Ruins, Volcanoes, Patzcuaro and Butterflies

We decided to leave the boat in Barra and travel inland. We took the bus to Colima and enjoyed touring a recently excavated Indian village, feasting on botanas (multiple courses of Mexican dishes) on the lovely square in Comala. We visited a beautiful hacienda formerly owned by a famous Mexican artist, and hiked to North America's most active volcano, Volcan de Colima or Vocan de Fuego, which is expected to blow within the next 5 years. Both Volcan and Nevado de Colima, the higher adjacent vocano are snow capped. Smoke regularly shot out of the top while we were there. On the drive to Patzcuaro we could see the snow on the north side. Our guide in Colima was Jupiter (his parents loved Greco Roman mythology) who was fluent in English and introduced us to several museums, a lily plantation and a mask maker. He helped us decide to drive to Patzcuaro rather than take the bus, as the express bus arrived at 5 AM. We took the auto pista (toll road) and got lost in Guadalajara and Morelos. In Mexico, the freeways don't stay a freeway in the cities and you have to take a regular surface street to get on the auto pista outside of the city. Our map was woefully inadequate, but luckily we found a Pemex station with a guy who spoke enough English to get us back on track. We arrived in Patzcuaro mid afternoon. It is a well preserved 16th century Spanish Colonial town with beautiful plazas, which, unlike most Mexican cities do not feature government buildings or churches, but residences which are now small hotels, bed and breakfast and restaurants and coffee houses. Patzcuaro is at 7000 feet so it is much colder than PV. Our room was heated with a fireplace ( no other heat) so we needed to build a big enough fire to get to sleep before the cold set in. Patzcuaro is located on a large lake with five islands. We hired a guide and toured two large ruins from the pre colombian era. Next to the original church founded by Bishop Quirogga, are the oldest olive trees in North America, brought to this area in the late 1500s by Quirogga. Unlike the other Spainiards who made slaves of the Indians, Quirogga taught them use full skills, such as wood carving and guitar making, which they practice to this day. We toured downtown Patzcuaro on our own, enjoying coffee on the large square across from the plaza. The following morning we set out with our guide and a woman from Montreal to the Sanctuario Rosario, one of four national park areas where hundreds of million Monarch butterflies come each fall to breed with the new butterflies making the long migration all the way to the northern U.S. and Canada. The preserve is 10,600 feet at the top, but well worth the hike. We arrived around 1 pm and after lunch started up to the top. The butterflies had just started flying. The trees, a type of pine favored by the monarchs, were covered with what appear to be orange leaves but are in fact the butterflies. At the top, it was like being in an orange snowstorm! (the video gives you a small idea). What an incredible natural adventure. We were in the sanctuary at the ideal time, just as the new butterflies were getting ready to migrate but the older butterflies were still alive. A truly wonderful and unique experience. The next day we departed for Colima (lost again in Morelos and Guadaljara). We returned the rental car the next day after spending the night in Colima and took the bus back to Barra. These inland trips have made cruising really special for us, allowing us to explore areas less visited than the usual cruiser hangouts.