What do you expect when up to the top of the mountain? Peace? Confirmation? Or the beauty of the lake? Yes, lake. Not one or two but three lakes at once. Colorful. That sensation when we climb the legs at the peak of Mount Kelimutu at the height of about 1.640 DPL.
To go to Lake Kawah Three Color Kelimutu at Kbupaten Ende, Flores NTT we must trekking from the parking area. We climb the footsteps that are partially shaped. Kicau-buung is our step driver to the top. Not wrong because the lake is located in the Kelimutu National Park area which is the habitat of approximately 19 types of games that are threatened include Flores (Treron floris), the hantu wallacea (Otus silvicola), the rimba-ayun brush (Rhinomyias oscillans). Then the natural orchestra is in the Kelimutu National Park area.
After about 20 minutes walk up at the first two dissolves. First, Tiwu Ata Polo is old blue that is believed by local communities as a place to gather the souls of people who have died and during life always committing crimes/tenung. Next is Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai who is green tosca, where the young souls have died. Approximately 1.5 km from two lakes in the peak direction there is Tiwu Ata Mbupu, where the souls have died.
One of the unique things of these three crater lakes are color change. The beginning of Kelimutu Lake is known to have three colors, namely red, blue and white. As the time of the colors changed such as in the middle of 2014 this third color of the lake changed to dark blue, green tosca, and teal (dark bluish green color).
The number of circles suspect the changes in the water color in the lake is due to the activity of the volcano, sunburn, the presence of micro biota water, the occurrence of dissolved chemical substances, as well as the result of the color of the wall and the base of the lake.
Sementara's local population also has its traditional views. The origin of the name of Kelimutu is “war” which means the mountain and word “mutu” which means boiling. The color of Kelimutu lake is believed to have the meaning of each and has a very strong natural strength. They believe the changes in the third color of the lake show the natural symptoms that will arise such as volcanic mountains, the presence ofslides, and other disasters.
Photo & Text : Andika Wahyu
