Kelimutu: the Multicoloured Volcano Lakes
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
The active volcano Kelimutu is probably the most famous site of any kind on Flores, and really it’s the reason I (Brendan) had an interest in Coming to Flores, since my first visit to Indonesia almost 20 years ago. Its fame comes from its three crater lakes, each one with a distinct–and continually changing–colour. Pictures of the lakes are on postcards all around the country.
Getting to the volcano summit for sunrise involved a very early morning drive along predictably crappy roads, followed by about a half hour plus hike up to the crater edge. As it turned out, one of the three craters was filled with clouds. Although we couldn’t see the (apparently black) lake, it did make for an eerie, beautiful bowl of clouds that gradually lifted exposing trees and the crater edges.
Tiwu Ata Mbupu (Lake of Old People) is usually blue and is the westernmost of the three lakes. The other two lakes, Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai (Lake of Young Men and Maidens) and Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake) are separated by a shared crater wall and are typically green or red.
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