Parcutin

We are back in Zihuatanejo after arriving safely yesterday afternoon from a great road trip inland!

Yesterday morning we left Patzcuaro and drove to a small mountain town (I forget the name at the moment) outside of the large city of Ururapan (which is the capital of avocados!). The drive was amazing and it made us feel a little homesick as we were surrounded by pine trees and curvy roads! The mountain town is the staging point for visiting the volcano Parcutin. Any Oliverites remember this from Geography 12??? This is the volcano that grew out of a corn field in the late 1940´s.....it was a totally amazing opportunity to visit one of the newest volcanoes in the world.

Paracutin rises 2800m and has a secondary scoria cone that is much smaller (perhaps 1500m). It doesn´t seem very big but standing and looking at it from afar, it´s a sight to see! The eruption lasted for almost 10 years and the lava field consumed two townsites during the eruption. We decided to not do the 5-6 hour trip via horseback to the cone summit as we didn´t have a lot of time, nor the inclination to sit on a wooden, western saddle for that amount of time!

Arriving into the mountain town we were greeted by a young man on horseback. He followed us all the way into town and thankfully directed us where to go as there were non-existant signage, dirt roads everywhere and narrow streets. Once we arrived, our guide Martin arrived shortly behind us with two more horses and we hired him to take us down the trail to the base of the lava field. Within the base of the lava field is an old cathedral and it is half consumed by the lava, leaving a very errie sight. We took a ton of photos and climbed all around on the lava, getting a closer look at the church.

It was a cool trip that reminded me of how powerful nature can be! Photos to come soon!