Mariposa Monarca (Monarch Butterfly)
Sierra Chincua - Patzcuaro - Paracho (Mexico)
01.01.2010 - 31.03.2010
The charming Monarch Butterfly (Mariposa Monarca) is a famous hiking moth that is easy to see orange in its color and the black-white drawing.
For the winter, he pulls from the Great Lakes in Canada / USA at one of the few places in the winter about 3,000 m high forests of the Sierra Nevada in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico.
Reach the Mariposa Monarca 
In early November one of the 30 wintering colonies on the volcanic plateau, have covered many a stretch of more than 3,500 km!
In last February / March their ancestors went through several generations to the north.
None of the incoming autumn monarch butterfly was ever in Mexico and finds the total of 5-10 acre wintering places without GPS. An amazing phenomenon!
From visiting a wintering colony in Sierra Chincua more later.
In January, reaching Lacey & Luis in her Toyota SUV the campground. The two want to Ushuaia until December.
With our new neighbors, we are often traveling at night or sit together on a glass of wine.
Lacey likes Barbel homemade jewelry so that they too - like some other neighbors - goes with Bärbel for jewelry class.
Once more are planned for three days, three whole weeks.
Rod & Glenna arrange a free guided tour at the glass factory.
In addition to glass storage and factory outlet is a viewing platform on the shop floor the highlight of the tour dar.
As in an anthill the workers scurry many seemingly uncoordinated mess.
The reference to the in-house shop selling finished the half-hour tour.
One of the most popular Mexican pilgrimage leads every January to Maria Cathedral of San Juan de los Lagos to San Juan de los Lagos (Jalisco).
Thousands of pilgrims will camp for a night in San Miguel de Allende and leave the place on 24.01.2010 at 7:00 early in order to get to the third daily stage of the nine-day pilgrimage.
With Lacey & Luis, we accompany the pilgrims on a 7 km long section.
The pilgrims marched swiftly, they sing religious songs and in the endless stream of people, all age groups represented.
Strewn along the streets residents bountiful complimentary coffee, water, food or other snacks at the far-traveling pilgrims.
The highlight of today's stage is the crossing of the Rio Laja River, which feeds the lake near San Miguel.
Anja & Wolf mail from Baja California. You can not reach our friend Uwe, we on the website ( travel practice Mexico ) Recommended for welding.
The frame has a crack of her vehicle and must be repaired. We will establish contact and a few days later, Toyota is the freshly welded with us on the pitch.
For nine months, the first two German travelers.
Bruised carnival, children with confetti-filled eggs and indefinable dust on their heads.
Bag of bombs, the eggs of small stalls at the Jardin are sold.
So insidious and suddenly the "raids" are, so that photos from the start can hardly feasible.
The gray hairs are now guaranteed to have washed.
Christine & Hans from Austria for a few days in San Miguel de Allende.
We know from the southern tip of Baja California in Cabo San Lucas.
The two are on their way to the north, as they are shipped in a few weeks of her mobile home in Baltimore (USA) to Germany.
And once again comes an e-mail, when it comes to Uwe.
Nicole, Lothar and Marissa were "held back on the highway from Uwe."
The D-tag on the American campers who betrayed them! They originate, as well as Uwe to get out of the area Mundelsheim.
Uwe "reveals" our site and we meet the first Pan-American travelers from our area.
They come just three of the Monarch butterflies, which we want to see us tomorrow.
Arturo Morales is an expert on the Monarch Butterfly (Mariposa Monarca) whose informative lecture we attended in January.
In day trips he takes small groups of San Miguel in the Sierra Chincua, which lies north of Angangueo.
But we take a car, jet start early and continue for about 3.25 hours is 200 miles away Angangueo.
By the heavy rains in Angangueo we had heard.
You can see the roads washed away and destroyed the houses with their own eyes, is from a non-emotive weather information, a deep personal concern.
One looks in people's living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, because exterior walls were torn away by the floods.
The increasing cross-town is largely a poor grotto slopes. Washed away houses and rubble everywhere are leftovers!
About 8 km north of Angangueo we reach our goal, to which exactly one car parking space and a German camper.
As we all the way to the butterflies do not want to walk, we take two horses.
Road crossing isolated monarch butterflies and the Germans on our way, and after an hour we are nearing our goal.
Leader to bring us a few minutes walk downhill and countless Mariposas are in the bushes, trees and in the air to see.
Everywhere pairs of butterflies and our leaders think with a grin, that the three days goes like this.
Further down the water are still more butterflies! Almost an hour, we adhere to here, before we ride back again.
We're so good at the time that we save the scheduled night and drive back to San Miguel equal.
The next day we visit with Nicole, Marissa, Lothar and the remote town of La Huerta.
South of San Miguel, it goes against the dam over several kilometers of dirt road along the river.
In La Huerta is one of the thickest trees of Mexico with almost 8 m in diameter.
It is a Mexican swamp cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), also called Montezuma cypress.
A trip takes us to Patzcuaro in Michoacan state, the ancient capital of the Tarascan.
Patzcuaro was founded in the early 14th century in the hills above Lake Patzcuaro and the area is renowned for its traditional arts and crafts (pottery, copper, ceramics, wood carvings, baskets, guitars) famous.
We have opted for the Parish of La Hotel, located a jewel of colonial past and in the heart of Patzcuaro.
Yet it is quiet in the city and the prices are moderate, as Palm Sunday is only in a few days.
We stroll through the shops of the two main squares, visiting librarians Pública, the former convent, several churches, the market and the La Basilica.
The next morning we drive directly to a lookout point on Lake Patzcuaro.
We want the island of Janitzio and Morelos Monument view from a distance, as not worthwhile to visit the island.
We would rather go to about 30 m high waterfall Cascada de Tzaráracua which lies south of Uruapan.
During the descent to the waterfall is a relaxation, the long climb in the midday heat made quite a chore.
The Tarascan town of Paracho is known for its traditional production of guitars.
On half-finished guitar parts, the first store owner explains how he builds his handmade guitars.
Apparently he can, without leaving a trace on the span free workshop floor! A rogue who evil thinks!
In front of a guitar shop, we notice that small trucks are unloaded from the guitars.
A curious glance into the hold well over 100 guitars brings to the fore, which - as soon as they are in the showroom - guarantees were handmade by the store owner.
Compared to the free span workshop buys a Mexican from Paracho a guitar for his son.
With the nice conversation we learn that sell 7-8 of the traditional companies, only the guitars a single company. This explains to the van and the free span workshop!
Jesús - shopkeepers and qualified luthier - raves about the visit of Carlos Santana three years ago. Yes, he recognized him immediately! From a hand-made guitar case he gets an identical guitar, as she has also bought Carlos Santana.
It is a beautiful semi-acoustic guitar with outstanding sound, the special price remains well above the targeted frame.
We look at some of the instruments, then end up back at the "Santana" - guitar and after a tough negotiating Jesús accepted our offer.
From souvenir photo, we promise a withdrawal and Jesús (address in practice Mexico Travel ) Said that he delivers his handmade guitars in the world.
Whether Carlos Santana did sit on the blue chair, is not so important. Whether the price would still have been some air, we do not know. But it was fun and the guitar is great! Now it just needs to be played yet!
Late, we are on our long way home and only come on at night at Camp Ground.
Marissa is celebrating its second birthday and we are invited to attend.
The Party Zone is decorated nicely and the camper in the afternoon there is coffee and cake.
We often sit together in the evening with Nicole and Lothar. Meanwhile, it is lighter and had many warm evenings pleasant.
On Palm Sunday processions begin the first morning of the eventful Easter weekend.
The streets to be decorated with colorful flowers.
On Wednesday we will visit in the late afternoon, a procession with 100 little girls who are all dressed as angels.
For Maundy Thursday, Uwe has announced with family for two nights.
Then, the campground is very Swabian hand!
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"In every living creature of the natural wonder."
(Aristotle, v. 384-322 BC)