We hired a guided tour to take us to the "Country of the Monarch Butterfly". It was a wonderful way to go as the driver arrived at our door at 8:30 am and we had a vehicle all to ourselves as we traveled the 100 miles or so to the region of the migratory butterfly reserves high in the mountains near the eastern border of the state of Michoacan. http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/mexico/monarchs.html This link tells more about the El Rosario sanctuary we visited.
Carlos, the guide/driver was very knowledgeable about the history of the communities we passed on our way, so it made for an interesting drive. The curving ascents and descents on the mountain roads gave us panoramic views of the rural countryside and forested areas. Luckily no one suffered from the car sickness that Carlos said sometimes strikes the travelers on these mountain curves.
Once we reached the reserve, we hiked nearly two miles at an elevation of about 10,000 feet above sea level. The weather conditions were perfect for viewing the fantastic sight of so many butterflies in flight, feeding, drinking and clustering in HUGE, heavy nucleus from the branches of the fir trees.
The video below shows how awestruck our grandson was at the sight of these beautiful Monarches! Look for more video tomorrow as S. really captured a glimpse of the butterflies in flight and feeding in the meadow (as in the photo above). It was an experience to have the butterflies flying everywhere around us, even occasionally landing on us!
Watch video here:
In the video titled rabbit meadow, you will see the guide, Carlos telling us some more tidbits about the area. He was full of information about the butterflies and their habitat too.
and here:
3 comments:
Beautiful videos! Thank you for the link to Planeta's monarchs feature
Nice post Greg!
We will be going in a couple of months, really looking forward to it.
I want to do a bunch of photos but I think it may be impossible to capture what it is like to amongst all those MILLIONS of butterflies!
Todd
Our photos didn't do the monarchs justice, but hopefully one gets a sense of how incredible it is to stand so close to what really is one of the small wonders of the world.
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