Mexico's Los Tuxtlas taps into magical lore

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LAKE CATEMACO, Mexico - As the boat glided over the dark water and wisps of evening fog gathered along the shore, Lake Catemaco, the witchcraft capital of Mexico, began to get spooky.

High on a branch, a cluster of monkeys watched silently as a tourist and his guide slid by on the lake below. On an island, tree branches creaked under the weight of migratory birds. The restless jungle where Mel Gibson filmed the movie Apocalypto pressed in from all sides.

The lake lies at the heart of Mexico's Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, a jungle filled with sites for practicing white and black magic, ghostly jaguars, hidden springs and stories of elves who delight in getting humans lost. In a single day, visitors can consult with a professional warlock, swim beneath a 200-foot-high waterfall, share a meal in a local home and sleep under the stars.

Located in southeastern Mexico some 105 miles from Veracruz, Los Tuxtlas encompasses nearly 600 square miles of jungles, beaches, lakes and extinct volcanoes.

The name means "place of rabbits" in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, but the mountains also teem with toucans, spider monkeys and migrating birds from as far away as Canada. The reserve is a main source of camedor palm leaves, which are exported to the United States for use in floral arrangements and in churches on Palm Sunday.

The reserve's largest town is Catemaco, population 26,141. It is visited by tourists from all over the world because of its fame as Mexico's center of witchcraft and magic.

Warlocks and witches advertise their services on signs hanging from houses on the main street. For $20, the conjurers will perform a "spiritual cleansing," waving incense and boughs of local plants over customers' bodies to improve their luck.

Every first Friday of March, all manner of shamans and sorcerers gather for the Witches' Congress. At night, they give offerings to pre-Hispanic gods and practice white magic in the foothills of White Monkey Mountain. Black magic is performed in the Devil's Cave.

Stories of enchanted beings abound in the villages surrounding Lake Catemaco. One of the most famous is that of the chaneques, naked elves with feet that face backward. The elves like to get visitors lost in the jungle.

"If you come across them, take off your clothes, put them on backwards and walk in the opposite direction of their footprints. Only then will you find your way," advises a story by local writer Pablo Gómez Jiménez.

To be rid of their mischief for good, you must catch a chaneque and then free him, local legend says.

Put toys, tobacco, perfume, combs, a mirror and liquor in the forest. Then hang up a hammock made of vines and banana leaves. When the chaneque gets tired of playing, gets drunk and falls asleep, he will be easy to snatch, legend says.

In 2005, Hollywood worked its own magic in Los Tuxtlas, transforming the jungle into part of the Mayan empire depicted in Apocalypto.

In the movie's climactic final scene, the hero, Jaguar Paw, runs through the jungle, jumps from a waterfall, then breaks onto a beach where he witnesses the landing of the Spanish conquistadors.

Until recently, people in the region made their living almost exclusively from farming coffee, sugarcane and corn.

But in 1997, the National Autonomous University of Mexico helped set up a cooperative to bring tourists to the remote reaches of Los Tuxtlas. At first, many locals were skeptical.

"In neighboring communities, they laughed and said we were crazy: Who would want to come and eat peasant food?" said Hugo Avilés, director of publicity for the cooperative.

But the idea took off, and now the Tuxtlas Ecotourism Community Network organizes hikes, bird-watching tours, boat rides and lodging for hundreds of visitors each year.

Unlike other ecotourism projects, the network allows visitors to become part of a community for a few days to learn the customs and way of life.

Visitors can participate in traditional activities such as papermaking and harvesting of camedor palms. They sleep outside and share home-cooked meals in residents' houses.

Maria Mena, known as the best cook in the village of López Mateos, is part of the network's food committee. When visitors arrive, Mena and other women prepare handmade corn tortillas, refried beans and dishes such as squash with corn and cheese. Along with strong coffee, the simple fare provides strength to visitors heading into the jungle.

At 10 a.m., the first expedition leaves López Mateos on its way to Bat Cave and Rock Spring, two landmarks. Guide Casimiro Mena leads the way, moving quickly over the rocky ground in leather sandals despite his 84 years.

Casimiro Mena is also López Mateos' official storyteller. While visitors swam in Rock Spring's crystal water, he recounted tales of the forest.

"Once I was climbing a hill and I saw, 20 meters away, two jaguars eating a deer," he said. "When they saw me, one ran toward the jungle and the other stayed, looking at me, and then started walking slowly until it disappeared."

Some 40 minutes northwest of Catemaco by way of a pirata, a pick-up truck used for public transportation, lies Las Margaritas, another community on the shore of the lake.

Las Margaritas is famous for the pre-Hispanic petroglyphs on a small island near town.

Guide Hilario Sinta rowed visitors to the island in a blue handmade dingy. One boulder, wet with overnight rain, showed a huge xoloitzcuintle, or Mexican hairless dog, its ribs clearly visible through its skin.

In the highest reaches of Los Tuxtlas, shrouded in fog, lies the village of Miguel Hidalgo. Here, dense vegetation and clouds conceal springs and waterfalls, including the 200-foot-high Horse Tail Falls.

In the crater of the extinct Apompal Volcano, natural springs feed a lake that attracts migrating birds from Canada and the northern United States.

From an observation tower, visitors can see toucans and 564 other species of birds. About 200 species are migratory, according to the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas.

Along with Miguel Hidalgo, Las Margaritas and López Mateos, the ecotourism network organizes visits to three other villages, Sontecomapan, Roca Partida and Montepio. The longest trips are four days and visit two villages each, along with their nearby sights.