Catemaco Lake

  Catemaco, Mexico
Monday, January 28, 2008

Hi Everybody,
Here we are again, reporting from Catemaco a very clean, pretty town at the edge of a huge lake. We have spent the last week here and have enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.
We left the Emerald coast last Monday the 21st and with it the bad weather we had had there for a week. A 9am start and fair roads saw us make good time. We caught up with Ken and Betty who left just before us and followed them the rest of the way to Veracruz.

when you've got to go you've got to go!

We broke away at the turn off to the camp and headed into the city to do some shopping. Armed with a map that had only major arterial roads and rough directions to Costco and Wal-mart we braved the busy roads, passing buses and palm trees with centimeters to spare. A wrong turn saw us heading West instead of North to Veracruz City and an improvised u-turn just before the toll road to Mexico City saved me further embarrassment and a double payment. We found Costco and did some shopping and decided that was enough and headed for the campground.

local lads

Campamento El Ray is situated on the beach South of the City and was quite pleasant with the kids having a good swim in the shallow surf. We picked a good day apparently as winds were light. We saw loaders clearing sand dunes off the road as we came in and I found out from Keith that had we arrived a day earlier we would have been sandblasted like they had been for a few days.
We overnighted here under a beautiful full moon with all the city's lights shimmering along the bay, prepared for another 9am getaway.
Off we went again taking a short cut south that the road atlas didn't even show, saving us Half an hour at least.

Hotel Tepetapan

We arrived at the Hotel Tepetpan early afternoon after an enjoyable drive through the hills and towns passing a lot of heavily laden sugar cane trucks, thankfully all heading in the opposite direction.
The park is set on about 4 acres backing onto a large river and has a large grassy area, swimming pool with slide, wireless internet and is only a short walk to town. we had a few lunches with the locals in town, not the tourists and saved heaps.

Catemaco church

We met another young family here and the boys had a ball playing with kids their same age. They were on a mission from god on their way to Belize to spread the word and suggested we travel together as we were heading in the same direction. I had to decline as we are happy to be independent and we approached things quite differently. Judging by the look on his face when I told him this I guessed I'd get a mention in his dispatches.

Gene and Gaby, our hosts

Our hosts, Gene and Gaby and all the other people staying here are lovely with some familiar faces amongst them. We ran into a French Canadian Family we met at the border, on our first stop at La Pesca and again here. Terese the Grandmother and Sophie the Granddaughter both speak English and the boys and Sophie have a lot of fun together.
Keith and Ruth, Rick and Ruth and late arrivals Arthur and Jean have all been wonderful neighbors. I reckon sleep will come hard for them now there's not our noise to serenade them. We won't forget Ken and Betty who have been trying to shake us off, only kidding, for the last 3 weeks. We shared our last US steaks with them on my little pride and joy charcoal Webber BBQ the other night before one of the locals did some affirmative shopping through the chain link fence. Bev saw it and my BBQ tool set disappearing through the hole cut in the fence about 3.30 am and by the time I grabbed my torch and cricket bat they were gone. Lesson learnt, everything gets locked away no matter how safe you feel.
Today, Monday, we had Santos, a local chap lead a tour to a cigar factory which was very interesting, a botanical gardens which along with a lemon tree with fruit almost the size of a basketball, had a plot of medicinal plants that proved if I harvested my back paddock at home I could stock a small pharmacia. Most of the plants including lantana looked awfully like the weeks I have been trying to get rid of for years.

Sean Connery made a film here

During the week we also did the big boat tour of the lake visiting, monkey island, and Nanciaga a kind of eco-resort where the entry fee didn't get you anything because all the staff, guides, mud face mask applicators etc were volunteers so we had to tip our way around the whole place. Lucky we didn't see any monkeys there they would have sent us broke!

mud pack girls

mini stonehenge

Overall we have had a great week, Isla Aguada on the coast again is our next stop, will fill you in next week.
Hasta Luega,
Dave.