We drove onto Catemaco from Veracruz, glad to be on the road again and excited to be venturing further south and to the first patch of rainforest we would come across. Catemaco is famous for two things in Mexico: being the witching and sorcery capital of the country and having the world's most northerly patch of rainforest.
We arrived and started searching for the campsite we'd read about on the internet. We found it eventually and although it wasn't that close to the centre it seemed nice, green and spacious and with a pool so we set up there. The long term RV residents scared me slightly with their tales of a tarantula that lived in a hole onsite, not far from the swimming pool, but they said it rarely came out and luckily I never saw it!!!
It was extremely hot there, and so we drove into town rather than walking. We had a little walk about but it was very quiet and there didn't seem to be much to do except the lancha lancha! tours on the lake which didn't inspire us much as we were a bit lancha-toured out by this point. (If you've spent any time in Mexico you might know what I mean - anywhere with more than a small puddle of water is surrounded with people desperate to sell you lancha tours). Ed bought a pair of shorts to replace his old ones which had finally fallen apart and then we headed out to Nanciyaga - a sort of eco-resort in the rainforest. We got there and it seemed totally deserted - we weren't sure where to go and after wandering around a few paths and over a bridge we decided to head back to the car and do it the next day instead.
We headed back to the campsite for a swim and then barbeque. It took a while to get the bbq going and it was dark before we got anything to eat. The temperature dropped (thankfully!) in the evening and we had a pleasant and not too sweaty night's sleep.
The next day we went back to the Nanciyaga resort and found our way to reception and took a little guided tour of the resort and the rainforest. It was quite good fun but the information was mainly focused on the replica statues dotted around the place than the rainforest itself. They were also keen t tell us about the celebrities that had visited, mainly Mexican telenovela stars which meant very little to us but also Sean Coney who had filmed Medicine Man there and Mel Gibson who had filmed Apocalypto around the Catemaco rainforest.
We did get mud masks on our tour which was quite fun and drank well water out of little leaves - they gave you the option of having a spiritual consulatation with a shaman but you had to pay extra for that so we thought we'd give it a miss. The tour was nice enought but a bit silly. I'm sure it would be a nice place to stay though. We had some lunch in their cafe by the lake and then wondered what to do for the rest of the day.
We ended up heading to some waterfalls called the Salto de Eyipantla. It took us a while to get there and a long walk down some steps, but the waterfall was beautiful and despite the sweat pouring off us in the heat of the day it was a nice place to visit. After this we were yet again stuck for what to do and went to the supermarket in one of the nearby Tuxtla towns to get more bbq food! We headed back and had amuch earlier and more successful bbq than the night before.
We thought about going into town for a drink but couldn't really be bothered and just relaxed and had an early night at the campsite. The next day was a bit unplanned and we had provisionally planned a night camping on the beach not far from catemaco, but we'd heard about some other beautiful places nearby, so thought we might check them out en route.
