attractive. But for you Gucci wearing types, it is very rustic as well. But there are some 3-4 star motels here. I’m glad I made it up here.
One of the aggravating things about RV’ing in Mexico is the lack of consistency. For the money we would have been paying for our spaces here, compared to the US, or even a better Mexican RV park, we would have gotten 30 amp, water, and sewer, or at least a working dump station. Maybe even cable. Here, we got 20 amps, no water unless you wanted to drag a bucket over to the restaurant, and a dump station you had to back up too, and that was higher then where you could park a rig like mine to use it…and sewage doesn’t flow uphill. They tried to charge us way too much, but we were able to negotiate a pretty good price since it’s the off-season and the place was empty when we got there. The campground ended up having my Class A, another Class A, two Class C rigs, a couple class B camper vans, a truck camper, and even backpackers, who used a tent. They mostly all arrived later in the day and the next day so we considered ourselves lucky to get the discount when we arrived and the place was empty. Plus we ended up staying 5 days for a look around so that made them happy. Like I said, I stayed indoors most of that time watching and listening to games and working on the blog, while it rained buckets, but I got a good sense of this place when I did go out. It was great staying here.