March 2010 Visit to the Butterflies

Today we are back from Mexico after a fantastic two week trip. I shall break up the posts and start with the beginning - our trip to the state of Michochoan to see the sanctuaries of the monarch butterflies. Here is where they winter from November to March, hibernating after their trip from Canada and northern USA. There is still so much that scientists do not know about these butterflies - for instance it takes three generations to come down to Mexico and so how do they know where to go since they have not been there before. They come down to the same area of Mexico every year. Towards March they begin to get ready to fly north again and we were there just at the time that many were flying down the mountain (by the thousands). Because of a rainy and a colder than normal February they were about a week behind the normal time which was perfect for us.

We flew to Mexico City and then took a bus to Morelia where we met up with our tour - Rocomar Tours (based in Canada). They were recommended to us by friends and we were very happy with this tour company. The group was 10 (including us and Paul and Phil from Rocomar). The first morning we had a great tour of Morelia by a local guide - Guilliame Moreno (Bill Brown). This is another beautiful city and we will probably go back and visit again sometime. Later the first day we met the rest of the group and watched a video about the monarch butterflies. We enjoyed the rest of our group very much - two young ladies from Colorado, Linda & Phil from near Albany, NY and Patti & Rudi from Texas. Having a small group for such a short trip was good as we had a chance to get to know each of our new friends. (A little plug for Linda Ford who just wrote a new book about the Wildflowers of Copper Canyon and will offer trips to Copper Canyon in the fall. Visit her website at: http://www.coppercanyon.wildflowers.com/ ) Maybe that will be another adventure trip for us.

Well I shall try to get back to the subject at hand...the incredible, magical, spiritual mariposa experience. We spent one day at Sierra Chincua and the next at Macheros. The first was great and if we had not done more we would have been quite satisfied. But then the next day was beyond any possible expectations. I tried to capture these moments on still and movie shots and though I hope you will enjoy them, I cannot begin to explain in words how it was to be there among these many little butterflies.

Each trip involved a long hike up into the mountains (about 10,000 ft). We had the option of a horse to ride led by one of the guides. I took the horse down the first day but actually felt happier on my own two feet so I walked both ways on the second day. Each day included a cooked lunch by small local families right by the sanctuaries - one had locally caught trout for those who wanted it on an open fire. They made steamed vegetables for us.

Here is another video...the butterflies mating which they do in Mexico before the long fly north.

I would also recommend the following video to you who are interested - a PBS show that we saw in Feb. before our trip. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/butterflies/program.html

Here we are...two happy people surrounded by butterflies doing something that has been in our dreams for a very long time. Later I shall follow this blog with the next adventure with my brother Richard and his wife Mei Mei as we traveled south to Oaxaca...stay tuned.