Andy visits!!!!

Andy was to arrive on Saturday the 19th, but didn't appear in Queretaro until Sunday. He had been traveling so much oversees recently that he overslept and missed his very early morning flight out of Cincinnati. This would cause him to miss his connection to Queretaro out of Houston also and the next flight was full. Oh well, a day of rest did him good. But, it caused us to have to hit the ground running when he arrived! We picked him up from the airport, he changed into a short sleeved shirt in the car and we were off on our way to Pena de Bernal. Little did we think that this was Sunday the 20th of March and the entire country was celebrating the summer solstice! This means they make pilgrimages up pinnacle, pyramids, temples, anything like that.

We drove immediately to the monolith to climb up it with Andy and thousands of other people. Dang! As we climbed, Andy began speeding ahead of us. We informed him that because of the altitude, we would be going at a slower pace, but that he was welcome to go on ahead. Most people were all dressed in white making their way up to 'the sun'. Bernal itself is said to have healing powers. So I guess this combined with the solstice makes it 'the place to be' on this day. We enjoyed the sites and the scary passing of other people on extremely narrow passages and smooth rock faces. People were on the sides of the pathway making small shrines and chanting prayers. As we neared the mid section of the climb, we saw there were guards blocking the climb to the top. Andy said that it was just as well, he was feeling the altitude and felt he should not be going much farther anyways. OOps, that is what we get for not letting him adjust for a day, or him racing ahead of us!! He informed us we should really get to know the affects of altitude sickness. We knew, he learned by experience!

We climbed down the Pena much more rapidly than up and made our way to the 'cute little town' that I adore so much. We managed to find a parking space, but my 'little town' was bustling with people. It was difficult to even look in a shop let alone find a place to eat, but we managed. Sad day, they do not serve margharitas and no longer serve beer....WHAT???!!! We had a traditional lunch and decided to leave and return with him on another trip.

Home, we did not go. Oh no, it was Sunday and the only day for Andy to experience the market downtown in Queretaro. I wanted him to find a soccer jersey that fit. I had such a time at before guessing what would fit him. Well, in Mexico, where I am TALL, finding a shirt for Andy proved to be difficult. As he stopped by the stands and asked for a goalie shirt large enough for him they basically laughed! We decided to make it our misson for his week's trip. We ate green meat taco's at a little stand for a snack and went home. We had tired out Andy.

At home we enjoyed margaritas and snacks and got ready for another day.

This is a photo of a cactus flower that was on our hike up la Pena de Bernal

butterflies

The long awaited post of the monarch butterflies is finally here! We woke up very excited in the morning and headed out for the adventure to see the wintering grounds of the Monarch butterflies. This is a place Heather had heard of when she was in grade school and wanted at some time in her life to be able to see it. We had no clue of this until we moved down here and she found out it was close enough to us to visit!

It is estimated that every winter, some 100 million monarch butterflies migrate from Canada and the U.S. to alight and often weigh down the branches of the pine and fir trees of the area, returning again and again to the same nesting spots. The monarch butterflies that emerge from chrysalides in late summer and early fall differ from the previous generations. These migrant butterflies appear the same but behave quite differently. They will not mate or lay eggs. They feed on nectar, and cluster together during the cool evenings to stay warm. Their only purpose is to prepare for and make the flight south successfully. Environmental factors trigger the migration. fewer hours of daylight, cooler temperatures, and diminishing food supplies tell the Monarchs it is time to move south. In March, the same butterflies that made the journey south will begin the return trip. the migrants fly to the southern US where they mate and lay eggs. Their decendants will continue the migration north . In the northernmost part of the Monarch's range, it may be the great grandchildren of the migrants that finish the trip.

Not being butterflies, we had to rely on the GPS, directions from the hotel owner, a map, and some signage to find out way to the parking lot of the butterfly sanctuary. This is a view of the land on our way. I was intrigued by the way they farmed all the way up the hillsides.

Along our ride we came across a man using his donkey to carry firewood up the road. He could either be going to a home or up the mountain to the foot of the sanctuary where there are many food and artisans booths.

From the parking lot up to the entrance of the sanctuary, the pathway is lined with these booths. Normally on a weekend they would be open selling anything from tacos& gorditas, embroidery pine straw crafts, and jewelry to chachkis and you name it is here and they are trying to get you to buy! Most were closed when we were there as it was only early Friday morning. Don't worry, that did not stop me from finding crafties on the way back to our car, 'nor Mark from sampling the goodies!

We arrived at the gate ready to go,camera on alert and legs ready to climb. We paid or entrance fee and fee for our 'guide'. At this point we had to decide to walk or ride horses up (you can't get all the way to the butterflies on them though) We chose to walk and were glad we did. You have to have a person walk with you. They really aren't a guide, they don't talk with you. they are only there to follow you and to probably keep you out of places you should not be.

As we climbed, and rested and climbed and rested a few butterflies started to be seen flitting around. These are feeding on a certain type of milkweed, which is why they come to this area. It is poisonous to other wildlife but not the Monarchs.


started to see butterflies everywhere as the sun came out from behind a cloud. The butterflies were on the pathway, on bushes and flying about. It was beautiful, but our guide motioned us to keep going. So we did.

We came to the edge of where we were allowed to hike and found this. The trees you see are all pin or fir trees. It appears as if the branches are brown and dying...oh peshaw! These are MILLIONS of butterflies resting on the branches and piled on top of each other. There are so many the weight brings the branch downward and can even break due to it!

The Monarchs that fly around will land on most anything or anyone. You can easily pick them up from the ground too

Heather is definately in her glory!

A quick group shot while waiting for the sun to appear again. When the sun is out and the air warms yup the butterlies start flying off the branches in a very orderly fashion so as to not snap the branch upward sending clumps of Monarchs off the branch at once. The next few pictures are of the butterflies flying around after leaving the branches. The branches were never empty as all the butterflies did not leave it. Looking back at the branches you could not tell any had left, the only sign was them flying around.

The pictures above and below show the branches loaded with Monarchs. I only wish the day did not have any clouds, but it was beautiful anyways!

The view skyward while the butterflies were in flight.

Make sure you click on the video and watch the Monarchs in flight. There was a distinct sound in the air listening to them fly. Heather's camera captured it better, and I will have her upload her video, please check back to watch it. Nature is truly amazing!

Hiking around the Hotel

After we settled in our room at Agua Blanco, we decided to take a stroll around the property before we ate lunch. There were many acres to explore. And it was beautiful!!
After each twist and turn of the trail, we came across another beautiful breathtaking spot. The water in the area is loaded with mineral and when it seaps through the ground above and works its way down the canyon, it creates these cave things that are a spectacular sight. There were three waterfalls on the property that we saw. The trees were huge and gorgeous, almost like they were dripping down the canyon side. Here are just some beautiful pictures and videos at the end of this post.

Michoacan and Agua Blanca

We took a Drive to Michoacan for a trip to the butterfly sanctuary. The drive went through RURAL Mexico. Half of the drive the GPS didn't even show that we were on a road. Yes, we were a bit timid, Mark had money in his sock and I had my phone in my bra!! as some areas of Michoacan are sketchy. We were told that where we were headed was perfectly fine and a group of our friends had done it two weekend earlier and all was well. Heather co-piloted for Mark as Lynda put finishing touches on some mittens. As we made our last turn and headed down the driveway to our hotel, and yes, I mean down..........
down a canyon! As you see form the pictures that were taken from inside the car there was not much distance between our car and the edge of the road. And yes, this is a two way road! Heaven forbid you meet the cement truck we followed as you came the other way!! Thank goodness we did not have to pass by anyone! Off the edge of the road is sheer cliff edge! You can see the river that created the canyon...

Mark was laughing, I think out of fear, all the way down the canyon

Play the video at the end off this blog post, it was taken as Mark was driving.

This is the river that created the canyon. I guess in the rainy season the water really moves.

You can see from this photo the fence in place to guard us from falling off!!

Barbed wire???!!

When we got down the canyon we were welcomed by our hosts at a beautiful and serene little 'hotel'. It was beautifully landscaped and had its own cantina sort of bar area. It had ping pong, pool, ladder golf etc. Our room included our meals. I think they really did not have a choice as you had no choice of where to eat. this hotel was in the middle of nowhere. But relaxing it was!!

This was our room. The bedspreads were pink and the walls white, the sunshine made the whole room look pink. We had a doorway out to our own little private lawn area. It is hard to describe the lay out, but it was cute. Looks a lot like Goldilocks with Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby bear's bed! The room was decorated very Mexican and we had plenty of room for the three of us

This is the ceiling of the room, it was stenciled to match the rest of the stenciling around the room.

Even the door to the bathroom was stenciled.

Then there was the pool! It was drained and filled each evening. Filled by a hot spring!

Heather enjoy- ing her feet taking a dip in the the nice warm water! Cantina in the back

on your right, hotel on the left.

The view of the pool from the end where Heather was sitting. Below was a lawn of nice green grass. One evening they set out mats and we layed out there watching the stars. The hotel had hiking trails, a few waterfalls and acres of property. We had a most relaxing evening enjoying each others company totally out of touch from reality. As some of you realized, we were out of reach of

all technological gadgetry totally removed from reality. How relaxing!

Don't forget to watch this lovely driving video!!

Opal Mines in San Joaquin 2/20/2011

Heather and I went to the opal mine in hopes to get a chance to find the big one! Well, we didn't find any big opals, but we were in for the experience of our lives!!Hector Montes Montes, I believe the son of the owner of the mines, loaded us in his car, after much confusion, and we were off on an adventure. Since I had bent here before, I thought I knew what to expect, boy was I wrong!

We drove right past the mine I knew of and went a 4-wheeling onwards up into the mountains. We attempted several conversations along the ride with Hector and he with us. Hector only speaks Spanish, Heather French and English, and I have a few words of Spanish. So you can begin to imagine our trials! But we did understand each other in parts, at least we think we did. Finally we stopped, in the absolute middle of NOWHERE! and were told to get out. We blindly followed Hector into what seemed to be a crack in the mountain. Inside there were 3 other men. There stands Heather and I and 4 men in the middle of nowhere and us unable to speak or understand.. OK a bit eeerie of a feeling. We were offered tacos, who knows what was in them, that

that were being grilled over a fire on an old...HUBCAP!! We politely declined and were shown where and how to look for opals while the men feasted on their tacos...

Heather and I banged and chipped at rocks, sifted through rubble and found little bits of things. Every once in a while one of the men would come over, look down where we were and pick up something we totally missed and give it to us. You have to have eyes for this!! It is far more difficult than finding Herkimer Diamonds! But you can keep anything you find!

The men fiished thier lunch and come over by us talking and pointing. They showed us where they would blast with dinomite and told us they would do that spot on Monday., Well, Hector came over, said a few things we could not understand, pointed a lot, and the guys started gathering things. They called me over to watch and I realized what was happening. They began setting charges of dinnomite in the holes right in front of me. Hector waved Heather on over to take pictures. (Of which I will put on the blog when she makes them available to me)Yes, we were going to witness them blowing up the rocks! After they dropped everything necessary into the hole, and had the fuse attached we began backing up, just like in the movies! But Hector had Heather taking pictures, remember...quickly he said something to Heather and we knew we had to beat it out of the crack in the mountain. We went out and slightly around the edge and hid behind the car! Yes, as if that would protect the 6 of us! BANG, the first charge went off which sent the mountaiside shaking! We waited and BANG! the second one went off. The gusy just seemed to linger around. I guess that was to make sure there weren't any other things going to happen that they hadn't counted on. We went back inside where we had been mining and over to the spot where the charges were set. OH MY GOSH! They were so right. That spot had OPALS!

There we rocks strewn about with veins of opals probably about a half in wide and 6 inches long. They showed them to us, and would then pick up another rock and there was another vein! Beautiful, we were then quickly rounded up and told it was time to go. I think they really hit it big there and were afraid of what we might take, wither that or they had to get all of that picked up before the day was over. On our ride out, Hector stopped at an older mine for a picture or two....or so we thought. I think we spent about a half hour of Hector posing us and taking pictures. He even had Heahter climbing these huge boulders to get 'just one more'! The views from Hector's mines were breathtaking and we had sooooo much fun. When we got bak to town we discovered we had been 'miming' for about 3-4 hours!! This was no tourist kind of place, it was where they aactually are working It was amazing to put it mildly. Heahte rand I followed our day with wonderful lunch at a nearby restaurant, well, sort of, it is all relative. Below is a video of the older section of one of the mines. Enjoy!!

Heather Visits! 2/19 La Rodonda

Heather came for a week's visit and we swept here away first thing Sunday morning to the La Rodonda wine festival. There are many wineries here in Queretaro. In fact, there is a whole wine and cheese tour, kind of like that around the finger lakes. But today we went to a wine festival at LaRodonda winery. Wineries from all over Mexico were there handing out tastes. When we got to the festival and paid our entrance fee, they gave us each a glass for tasting! All you had to do was walk up to a booth, hold out your glass and they would pour you some as they were explaining the wines.

Needless to say, we did not understand much about the wines, in Spanish, but we knew what tasted good or not. If it did not taste good, you poured it out on the ground, discreetly, of course

They had tables and umbrellas set up for you to sit at, drink wine, eat, enjoy. There were bands playing and a ton of vendors of food and cheeses. We figured out what you do it taste the wines, find the one you like, buy a bottle and some food or cheese and sit and enjoy for the day! Well, we just had to give this a try

Heather and Mark are in the wine tasting tent. They had set these barrels up and people grabbed chairs, sat around them and listened to the music that was in the wine tent like Miriachis, etc. Mark found his bottle of red, Heather and I found our bottle of white and we were off in search of cheese.

Finding the cheese and being served the cheese were two completely different tasks we soon found out. We tasted and found our favorites, but the lady kept serving other people their purchased cheese and not ours. Talking about feeling like second class! It was probably because we were not Mexican, who knows.

Anyways, we got our cheese and we went off in search of a table. We found one amidst a cactus garden. Talk about dicotomy...Grapes and Cactus growing next to each other!

This is a view from the table we sat at. We sent Heather off to choose a few interesting looking things to eat and we had a very relaxing and enjoyable lunch. We even met the people at the table next to us, the lady, Sarah, had gone to Syracuse University..talk about small world!!

We left the winery and went to spend a couple hours in Bernal where Heather tried and bought candied rose petals to eat. An absolutely wonderful and enjoyable day was had by all. We have successfully given Heather a relaxing day away from school!

A Recipe for You

MARGARITAS!!

1 part fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 part Controy or Cointreau
1 1/2 parts tequila (I like the reposada rather than white)
a litle less than 1 part sugar syrup/simple syrup
1/2 part fresh squeezed orange juice
*(The real recipe calls for 1/2 sugar syrup and 1/2 orange juice)

Put in a shaker with a few ice cubes, shake and serve over rocks.

ENJOY!!!

*We have not found agave syrup for purchase down here, but they are definately better made with it. If you find some and use it, my guess is you will need less than the amount of simple syrup.