[Cost: $3225/person]
With Hawks Aloft and Holbrook Travel
One of the most amazing phenomena in nature is the annual migration of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) southward from their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada to overwintering sites high in the mountains of southern Mexico. Hundreds of millions of Monarchs fly a
long the Gulf Coast, or across the Gulf of Mexico, to eventually reach the belt of high volcanic mountains which stretches across the southern end of the central Mexican plateau. At about a dozen isolated places within the high-altitude forests of this zone, Monarchs overwinter in aggregations that can exceed 2 billion individual butterflies. Stand amid the fir-covered mountains and witness this awe-inspiring spectacle firsthand as the monarchs flutter, dip, and swoop overhead.
Highlights
- Hike or ride horseback to three different monarch reserves in Michoacán, where millions of individual monarch butterflies gather.
- Explore the famous El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary and search for birds of prey including Turkey Vulture, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and American Kestrel.
- Photograph the dramatic colors of the butterflies as they hang in clusters from the trees, drink from streams, feed on wildflowers, and soar in the air above.
- Visit the pyramids at Teotihuacán, one of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican sites of pre-Columbian times and a site with a notable symbolic connection to the monarch migration.
- Bird at Sierra Chincua Butterfly Sanctuary and search for species like Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and American Kestrel.
- Spend time exploring colonial Angangueo, which was once a mining town but now derives most of its livelihood from butterfly ecotourism and agriculture.
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There is an extension to this trip available. Click here for extension details.
