Lake Zirahuen

Zirahuen is what Patzcuaro used to look like. A closed basin ringed by pine forest at about 2,000 metres, the lake holds deep, cold, startlingly blue water with none of its bigger neighbour's murk, and the villages on its shore - Zirahuen itself, Copandaro - keep the tourism small: wooden piers, rowboats and small launches, horses for the shoreline trails, cabins under the trees and a row of comedores serving the lake's own trout, charales and, this being Michoacan, corundas and carnitas. Legend supplies the melancholy: the name is glossed as "where smoke rose" or tied to the tale of Eréndira, the Purepecha princess whose weeping is said to have formed the water, and evening mist over the surface does nothing to discourage the story. Sunset from the eastern pier - pines going black, the water holding blue longest - is the reason to stay the night. It is a quiet, family-weekend sort of place, and its recent building boom has not yet spoiled the basin.

What you actually see

• The blue basin - deep clear water inside a pine ring.
• The piers - rowboats, launches and fishing lines.
• The trout kitchens - lakeside comedores of Michoacan staples.
• The evening mist - the legend's own atmosphere.

When to go

November to May for dry, clear days; weekdays are quiet, weekends bring Michoacan families and horse hires. Nights are cold at altitude in every season.

Honest expectations

The water is genuinely cold - swimming is brisk and boats are the better way in. Facilities are simple and cash-based. Shoreline construction has grown; the far shore stays wilder.

Nearby

Santa Clara del Cobre's forges are twenty minutes east; Patzcuaro and Uruapan bracket the lake road.