March 24, 2009

The last butterflies are leaving our sanctuaries. I have been told by natives working as guides the following news about monarchs:

In Chincua, there are very few monarchs left. They moved really far from the entrance of the sanctuary. People have to ride horses to El Llano del Toro then walk down a very steep road for a little more than half an hour to reach them. During these last days, around 5 trees there have had still some good number of monarchs. That is all, so they calculate that perhaps this coming weekend (March 28/29) the last ones will leave.

In the other Sanctuary of La Salud, more than in El Rosario, there are more monarchs to see than in Chincua. Lots of them are flying around and coming back to Angangueo.

Perhaps they delayed their departure a little longer because we just had a week with cloudy and even rainy afternoons. However, since Monday temperatures started to rise again up to 25 centigrades, so we are really seeing the last monarchs leaving our forests in the region."

I just took some photos up above the town to show the cloudy weather. I was looking for some monarchs flying around but I couldn't find ANY!

The Beginning of the End of the Dry Season
We have had very cloudy days and light rain in the afternoons.

Farewell Festival Angangueo honors monarchs and the first day of spring.