Hike to the volcano (Uruapan part 2)

As we discovered yesterday (by taking the wrong colectivo) the reason they use these large trucks to ferry people around in, is because not all of the roads are tarmac. And when its been chucking it down with rain all night, you need something heavy duty.

We set off early yesterday to have a crack at this volcano, seeing the San Juan ruins on the way. We arrived in Angahuan, (50 mins on bus from Uruapan) which is a lovely little village with a market by the square in the centre. It’s a 10K trek to the volcano, and fancying a bit of exercise we turned down several offers from guides with horses. I had a feeling they thought we were mad – one guide sarcastically said "hasta mañana" as we rejected his offers. But they have a very friendly way of hassling you. Its by no means the hard sell.

As we approached the lava field, a mile or so from town, there was only one path to take, which led us to the ruins. The old church was surrounded by 15ft of black lava rock that we climbed over to get a good look. It was strange knowing that beneath our feet there was an old town that had been buried only 60 odd years ago.

We pushed on, again taking the one path available through the lava field. The directions in our guidebook were extremely vague and there were no helpful signs. So when we came to a fork in the trail, we just had to go on instinct. The second sign (out of two we saw) had a scratched arrow on it which pointed the way to the volcano. We duly followed. It was a hard climb, and after a few hours the path suddenly ended leaving a few miles of lava field between us and the cone of the volcano. That put an end to our journey - the lava field contained many boulders. You`d have to climb rather than walk over it. We didn’t have time to turn back and find a different path for risk of being stranded in Angahuan. It was disappointing, but we really should have taken a guide. On the way back I scratched a little correction to that sign with my swiss army knife. Sounds petty, but I`d rather someone else didn`t make the mistake we did!

It was an enjoyable days walk though, and we did see some great views – the volcano appeared to still be active with white smoke/steam coming from it -just to add a little tension! We got a taxi back to Uruapan with a friendly Mexican who teaches English on the side. So we had a good chat and it worked out cheaper than the bus – bargain!