Butterflies!

In the middle of February, we were able to visit a Monarch butterfly sanctuary with the Zapatas(office couple in the West Mission), the Binghams (office couple in the North Mission) and Hermano Moroni and his lovely wife, Veronica, our drivers.  

Here is a little background information from the internet on the migration of these butterflies:

Monarch butterflies cannot survive a long, cold winter. Instead they spend the winter in roosting spots. Monarchs west of the Rocky Mts. travel to small groves of trees along the California coast. Those east of the Rocky Mts. fly farther south, to the forests high in the mountains of Mexico. The monarchs' migration is driven by seasonal changes: daylength and temperature. Monarchs are the only butterflies to make such a long two-way journey every year! They fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the same exact trees. Individual monarchs only make the round trip once. It is their children's grandchildren, that return south the following fall. Noone knows exactly how their remarkable homing system works. This is one of the many unanswered questions in the butterfly world!   http://missionbf.tripod.com/info.html

We left on a Friday night and stayed in the mission office of the North Mission with the Binghams.  Leaving early the next morning, we drove for several hours through countryside that had clean air and small towns.  It was wonderful to not see the air that you breathe! We climbed higher and higher until we found ourselves in the mountains.

There are over 350 sq. miles of mountaintops that are protected sanctuaries by the Mexican government, but only several spots where you can actually gain access to trails to go to see the butterflies.  The trails are quite steep and about 10,000 feet in altitude.  We picked up a guide that flagged us down in a small town at the entrance who showed us where to turn and where the trail started.

Horses were available to rent to ride up the trail, but we chose to walk up because I was nervous because I used to be allergic to horses.  Being so close to them the entire hike, I didn't notice any allergies at all though....we should have tried it just for the fun of it!

The further we traveled along the trail, the more butterflies we could see until finally, we reached an area that was roped off as the "end of the trail" where butterflies were everywhere!

Beautiful!

On my arm!

 On cold days they cluster in bunches in the trees and bushes for warmth, but when it is warm they take to the air.  They also die there and the ground was covered with their little dead bodies.
We tried to take pictures of the myriads of butterflies...everywhere, but the camera just couldn't capture them.

It was almost a spiritual feeling, etherial, as the group of people reverently watched the Monarchs as they hovered everywhere!  One landed on my arm and I hardly dared to breathe until it floated off.

As the crowd grew, it was our turn to leave, so we hiked to the bottom, stopping occasionally to look over the rocks at the valley far below.  The regional people have stands and eateries at the bottom of the trail.  We enjoyed a great meal and bought a souvenir or two, then Hna. Bingham, Dave and I tried out the rather rough zipline.  We had a ball!

Whoa!

Anything you could want!

One more thing off the bucket list!