Mexico RV Trip 2012 – un viaje mas grande –Day 17, January 13, Catemaco

It rained most of the night, but by this morning the weather decided to give us a break so we could tour the area. Dressed in jeans and jackets, we unloaded the scooter and took a drive along the malecon to see part of Lake Catemaco and to do some shopping. We picked up some things at the Bodega – which is part of the Sam’s Club/ Walmart chain. Lake Catemaco was formed by a volcano and the area is the heart of the Olmec culture which flourished here from 600BC to 200AD. If the weather was nicer we would have taken one of the many boat tours which stop at some of the islands where monkeys live, even though none of the guides speak English. Next trip.Back MX180 to the northwest of Catemaco is Salto de Eyipantla waterfall. The source for the waterfall is Rio Grande de Catemaco. We passed by cow pastures, corn, tobacco fields, and little village along an 8km horribly rutted road to get there. Once we arrived in the village of Salto de Eyipantla, we paid a teenage boy $10 pesos to watch the scooter. I’m sure it would have been fine, but we wanted to support the local economy!

After paying our admission fee of $10 pesos per person (about 70 cents), we walked down about 244 steps, some very steep, through abundant greenery to the base of the falls. Midway down the steps, we caught our first view of the salto (falls), but continued on for the close-up “wet” view! Some Apocolypto movie scenes were filmed here, along with some other movies.

The name Eyipantla comes from the Nahuatl language, Eyi, (three); pantli, (flag, furrow), tla (water). In Spanish that translates to Salto de Tres Chorros and in English to Three Furrows Waterfall. The falls are approximately 120 feet wide and 180 feet tall. Impressive.

We then traveled the other direction out of Catemaco to the beach. Yep, we’re a bit crazy. We drove about 25km on some pretty bumpy roads when it started to sprinkle. Okay, our desire to be on the ocean was waning, and the road was turning to dirt, so we decided to save it for a warmer, sunnier day.On the way back to Catemaco, we did a side trip to Nanciyaga where a nature preserve is located by the lake. We walked in and were looking around when we were told we had to pay – we never saw a sign or ticket booth! We were cold and no English speaking guides were available, so we opted to leave. It looked pretty cool. Sean Connery’s movie Medicine Man and parts of Apocolypto with Mel Gibson were filmed here.

Back to the RV for hot chocolate and to warm up! Our water tank is STILL not full – hopefully by morning.  Tomorrow we pack up and head to Villahermosa.