The word means tar or pitch in Spanish. Step where I step.'' The heavy mining equipment that borders the south and east rims of the lake does little for the ambience. Water rose, nymph lilies and bird of paradise grow naturally out of the muck. Herons are everywhere, eating the algae that grows under pockets of water, along with hummingbirds, sandpipers and kingfishers. Locals say that during the dry season, when the sun bakes the skin of the lake, ospreys drop freshly caught fish to cook on the broiling surface.
People come down and bathe in it.
Your own personal Jacuzzi. The water has a high sulphur content. It is that smell that in 1820 caused Gov. Sir Ralph Woodford to give up on the pitch as a fuel. But the smell was said to be unbearable, and he abandoned the idea. The lake was formed when crude oil seeped to the surface through fissures in the earth's crust millions of years ago.