CATEMACO Veracruz Mexico (SO BEAUTIFUL!)

Hola! Bienvenidos! Welcome to magical Catemaco! Buenos dias! Good morning Country Collectors and welcome to Catemaco! This city is known for its beautiful freshwater lake, jungle surroundings as well as its tradition in witchcraft. We can't wait to show you around but before we get started make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. And please leave us a comment we love to hear from you. We sure do! Well let's start with how we got here. At the ADO bus station in Heroica Veracruz we bought tickets for 288 pesos each headed to Catemaco. The beautiful 170 kilometer journey took three and a half hours. Once in Catemaco we got a taxi for 20 pesos to our accommodation. In this video we are staying in two places. First we booked two nights here in town and then we also booked two nights in Nanciyaga which is an ecological reserve located seven kilometers away. We're staying in town at Mar y Azul. Our cozy room features a comfortable bed, tv, ac and a private bathroom for $22 dollars a night. So unlike most of our videos where we arrive a few days prior to get a good lay of the land we just arrived here yesterday afternoon. We did do a quick walk through but we don't know anything really about this place, nothing in depth so today we are going to be figuring it out together. Are you up for this? You know I am! I hope you are. I believe in us. We got this! Let's do it! Oh yeah baby feeling that burn. Just getting in my daily morning workout. I'm just kidding I don't do a daily morning workout. All right let's really get this day started. First thing on the menu for today, breakfast! And this place smells delicious. Let's head in! What a cute spot. They had some nice relaxing music playing in the background. Both our meals came with fruit and coffee. Adam got the gorditas de guisos which were so incredibly tasty and I went with the huevos con longaniza. The owners were so sweet and brought out some globitos for us to try. Simply delicious! We definitely recommend eating here while you're in Catemaco. I could go to bed after that! Me too! I am stuffed but now that we're fueled up let's keep this day moving! It looks like we have found the main plaza here. Wow that bird almost took my head off! Behind me it looks like the municipal palace and in front of us this has to be the main cathedral. It's so pretty. White with this like royal blue. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah so this seems like the main meeting point in town. Wonderful place to come down, people watch, get some food and just relax. Right outside the basilica they have this small market here that is selling religious keepsakes as well as some souvenirs. But right now I want to go check out the main draw of this town come with us! Oh wow that's really neat. It looks like they just completed this cobblestone road right here and this is a cement imprint of a huge leaf. You can see everything down to the tiny little veins in it. There's even some smaller ones as you go down. I love that! Hey big fella! And I'm not talking about you. Oh thank you so much. Finally I feel like a small fella next to this guy. Welcome to Laguna Catemaco. We read that this freshwater lake was actually formed by a volcano. It is fed by natural springs. It's over 10 kilometers long and even features some islands. Up and down the malecon you're going to have multiple people approaching you asking you if you want to go on a lancha, to take a boat tour of the lake. It seems like the thing to do here. Behind me here you can see all the spots that they take you to. It looks like a lot of stuff. I'm not sure the duration but it says the price here for the big boat is 1200 pesos privado or 200 pesos each for like the colectivo. So you're gonna be in a boat with strangers but you know what strangers are.. They're just friends you haven't made yet. Exactly! So let's go get on one of these boats. So we have found ourselves down here at what looks like the main dock I guess. And you buy your boletos, your tickets, here at the windows. We have procured the tickets! Oh good word. We're walking down the dock right now and the lancha is just pulling up. Are you excited? I know I'm excited! We're so happy you're here with us. Let's do this! Yeah baby! Watch your head. Watch that cabeza. Gracias! Hasta luego! And we're off! Oh my gosh this breeze is everything. We're here in August and it is so hot, so humid so just be aware with that. Take relief where you can get it. Yeah make sure you're drinking lots of water. Absolutely we care about you! We do. So far so great. This boat tour is just gorgeous. It's just nice seeing the lake from another perspective you know. And it's so nice being out on a boat! Yes it sure is. And our first stop here is on this little beach. They have a shaman here and they offer packets. They do spiritual cleansing as well as massages and I think the clay mask right? She said it was 300 pesos for that or you can buy some of that mineral mask you can take home with you. I believe that was 200 pesos. They had it bottled here. So yeah this is something to offer an activity here if you would like to do it. We are going to pass because later in this video we are going to do some of these activities at our next stay. So yeah let's get back on the boat! There are so many birds on this island right here. It's called Karen Island. Heron! You said Karen! Oh Caron Island. Heron! Heron Island! Oh man I can't hear. These ears are getting old people! It's not Karen Island! That's an island no one wants to go! That is so true! This right here is the aquatic garden. They've got some beautiful lily pads right here. There's butterflies flip flip flipping around! This place right behind us here is where we're going to stay tomorrow. It looks so nice! So excited! island This island right here I guess has monkeys on it that are from Thailand. I believe they were brought here to do a study. Let's see if we can find some! I can see the trees moving but I don't see any. All right so we see one right up here but he's absolutely massive. On the way in we kept seeing these signs that they don't feed the monkeys and I can see why. Extremely obese. Honestly it's pretty sad to see animals in that kind of condition. Like these are wild animals and they are so massive they probably can't even climb in the trees anymore. That's why people food is not meant for wild animals. Oh wow this is the other monkey island as there are two and up here are spider monkeys which are native here. It's really cool how much biodiversity there is. There's also a bunch of herons, we saw some iguanas and other birds too. Herons or Karen's? Herons are Karens or watch out for the Heron Karens. I said herons or Karens. Oh I know what you said! I'm rolling with the punches here people! It's pick on Adam day! And something we didn't mention yet is Catemaco is a part of a bigger biosphere reserve called Los Tuxltas and here you'll find volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls... you name it! It's definitely like an eco-tourist dream and as you can see it's quite incredible! That was so much fun! It's just so nice to be out on the water in a boat. The weather turned up for us. Those blue skies! So many birds out there! And I especially like that they have a centralized ticket booth. Yes people are selling tickets everywhere but they bring you down, you pay a fixed price, and it tells you everything that you're gonna do so you know what you're getting before you do it. And how long was the tour? The tour was just under an hour but I imagine it could be a little bit longer if you stopped and got a cleansing or a massage at that first place or stopped at the Nanciyaga and did a tour. I think it was a hundred pesos they said to get off and do a tour there. So it could be longer but just being out there was really cool! Yes it was! All right well let's continue down the malecon. I love that idea! Come on. Right here behind me this man is selling Tegogolo which is a freshwater snails. Out on the boat we actually saw the divers diving down to get these snails. Normally you know we're very adventurous and we try everything but we've been having a little bit of stomach problems lately so we're just not gonna risk it. But when you're here try this and let us know how it is. It looks like it's mixed with some pico de gallo and some salsa on it. It looks delicious but just not now for us. Yeah it's gotta be kind of like an escargoa I would guess. And again nice people everywhere. We were talking about the tegogolos and the guy was like here take a look at my spoon take some photos. Like Mexicans are just so polite and they really want to share their culture and food with everyone. They're proud of it as they should be! They should be. And here you can see yeah there's a bunch of little vendors set up selling all the good stuff! Tegogolo! And if you haven't said it just say it right now. Tegogolo, Tegogolo, Tegogolo! Three times is all you got! That's all I got. And I believe this malecon is 1.5 kilometers. And along it there's a ton of restaurants and little shops like this selling everything you need to have a good time here. Let's stop monkeying around people! Oh look at that! And if you need a ride, look at that right there. That's cool! They got some music playing. And also you will find a ton of birds nesting in the trees here. I believe there's over 575 species of birds here! Wow that is incredible but here's a traveler tip: Don't walk underneath the trees because there's a lot of poop that might be falling on that cabeza. Well we can show them right here on the ground. Wow. Yeah I'm gonna walk quickly through this area here. And it turned out so gorgeous today. We were a little bit worried because it's been predicting thunderstorms all day every day for the past week but you know what? What do they know! The weather's changing all the time. Don't live your life based on a weather report. You just got to go out and live it. And you know what... if it rains you get wet! We're Country Collectors! You can't let that stop you! Let's keep going! But it's so true. Like we every single day we're like oh it's gonna rain it's gonna rain we get upset, and then it turns out like this! It rains at night and in the morning like some big storms but yeah then the days are nice like this! Live today because it could be the only day you have. Yes live with no regrets people! or regerts! And we're actually gonna head down this way. I wanted to get a little closer look to like the Olmec head and I saw a beautiful tree over there. So come along with us! And right here along the malacon is the bus station that we came into yesterday so this is a good landmark for you because you're gonna need to come in and go out from here. Yeah unless you're driving yourself. Oh yeah that's a good point! Oh and look what we have right over here. You know we love seeing these colorful town signs. Catemaco. It's a wonderful place to come down and snap a photo! Looks like we are on the dirt road now. That's right, where we're going we don't need paved roads! And what's this? The boat graveyard? R.I.P. It's a good resting place though. That's right this seat has seen over 1,000 butts! Whoa and check out this tree! Okay on Google Maps it is called Arbol Magico and I can totally see why this would be the magic tree! Look at those branches. And it's like covered in all these air plants. I see some cactus up there, some grasses. The Spanish moss hanging. Man what a beautiful environment like this is its own little biosphere right here on this tree. So neat! Wow! I feel like you'd see this in like story books. Definitely maybe in where did the elves live in... Rivendell! Rivendell! That's where you'd see this. In Rivendell! And while we are in this state of enchantment under this magical tree we would love to give a shout out to our very special new patrons: Tina, Jeanie, Steven and Jayson. Thank you so much for becoming a part of this community. We're so grateful and blessed to have you here. Thank you for helping to create this magic every single week. We couldn't do it without you. It's so true. And if you would like to become a part of our patreon community we will put the link in the description below. All right let's keep going! Something very interesting we just learned is that this area used to be the old stamping ground of the Olmecs which is the oldest major civilization here in Mexico. They lived here in the lowlands along the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz and Tabasco and created these colossal head sculptures. This one is a replica but it is still so cool. I wonder if that's where the term, "Don't have a big head" comes from. It could be! And it looks like here there's a little hiking path that goes around. We were just out there in the boat earlier. This is really relaxing. I love this exploring that we're doing together today! Oh wow. I'm pretty sure we just stumbled on a pentagram right here. Something we haven't mentioned yet is that Catemaco is known as La Tierra de Brujos or the Land of the Sorcerers. It's the witchcraft capital of Mexico and an internationally recognized hub of magic. Here in Catemaco they practice spells, sorcery work, natural healings as well as spiritual cleansings. I even read that every year they host an annual witchcraft festival that is held every March that attracts 5,000 people from around the world. Wow! Who is ready for a waterfall road trip? Me! Me! Me! I know Adam is! Just up the road in San Andres Tuxla there is a waterfall. I'm gonna butcher the name but it goes by El Salto Eyipantla, I believe. And I saw pictures, it looks absolutely gorgeous! We don't know how we're gonna get there yet but if there's a will there's a way so let's go find a ride! And right down here it looks like there's some restaurants which might be nice to get some lunch down on the water. Did somebody say lunch on the water? And there's actually people swimming down here which we didn't see in town so maybe this is a good spot to come swimming. I believe this is the place that our boat driver pointed out when we were driving by and he said that this was a good beach for swimming. Oh okay, right. So we came back down to the city center at the zocalo because that's where the most cabs usually are. And we just got in one for 170 pesos. We heard it should range from about 150 to 170 so we're super psyched and we can't wait to get to this waterfall! Wow that took a lot longer than I thought. I think it was like 25 minutes. Yeah it was beautiful driving though through lots of fields, a couple of little towns. Yeah. And it turned out it was only 160. I heard him wrong. Sesenta and setenta. You know they always mess me up. But yeah this is definitely a tourist spot. Right here you can see it's all set up. I think the entrance is over here so let's head in. And it looks like right here is where you pay. How much is it? They are 30 each so about a dollar fifty per person. Awesome! There's a sign right here that says this way takes us to the mirador and the alberca which I think is the pool. And then this way is going to take you down. We heard that it's 242 steps down so down and up is going to be 500 steps. I don't know if we're there today. Can we just go down and someone will carry us back up? I'm feeling a bit whooped so let's just head to the mirador first and check it out! Wow we are like out in the jungle here. I love it! La selva! It's gorgeous! Oo it looks like a suspension bridge! Definitely don't want to be drunk on this! I think that guy might have had a couple! Whoa! I haven't had any and I feel like I've had a couple! You can hear the sound of Cascada Eyipantla. We just asked this lovely lady over here and she was nice enough to Eyipantla for us. So we must be getting close! I'm getting super excited. I think the mirador is just ahead. Wow that's incredible! What an amazing waterfall! It was absolutely worth the ride to get out here. It is 40 meters wide and 50 meters tall. And it might look familiar because it was featured in Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. And I can see why because it is just gorgeous! I love it. You can see the mist down there and there's all the people. That's if you hike down you're gonna end up down there. Not today. We will not be hiking down there today but if you do please send us a photo and tell us how it is. Yes we love that. And right over here it looks like they have a nice big seating area with bathrooms and then in front of us here I believe is a little tienda where we can get some beverages. And what's awesome is the pool. So this is included in your ticket and you can just go there and lounge all day. You can even bring your own food here and have a picnic, a really nice afternoon! What are you in the mood for a uh beer, a soda? I think we deserve a beer. I agree. I'm going to go with a corona what about you? Same. Dos coronos por favor. Si. Oh and they look nice and cold! Oh yeah! Cold cerveza my love. We all earned this today! Oh especially you guys. Thank you so much for coming along with us. It was 25 pesos for this which is a deal! Oh that hit the spot! It really does. Wow what an incredible day. It really was. And it would have been nowhere near as much fun if you hadn't been here to share it with. It's so true. We're gonna finish up these beers, get a ride head back to town and take a well-needed shower and sleep. And we were actually gonna make this just one video but after talking it's gonna be super long so we decided to break it into two parts. So next week we're gonna show you our stay over in Nanciyaga at the ecological reserve. And I can't wait. I'm a bit nervous because it is smoking hot out and there's no AC. It's very rustic but I think we can do it! I think so too. I mean I'm like an oven so she's the one that's gonna be baking! Well thank you so much again if you enjoyed this video please give us a big thumbs up, comment, subscribe and don't forget to... DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the bell! We'll see you, next time! Adios!