covering
19 January - 23 January 2020
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the cathedral, early evening |
After
the coast we were heading to higher ground where it would be less humid and
cooler. A number of places had been
recommended to us but we chose somewhere different based on a comment in Lonely
Planet. This is a risky attitude to take
because they try to make everywhere sound good and they often exaggerate the
appeal of some places so I now think of Lonely Planet as an impeccably
unreliable source. I can imagine their
review of Hell (not the town in Norway) suggesting that the company was lively
and there was no need to take a coat in order to keep warm. On this occasion Morelia, west of Mexico
City was a great choice and they described it well. A compact centre, a few sights to see plus
excellent dinner on four consecutive nights which for me set a new All-Country
record. One thing we have never seen
anywhere else but which is quite common in Mexico is a four foot high hat/coat/bag
stand delivered to each table in a restaurant.
To add to the attraction of the city we had a comfortable little hotel
with a courtyard only five minutes walk from the central square, as usual
called the Plaza Mayor. There were few
tourists that we could identify, certainly not from Europe or the United States
and the city overall had a very pleasant atmosphere.
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our hotel courtyard, containing a collection of typewriters ! |
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recycling Morelia-style. rubbish is tipped in and the two men in the back sort out the recycling and toss it into the big bags at the rear. they did have gloves
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The
Plaza Mayor was colonnaded on two and a half sides with the huge cathedral at
the non-colonnaded end and we took every meal around this square. We had breakfast every day at a very pleasant
café in front of a wonderful real bread shop whose products we managed to get
ourselves outside of every day. That may
not sound much but finding good bread here in Mexico is a real treat. So, fresh bread, butter, coffee, orange juice
and yogurt, sitting outside in the early morning sunshine. If you think hard you can almost smell that
bread.
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the impressive almost 2 km long 18th century city aqueduct. used until 1910 to bring water into the city |
Walking
around the city centre we’d find ourselves crossing the street at traffic
lights which for some reason always had a policeman/woman blowing a whistle and
waving traffic through. Totally
pointless, it wasn’t as if the drivers were being tardy at getting some
acceleration through the lights. We were
surprised though to find the traffic police would occasionally wave to us and
call out “buenos dias”. It must be my
bowler hat and tightly furled umbrella that gave us away.
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a single Monarch butterfly |
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a lot of Monarch butterflies |
One of
the reasons we chose this city to stay in for a while was that it was within a
few hours of the famous Monarch Butterfly roost, one of the great wonders and
mysteries of the natural world. I know
that some of you will have heard of this phenomenon and others among you will
not. So I’ll explain briefly. The Monarch is a large butterfly with orange
and black markings and is found all over north America. Every year there is a huge migration
southwards. Those from west of The
Rockies to roost in California, where we’ve seen small woods with thousands of Monarchs
hanging from the trees. Those from the
rest of Canada and the USA go to Mexico and roost in a relatively small area of
woods some way west of Mexico City. We
took a tour and after a three and a half hour mini-bus ride we arrived at the
market place set up at the entrance to the reserve, El Rosario. Our guide tried to persuade us that it was a
strenuous uphill walk and taking a horse would be a good idea, so we
didn’t. It was about a mile and a half
pretty steeply up, much of it on steps but it wasn’t difficult even at altitude. We reached a line of those red and white
tapes you see on TV at crimes scenes stretched across the path and just that
point the trees were absolutely covered in butterflies, there were hundreds
flying around above and in front of us and it was a truly staggering
sight. Another genuine real use for the
word, awesome. What was really
interesting was the way the people behaved, something we have seen before at
real jaw dropping moments like this.
There was a sort of reverential hush, no loud voices, no shouts and slow
and calm movement.
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loads of Monarch butterflies |
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if you didn't know, you'd never guess that these trees are festooned with Monarchs |
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there's a tree trunk under there |
It would
be astounding enough for these butterflies to fly all the way from Canada and
the USA and back again but in fact they don’t. The truly amazing thing is that female
Monarchs lay eggs during the migration and no individual butterfly makes the
round trip. Four generations of
butterfly are required to complete the entire migration cycle. I can’t find any corroboration on the
internet of migration numbers but our guide told us that 140 million
butterflies (almost certainly a gross over-exaggeration) arrive over a three
week period. However many there really
are, and believe me there are a helluva lot, imagine if they all flapped a wing
at once, the damage could be enormous.
A few
days before we visited, the manager of the El Rosario reserve, Homero Gomez
Gonzales disappeared. He had been trying
to stop illegal logging in the area which as you can imagine is a huge threat
to the reserve. Gangsters in Mexico
don’t just ship drugs and people, timber is valuable. As I’m writing this,
news has come in to say that his body has been found in a well. Apparently no signs of violence were found
but as part of the investigation the entire police forces of Ocampo and
neighbouring Angangueo have been detained for questioning. Now a second butterfly conservationist, Raul
Hernandez has been found dead in the same area
So instead of
ending as I usually do with something a bit jolly, I think I’m just going to
stop this blog here on a more sombre and sobering note.
We would have been part of this adventure if we hadnt left so soon. Slightly(?) envious!
ReplyDeleteBTW, if the cartels mess with our monarchs there will be hell to pay!