This morning, I got up and got going fairly early, and headed for Sontecomapan. Sontecomapan is the name of a village and a lagoon. Catemaco is the name of a town and a lake.
To get to Sontecomapan, I walked to the other side of Catemaco, and caught a "pirata", a pickup truck that runs a fixed route and schedule, like a small bus. It cost 10 pesos, around $1 US, to get to Sontecomapan. The scenery is so lush that it is very hard to believe, especially for those of us who live in the arid West.
In Sontecomapan, I hung out at the spring for a while, drinking a coke, and then caught a lanacha to La Barra, which cost me 25 pesos. The ride through the channel between the mangroves reminded me of Florida Bay, where we spent a couple of weeks many years ago.
La Barra is a spit of land with a few houses and restaurants, between the lagoon and the gulf. The boat dropped us off on the beach on the lagoon side, and I started walking down the beach on the Gulf side. It only took a few minutes to walk beyond the kids playing in the surf. I picked up some intact sand dollars (Estrellas de Mar), and took a photo of a sand crab
I had lunch in one of the restaurants in La Barra, and caught another lancha to get back to Sontecomapan. But first the lancha stopped to pick up a load of cheese. The farm has no road to it, so they deliver their production by boat.
I took the pirata back to Catemaco, and walked home.
Marianne and Gaby exchanged language lessons for an hour.
We went to Sunday evening mass at the Basilica de Virgin de Carmen. It was a high mass with a choir, a singer with a great voice, incense, and a nice priest who spoke clearly. As Marianne said, she felt like she had been to church.
On Monday, we plan to visit San Andres Tuxtla, usually called San Andres, to see what there is to see, and do a little shopping.
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