Weekend trip--AMAZING!

This past weekend I met up with a fellow volunteer in the State of Mexico, which is west of Mexico City. We went for one reason--Piedra Herrada, one of the few Monarch Butterfly Reserves in Mexico (and the only one not in / near Michoacan state...which is a bit dangerous right now). Monarch butterflies spend their springs / summers / falls in the US and Canada, but every fourth or fifth generation makes it way back to Mexico in the winter. This generation somehow returns to the EXACT SAME SPOT where its ancestors were born, four or five generations earlier! Scientists still don't know how the whole process works. This migratory generation doesn't eat for six or so months--they only will drink water--and by living six-ish months, they shatter the standard lifespan of a Monarch butterfly (less than two months). More can be found here. It was an incredible experience to see the ten to fifteen million butterflies that were in this small reserve. They looked like oak leaves flying in the sky, and their flapping could be heard on the quiet mountainside (not audible in the video...too bad). And yes, every single one of those things that you think is a butterfly, is a butterfly.



Here is a picture of a male (right) and female (left). The male is distinguished by the two small, black dots within its wing pattern (near the guy's thumb).



Also, Monday night happened to be a lunar eclipse! We got up early (or late) to take a look, and I tried my hand at night-pictures. This is one of the few that turned out good, and it is by far my favorite. Yes, the moon turned red!