Event: Mexico

Annual Witch Gathering

When:	Mar 2009 (annual)
Where:	Catemaco
Costs:	Free
Opening Hours:	All day

Every year Catemaco hosts the Annual Witch Gathering (Congreso de Brujos), when healers and witch doctors converge on the town to ply their trade.

Lake Catemaco has been a centre for alternative medicine and strange doings since pre-Hispanic times. In fact, it is thought that the area's association with witchcraft dates back to Olmec times more than 2000 years ago. If you've ever seen the Sean Connery movie Medicine Man, then the annual convention of wizardry and witches will be familiar to you.

If not, then prepare for the onslaught of magicians, traditional witch doctors, healers, wizards and witches who converge on this beautiful lakeside town every March. Although the majority of the brujos (witch doctors) are guaranteed to be charlatans who are after a quick tourist buck, don't be surprised if the occasional remedy proffered is efficacious.

Shamans adoring Lucifer may perhaps be found in the pristine jungles a short journey from Catemaco. However, the closest you are likely to come to a witch is dangling from a keyring on one of the many stands set up along the main streets of the town.