Mexico

I finally made it to the place where our 26 monarchs hopefully migrated! We had a very long bus ride, about 2 1/2 hours over some very bumpy roads that climbed steep into the Transvolcanic Mountain Ridge.  The bus took us through a variety of towns and villages. We saw farmers working their fields with horse and plow.  We saw men and women tending their sheep, goats and cows in fields. We saw school children in their clean, green and white uniforms playing outside. As we drove further into the mountains, my ears kept popping. The colony is located at about 10,000 ft. elevation. 1. About how many yards is that?

Once we got off the bus and everyone had a chance to use the bathroom, our hike up the mountain began! It was kind of a difficult hike, the climb was steep and the elevation made it difficult to breathe. We saw many birds along the way. One of my favorites was the red warbler.  Our guide said they eat the monarchs, but later we learned that that was not true. According to Erik, there are two that eat our beautiful butterflies in Mexico–the oriole and the grosbeak. We did not see either of these two birds and I am glad!

We continued our climb up the steep mountains, passing many flowering plants and trees. A few monarchs flitted around our heads making all of us even more excited than we already were! When will we see the colony? How long will it take to get there? How many butterflies will there be? As we got closer, we saw some clumps of monarchs hanging from tree branches. We made sure not to disturb them, admired their beauty and continued on our way.

Next we can to a few monarchs on the ground. Here is a photo: 2. Can you guess what they are doing? Please write your answers in complete sentences when you post!

We are now near the top and we can see the mariposas monarca in the distance. How many are there? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? My heart beats faster and I look up…

I have many more photos to share and more to tell, but I must go to sleep now. Tomorrow we head to Chicua and another monarch colony. To my students: please read everything carefully! Don’t just look at the pictures and post. Read what I have written here for you. And after you are done posting here, make sure you read and post on the previous posts as well.

¡Sea bueno!