Monkey Island

I was so tired when we finally found our hotel that I was tempted to crash for awhile, but decided we’d go out on a tour of the lake first.

The town of Catemaco is situated right on Lake Catemaco, which is a beautiful lake in Veracruz. There are several islands around the lake, and you can get a lancha to take you out to explore them. We were particularly excited to go to the Isla de Monos, or Monkey Island. We also wanted to check out Nanciyaga, a nature preserve and the place where they filmed Medicine Man with Sean Connery.


We headed down to the lakeside, stopping at a bakery along the way to pick up some fresh-baked bread. We got to the lake at about 8:30 am and signed up to get on a boat when it was full. There weren’t a lot of people around and we were the first ones signed up…only 10 to go! We decided to look around a bit, but there wasn’t a whole lot other than cheap and gaudy tourist souvenirs. We went back after an hour or so and no one had signed up yet, so I made the decision to just hire the boat for ourselves for $350 pesos.

We ran back to the bakery to get some more food for ourselves, our guide and the monkeys we would find on Monkey Island, and we were off! It was a beautiful morning, and the sun was just breaking through the clouds. The water was jet black and there were lilies growing on it in
places. We passed by one island and our guide told us it looked
like an alligator…Sierra thought it looked like a fat man laying on
his back.

We stopped by a shrine to the Virgin Mary set into a small cave,
and then continued on. Our next stop was at a spot along the
shore where they sell mud masks. They give you a free mud
mask, and then try to sell you the volcanic ash used to make the
mud mask. Sierra and I got the mask, but not the mud. We left there with the mud still on our faces, and went to another part of the lake where they have mineralized water to rinse your face with. It was all a little silly, but the mask was nice.

After the mud mask rinsing ritual we went to the Nanciyaga Preserve, where they filmed Medicine Man…I really liked that movie, so was excited to see where they filmed it. It’s a beautiful spot on the lake, and they’ve taken pains to make it a preserve. They have tried to make it a “mystical” place and have many reproductions of various Pre-Hispanic gods and goddesses throughout the property. A guide takes you through the property along very nicely laid out pathways, with all sorts of little “mini ruins” all over the place. On Saturday nights you can even take part in a “sweat lodge” experience with *real mayan Indians*!! And for only $35 per person! Like I said, it was fairly contrived. As we continued down the path, we came across a place where they would “cleanse the evil spirits” from us…again, for a price….by having us go into a little hut and having some guy waft some sort of smoking herb around us. We declined this treatment as well.

Now, one thing that was kind of cool…they these natural mineral springs there and they let you pull the mineral water up from the well and drink it out of these cups they’ve made from giant leaves. We liked the leaves! You can also get a full body mud mask, and then they put you in front of an old stone oven to dry it, or you can sit by the lake and let it dry…then you rinse off with the mineral water. They have a huge wall dedicated to all the Hollywood stars who have had this treatment, including Sean Connery and Mel Gibson.

Speaking of Mel Gibson…apparently he was there!! We inquired about the rooms at the preserve and were told they were all taken currently. We later found out that it was because Mel was there filming some new movie. We *almost* had a brush with fame….sigh. Oh well.

We finished up our tour of Nanciyaga by checking out the alligators and turtles at the little lagoon on the property and then watching our guide play a few rounds of dominoes.

Next we were off for our much anticipated destination of Monkey Island. I guess several years ago these monkeys were brought here from Southeast China for research, and have lived on the island since. You can go to the island to see them, and even bring food to give them…probably not the best thing, but we were excited anyway!

We got to the island and were a little disappointed to find out we didn’t get to get off the boat onto the island…but our disappointment didn’t last long as we quickly found a monkey sitting on a branch over the water. We got pretty close and began to give it some bread. Soon, other monkeys were making a clatter and we ended up with several that we got to feed. One was this humongous female with a bright red face. Sometimes fish would jump out of the water to get the bread, so if the monkey wasn’t a good catch or dropped their bread, the fish would get it. It was pretty cool. We really liked the monkeys.

After this we returned to where we started and headed back to the hotel. I was really tired by now, so I napped for awhile. After I got up, we went exploring the town a bit. Catemaco is not a tourist town, and is probably best known for its witches’ convention. Apparently, every year thousands of witches come to meet here to learn new practices of witchcraft and witch doctor cures….creepy!! There is a big church there, and I even saw some Christian churches as well, but also lots of occult stuff like palm reading, tarot cards and whatnot. We decided not to hang out for long and that we’d leave that night for Xalapa.

We spent a pleasant enough afternoon at the plaza, which was pretty, and then I noticed a medical clinic at the square. Sierra was still struggling with her stomach and diarrhea, so we decided to go to the clinic...a whole 15 pesos! About $1.50 US. The doctor agreed that Sierra had a stomach infection and prescribed 5 NEW medicines! We were glad to get a doctors opinion and afterward went to the hotel to get to bed early for our 2:30 am bus out of Catemaco.