Post#2: Monarch Journey: Sightseeing and travel to Macheros, Mexico

We awoke in Morelia, Mexico to a delicious breakfast at our hotel with in their beautiful garden courtyard. You can hear the birds singing with blue skies and cool morning air.

Our Travel day took us sightseeing to local villages as we traveled to Macheros, Mexico for our next day journey to our first Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, Cerro Pelon.

We traveled to a village called Santa Clara del Cobre that was filled with Shops that sell and make Copper items. We entered one that gave us a Copper demonstration, the copper is transformed with extreme heat and then hammering the copper into an item like a pot or vase.

We walked around this magical, artistic village and shopped until our tour guide said we had to travel on. But we all found copper treasures to take home like butterflies, jewelry, bowls and vases. We also found a Mexican Candy shop for a sweet treat or two.

We headed off to Lake Zirahuen for a delicious lunch with a plate full of Authentic Mexican Quesadillas. On our drive, our tour guides tells us about this Folklore of a Mermaid living in the Lake(there are different versions of this folklore but here’s a summary of what I remember)…. There was a Princess who fell in love with an Spanish captain but her father, the King disapproved so her kept her captive. The story says she cried and cried and cried until a lake was formed…..she became a mermaid in the Lake and may appear to those with “evil hearts” today….and so the folklore says..(check it out online or go visit the Lake yourself and take a look)

We then set in for a long SUV ride across Mexico enjoying the villages along the way. Our travel time was just over 4 hours to reach Macheros. We arrived late in the evening at a B & B , ate a quick bit and settled to bed for the night.