Back to the butterflies

The weather hasn't been the best for the monarch butterfly viewing. We were really lucky when we went with my sister Alison in December, but this week has been cooler and more cloudy in the afternoon.

But we don't have any control over the weather, and yesterday looked like it was going to be the best day. So we set off up to the Piedra Herrada Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary.

The kids wanted to use some of their spending money to take a horse up, so Lindsey went with them.

Cameron, Ruth, Sadie, Justin, and Lindsey.

It costs 350 pesos ($27 CAD, $20 USD) to take a horse, on top of your 150 peso ($12 CAD, $8.50 USD) entrance fee.

It's a 3 km hike, but it gains almost 1,000' in altitude and you are almost at 10,000' already. 

A lot of people take horses up.

Unfortunately, the horse guides didn't let Lindsey, Cameron, and Sadie wait where they were supposed to for us to catch up. So they ended up going ahead of us to the butterflies so we didn't get to experience it with them. A bit frustrating for sure, and I registered a complaint when we were finished. Nothing we could do about it, but hopefully it won't happen to another group later. 

But, because Lindsey and the kids got up there earlier, they actually had a better view of them flying while the sun was shining. This is one of Lindsey's photos.

The dark clumps are all butterflies together.

They like the sunshine.

They clump together to stay warm.

This was the 9th time Ruth and I have seen the monarchs at 4 different sanctuaries.

This is the group of twenty or so trees where the millions of butterflies hang out for the winter.

There are twelve such sanctuaries in Mexico, and six of them are open to the public.

Zoomed in on the same area.

And zoomed in even more.

Not all butterflies survive.

Despite the communication problem, and not experiencing it with Lindsey and the kids, we all still had a great day.

Back at home. Sadie was trying to get the dogs to look at the camera!

Today we are doing the hike up to the paragliding take off point.

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