A volcano crater is not an obvious venue for a soccer match, but that is where a referee blows the whistle for kickoff each weekend on the outskirts of Mexico City.
“It’s a unique pitch,” said 32-year-old player Adrian Garcia, a graphic designer by profession.
“It’s very nice to come here to distract yourself, to relax, with friends and family,” he added.
Photo: AFP
The inactive Teoca volcano is about 2,700m meters above sea level in the district of Xochimilco, a green lung in the southeast of the sprawling megacity.
About 10 teams in an amateur league play in its crater on weekends.
The area was once a ceremonial center, but after falling into disuse, it was transformed into a soccer venue.
Photo: AFP
“The pitch must be about 70 years old,” league representative Joel Becerril said.
“They used to carry me up here when I was a child,” he added.
At dawn, a thick mist covers the pitch, but it gradually clears as the sun rises.
A single road reaches the summit, as well as an 18km hiking trail up the volcano’s forested slopes.
“It’s fantastic,” 47-year-old goalkeeper Daniel Mancilla Pena said.
“It’s very impressive to come all the way up here to the pitch and to have a very nice setting to play football,” he said.
Experts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico said there are more than 200 volcanoes, most of them inactive, south of Mexico City and on the border with the neighboring state of Morelos.
One of the country’s active volcanoes, Popocatepetl, 70km from the capital, rattled nerves in May when it spewed ash, gases and molten rock.
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