Butterflies!!

January 29, 2011

Up early to the sound of numerous church bells…they start at 7, and go every half an hour.  Got a sore throat today so Mike and i went to the drug store and managed to buy throat lozenges in spanish.

Had a great breakfast and are now packing up for the day's ride.  Today we are off to see the butterflies!

We had a great ride through twisty banked roads, probably one hour worth then up and up cobblestone roadways to the entrance town where the butterflies live.  After negotiating the roadblocks and paying a toll to the locals we got passage to the upper parking lot….a 2 track rock strewn pathway.  Emerging onto the plateau we park the bikes and are surrounded by kids selling trinkets and stuff.  A quick lunch of enchilladas, made with local blue corn and stuffed with potato, mushroom and chicken, we head over to the park entrance.  All our meals have been crazy cheap…$30.00 for lunch for the 7 of us…

We walked over 800 feet up the mountain and started to see the butterflies at the top in an open field….a few here and there flying around and landing on the bright clothes of the visitors.  After walking for a few more minutes we came across thousands of butterflies at a shallow pool of water drinking….you could actually hear the sound of their wings as they fluttered all over the place.  More walking up the mountain until we came to the area where they gathered by the thousands in clumps on tree branches….masses of them, mostly closed up and grey looking until they flew around.  we stayed up the mountain for a while taking pictures and video and having them land on us.  The walk down was zoo much nicer than the walk up….we figure we were at 11,000 feet.

now an hour ride to the hotel where the rooms were all ready for us and the girls had the cold beer waiting.

watched the days picture show and videos on the computer as we eat our motorcycle delivered pizza out on the veranda.

Another great day and we all retired early, we're baked.

Mike lost his video camera on the Topes today, so we'll have to improvise until we can get something suitable, retail shopping in the near future we expect.