2/19

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The road to El Rosario

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De-Forestation in the mountains.

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Finally arrive at El Rosario

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Mr. S and Ms. D'Avino Jennings from Bergen County College

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Mr. S and other Monarch Teachers

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Monarch clusters in the Oyamel trees

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Monarchs cascading down from the trees

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More Monarchs

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Mr. S and Mrs. Vengenock from Alloway Township New Jersey

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A Monarch on my shoulder. How Lucky!

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I met Christain who came all the way from Denmark for Monarchs

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Mr. S with other teachers and Alternare biologist Ana María Muñiz Salcedo (to his right)

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Our bus driver Tito wrestling the blown tire to get it off.

Monday February 19, 2007 - After breakfast here at the hotel we boarded our bus this morning with great anticipation of our 3 plus hour drive to the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in the Transvolcanic Range. The drive to the sanctuary is spectacular with mountains that are actual dormant volcanoes hovering above you that tower 12,000 feet above sea level, and that is exactly where we were going. As we drove into the valley near the Monarch Sanctuary, your eyes are awakened to the bare mountain tops that were once blanketed with endangered Oyamel Fir trees. For years this area has been exploited by not only the local Ejido population who cut down the forest to meet their everyday basic necessities for shelter and wood for heat and for cooking, but in recent years it has fallen victim to illegal logging because the wood from the endangered Oyamel trees is very valuable and therefore cut down and sold for a very large profit oversees and in some parts of South America. If this practice continues, it is extremely possible that in the near future, the Monarch butterfly will become extinct because it may one day have no winter home to migrate to and therefore suffer the fate of many other species around the world that have had their habitat destroyed causing their ultimate demise. Seeing the need to stop this ultimate catastrophe, the Mexican government is working with the local Ejidos and a number of local no-profit organizations to restore parts of the de-forested areas and educate the locals about taking better care of their environment. I’ll talk more about this later on. As we pulled into the parking lot of the Sanctuary we were greeted by a couple of Monarchs that were the welcoming party for the massive clusters of Monarchs high up on the mountain that would be our prize after an hour plus hike up to the top of the mountain.. As you enter the Sanctuary, the trail winds past rows of small wooden shacks. It is out of these tiny 6 foot by 10 foot shacks that the entire Ejido economy is based. The entire village’s survival depends on the Monarchs and the money brought in and spent by tourists that come to visit the Sanctuaries. The extremely friendly locals prepare very tasty Mexican Tortillas and Quesadillas and sell locally made Monarch t-shirts and many hand crafted Monarch souvenirs, at very reasonable prices compared to what a similar item would cost in the U.S. As the last Ejido building disappears over your shoulder you hike a nicely prepared trail, where for the most part, the hiking and climbing is relatively easy due in part to the fact that the Ejidos built cement steps into the trail a number of years ago, thus making the possibility of observing the Monarchs available to a wider variety of people than ever before. I had the pleasure of hiking with Ms. Linn Speight a teacher from Camden, New Jersey. A number of years ago Ms. Speight was involved in an accident and had double hip replacement surgery. I was truly inspired by Ms. Speight’s determination and awe inspiring courage in spite of everything she has gone through that has finally allowed her to conquer new heights, while participating in one of nature’s truly magical experiences.

As you continue up the trail you enter a very dense pine forest, where the tree canopy totally shades the forest floor from the sun and you are greeted by ever increasing numbers of Monarchs. As you hike, you have to watch every step and find yourself picking up monarchs on the ground so no one else stepped on them. The Mexican people from as far back as Pre-Hispanic times over 2,000 years ago, respect the Monarch and see the Monarchs as re-incarnations of their dead loved ones who have now come back to life on wings of Monarch butterflies, so out of respect for those beliefs, when you see a dead Monarch you find yourself picking it up and placing it to the side of the trail out of further harm.

As we reached the top of the mountain at almost 12,000 feet above sea level we were greeted by literally millions of Monarchs. As the sun emerged and warmed the Monarchs wings, they begin to cascade down from high up in the Oyamel trees and as we looked up we can see hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Monarchs fluttering against the backdrop of the blue sky. If you are lucky as I was you have the honor of having a weary monarch rest on your head, back or shoulder after their 2400 mile journey and long winter. The winter has been mild here so there are record numbers of Monarchs. Today it was probably in the high 70 degree range and warmer in the sun thereby making it easier for the Monarchs to fly.

This is truly an amazing place. When you are here and you see, hear and feel the billions of monarchs all of a sudden you realize that you are just a tiny part of this world, it is truly a very emotional and life changing experience. Many times I found myself choking back tears because this place does something to you that is difficult to describe, without actually experiencing it.

After leaving El Rosario we stopped to tour Alternare. Alternare is a farm that teaches sustainable living practices to the local Mexican population within the Monarch Sanctuaries. People here have been exploiting the natural resources for many years. The water is undrinkable, and since the area is so remote the only wood products for building and for heat come from the surrounding forests which are home to the Monarchs. If the local farmers continued these practices they will eventually cut down the forest that is the winter home to the Monarchs. So Alternare tries to teach local farmers how to build houses out of materials other than wood. They also introduce more efficient ways of heating and cooking, and they have a program that requires the local farmers to replace every tree that they cut for cooking and heat with trees raised in Alternare`s nursery. They also teach computers to local school children so that the next generations will know more about taking care of their land. I was honored to have taken a photo with Alternare`s biologist Ana María Muñiz Salcedo who invited me to come back and work with the locals on the farm and in the community. As she gave us the tour, all of the teachers on the trip passed around a hat, raising $400 American dollars that we donated to help Alternare continue in their work.

Tomorrow we are going to the Monarch Sanctuary of Chincua which is three hours from our hotel here in Cultepec.

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Big hole in our tire.

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Polonio Rodriguez helped fix our flat tire in the middle of the night.