Before I get to the day to remember, a few words about Morelia. This is a lovely city of a million that is the capital of the state of Michoacán. The Principal square is attractive with lots of trees and some interesting shaped plant animals. It has been alive the past few days leading up to Lent.
Of course there are numerous churches here but the star, at least from the outside is the beautiful Cathedral. The two massive towers and front are beautiful and when it is lit up at night it is even more stunning.
It is an easy town to navigate as indicated by my 18,000 + steps yesterday. There are a number of universities here, mostly private and you see that the streets are filled with young students everywhere you go.
A few more random shots of this lovely little place.
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| A lovely walk leading to Lady of Guadalupe |
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| The aqueduct was once the main source of water for the city. The city was quite small until the mid 80s |
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| A tasty treat - finely chopped pineapple and jicama with some orange juice, cheese and a bit of spices |
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| Inside the Lady of Guadalupe |
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| A courtyard from a converted convent - now a music school |
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| Lady of Guadalupe |
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| This fascinated me - the tree is dead but the vines have taken over |
On to the day to remember! I’ve heard about the butterfly sanctuary and thought that would be nice. But never did I think I would visit it. As I learned more about my interest was greater but so was my fear. Stories of the steep climb at 11,000 feet were a bit scary. Puffer in hand, a walking pole and up I went. It was every bit as hard as many had said but right from the beginning it was breathe taking. The Monarch’s are everywhere and especially enjoy the sun. Today was a beautiful sunny day - our guide commented that he has not seen it like this for 8 years.
We learned so much. Although I don’t usually pour out a lot of facts I thought a few butterfly facts from my guide would be interesting for people.
- they have different life cycles ranging from 6 weeks to 5 months. The ones that fly down from Canada and US have the longer life cycle.
- the trip down is one way as is the the trip back
- takes them 2 months to arrive
- the male dies 2 hours after completing the mating process. The female produces 400 eggs and distributes then individually onto a milk tree leaf. Lots of mating happening this sunny day.
- they are poisonous to their predators - birds, mice and tree frogs
So those are the facts. It is really difficult to get good pictures of small flying objects or the tree branches that are covered in orange like someone had gone through with a paint brush. They gather on the tree branches overnight and then leave as the sun starts to hit. When they leave it is a wave of orange going down hill. No pictures can truly describe this but here’s an attempt.
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| The dark clusters are all butterflies |
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