We left the Cascada about 8:15 and made it into Uruapan where we stopped for a couple grocery items. The parking lot for the Soriana grocery was the end point for a race being held this morning so we had a slight delay getting through town. The police were holding traffic when runners were near the intersection so it took about 20 minutes to go one block! It must have been a big race because we saw runners with numbers up to 375. So much for getting through town quickly on a Sunday morning!
Coming into the town Angahuan, we were greeted by several men and boys with horses all trying to get us to rent their horse for a ride to Volcan de Paricutin. We had decided to do that before we got to town so we negotiated $900 pesos for three horses (the guide comes with the third horse!). We followed the man on the brown horse through town to the Centro Turistico de Angahuan where we can park and spend the night for $120 pesos (about $6.75USD). 
We parked and made a quick lunch to take along and met Simon, our guide, and horses and we were ready to go. Neither of could remember the name of Tobey’s horse, but our guide said it meant little one, so we just called her Little Bit. She was feisty and kept trying to nip my horse. She also liked to trot to get in front of me!
I rode Chocolate. She was sweet and gentle, but also liked to be in the front so they were always trying to squeeze the other out! It was so dusty, I can understand why!
Our ride to Paricutin took us through several fields with avocado trees. These are young trees, covered to protect them from the sun. There were also mountain lupines, which we have in Colorado.
The blue building is a small, one-room school. There are about nine children that go to school here.
After a 2-1/2 hour ride, we made it to the volcano. From there, we had to climb up to reach the caldera rim. It was really difficult climbing up the loose lava rocks and ash, but we finally made it.
Paricutin is a cinder cone volcano. It first erupted, completely unexpected, in the middle of a farmer’s field on February 20, 1943. The volcano finally stopped erupting in 1952, but only after completely destroying the village of Paricutin.
They say it is a dormant volcano, but there are still steam vents in the caldera. We sat down to have our lunch and the ground was hot in some spots, too!
Okay, I have somewhat recovered from the ride and climb up after having a bite to eat. Now for a walk around the top.
This is a small volcano off to the side of Paricutin volcano.
Tobey was making the final ascent before our crazy descent.
From here it doesn’t look too bad going down. The path is volcanic ash and we basically skied down in our shoes! The ash was above our ankles and you just leaned back and went!
At the bottom, we took time to dump some of the dirt out of our shoes before mounting up and heading down to the church.
Simon Lazaro Jimenez wrote a book about his adventures as a young boy fleeing with his parents for safety as their small village of Angahuan was bombarded with red-hot rocks and ash. All that is left of the village today are a few small broken down walls and parts of the huge old church. We walked up and were able to see where the lava flowed through the center of the church.
It was now almost 5pm and we had been on these horses for almost 5 hours. Time to head back. The final ride only took about 15 minutes – thank goodness! It started to rain and we got pretty wet toward the end, but not wet enough to wash off the dust! 
The last time we rode horses was in 2004 when we were on a trip in Ecuador. When we finished the ride in 2004, I told Tobey that the next time he wanted to ride horses, he needed to get a new wife. Well, we talked ourselves into this ride and we are glad we did even though we had the same wooden saddles – for 34 kilometers! (about 22 miles). We are sore, but we will survive this one!
After a short rest and a cloudy view of the volcano from the Turistico Centro lookout, we walked into town for dinner. 
It will be an early bedtime tonight – we are tired!
No comments:
Post a Comment