Paricutin

On 20 February 1943 a farmer named Dionisio Pulido watched a fissure open in his cornfield and begin to throw ash. Within a day it was a cone taller than a house; within a year, several hundred metres; and over nine years of eruption Paricutin buried the villages of Paricutin and San Juan Parangaricutiro under lava, giving science its first chance to watch a volcano's entire life from birth to extinction. The result is Michoacan's strangest landscape: a black lava sea, hardened into jagged pressure ridges and studded with pines that have recolonized the margins, out of which rises the tower and altar wall of San Juan's church - the lava stopped at the sanctuary and left it standing, and pilgrims still leave candles and flowers at the exposed altar. Purepecha guides from Angahuan run the two classic trips: the short ride or walk to the buried church, and the long day to the crater rim - hours across the malpais and then a lung-burning ascent of loose black scoria, rewarded by a warm, steaming summit and the whole cornfield-turned-badlands below.

What you actually see

• The buried church - San Juan's tower and altar in the lava.
• The malpais - kilometres of black jagged flow.
• The cone - the 1943 volcano from base to steaming rim.
• The Angahuan mirador - the whole story in one panorama.

When to go

November to May for dry, firm going; start the summit trip early, as the crossing plus climb runs six to eight hours round trip. Horses cover the flat approach for most parties.

Honest expectations

The summit day is hard: sun-exposed lava fields, loose scoria at 45 degrees, and altitude near 2,800 metres. Hire local guides in Angahuan - it is the community's livelihood and the route is genuinely easy to misjudge. Bring water, sun cover and closed shoes.

Nearby

Angahuan's wooden Purepecha church, Uruapan's park and the avocado country between fill the return.