La Alberca de Tacámbaro

La Alberca, "the pool," is a lake that fills the crater of an extinct volcano a few kilometers south of Tacámbaro's center. It is one of only three crater lakes in Michoacán: almost perfectly round, about 300 meters across and up to 28 meters deep, sitting at the bottom of steep, wooded walls.

The crater is a protected natural area of about 45 hectares, and it is botanically unusual. Tacámbaro sits where the pine-covered highlands meet the hot lowlands of Tierra Caliente, and the crater walls hold both: pine and oak forest alongside tropical dry forest. Researchers from UNAM have recorded some 450 plant species here, roughly a third of them found only in Mexico.

For visitors it is simply a lovely, quiet spot close to town, with a path down to the water, green reflections on still days, and local stories that give the lake an air of legend.