The lake
Emerald green.
Simon Burchell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Simon Burchell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Simon Burchell — CC BY-SA 4.0
An emerald-green lake in the crater of the extinct Chicabal volcano, which rises about 2,900 metres in the western highlands, with a crater some 575 metres across. The crater walls are cloaked in cloud forest of oak, pine and cypress, hung with moss and ferns and dotted with orchids. The lake is sacred to the Mam Maya, whose name for it is often translated «sweet spirit water», and they hold rain ceremonies on its shores, the largest at the Ascension, forty days after Easter, when it may close for some days. Swimming is forbidden out of respect for its sacredness. Visitors climb from the village in about two hours on a trail through fields and forest to a lookout on the crater rim, the best view of the lake, then descend a long stairway to the shore. Almost every afternoon a thick fog fills the crater and hides the lake. Climb early in the morning before the fog, and bring a jacket, as it is cold at this altitude.
Emerald green.
Moss and orchids.
On the crater rim.
Chicabal volcano, San Martín Sacatepéquez, about an hour from Quetzaltenango
No, swimming is forbidden because the lake is sacred to the Mam Maya.