THOUGHT: "WHEN ONE DOOR OF HAPPINESS CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS, BUT OFTEN WE LOOK SO LONG AT THE CLOSED DOOR THAT WE DO NOT SEE THE ONE THAT HAS BEEN OPENED FOR US!" Helen Keller
We got up early to travel 4 1/2 hours into the interior of Mexico. The area presidency has been a little reluctant to allow travelers to this area due to safety but things have improved lately. We got to a town called Zitácuaro in the state of Michoacan. From there we took a narrow side road for about 40 minutes - the last 10 minutes on a road with about a 15 degree incline. We topped out at 10,000 feet and got on a dirt road. We found the preserve and mounted some horses for a mile ride further up the mountain. When we arrived where they tied up the horses I was only seeing an occasional butterfly. We walked for about 50 yards and suddenly there were butterflies everywhere. They were in clumps on the pine trees, on bushes and filled the air. They had roped off so we couldn't interact with them but we had fun taking pictures. According to Wikipedia these butterflies come down from 3000 miles away in the eastern US and Canada. That is a long ways to flap your wings. They are so small that a good wind could blow them to kingdom come. We were told that they have several generations that last only a few weeks but the generation that flies down to Mexico for the winter and back lives about 6 months. I am not sure how they know where to come since they are born in the US. Like I said they only occupied about 2 - 3 square blocks of an enormous forest. How they find their way here and back to the US is unfathomable. They had a zip line there but it was kind of lame. We had an interesting lunch there. Peg ordered chicken and got a thigh from a malnurished chicken with some rice and beans. I got one of those steaks that they pound to death and is about 2 mm thick with slices of cactus deep fried and some beans. We did a little shopping and returned home to get here about 7:30 - almost 11 hours for the roundtrip. We have been trying to do something fun on Saturdays with the other couples. In two weeks we are going back to the pyramids with a stake president who is an archeologist. That will be fun. I am not sure I will undertake climbing the pyramid of the sun again - that was quite a climb. Sunday we went to church. Peg was asked to say the closing prayer in Relief Society and I am told did an ok job. We then made a meal for the new greenies - we are no longer the couple with the least amount of time in Mexico. (Actually the Sandbergs came a little after us but since she was born in the colonies and lived here in Lomas de Chapultepec as a young girl when her dad was mission president I am not counting them.) We have another travel day tomorrow back down to Xalapa near Veracruz to meet with the mission president there. They have invited us to stay with them in the mission president's home (they all have really nice homes with lots of bedrooms since they usually have the brand new elders or sisters stay with them the first night.)
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| A cute little Indian lady selling tea leaves or something! Look at her poor shoes! We gave her some money, but didn't take the leaves! |
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| The gas station guy wanted his pic taken with the Indian lady! |
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| Someone's house as we were driving along! |
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| Another house! |
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| and another house! |
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| On our cabellos riding to the butterflies! |
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| Our guide, carrying Elder Andersons walking stick! Elder Anderson got Mersa in his back and nearly died a couple years ago! He made it riding his horse all the way up the mountain! |
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| See all the orange tint on the trees! They are all clusters of millions of butterflies! |
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| I didn't get a very good pic of all the butterflies flying around! You can see a few though! |
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| A close up of the Monarch butterflies on the trees! |
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| Pic of us and a million butterflies! |
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| Here is one up close! |
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| Here is a male and female butterfly! The male has the two little dots on his wings and the female has big broad stripes! |
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| This cow made me laugh! He stood and stared at us as we went up the hill on the horses and was still standing in the same place watching for us to come back! |
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