Volcano adventures: Mexico travels

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything! I've had such an amazing time touring about last week, and since I got back to Colima, I haven't been able to find the time to sit and write anything! Plus my camera broke, so I'm having fun and games using my Aunt's camera and having to download the photos on to Pop's laptop then copy them across to mine - suddenly writing a blog is a bit more hassle!

So, a week last Saturday I hopped on an overnight bus to Mexico City arriving at 7am. The buses here are really comfortable, so it wasn't a bad journey at all. I met Mum and Dad and Mum's 2 sisters - Diana and Sheila in their hotel and tagged along on their tour for the rest of the week - thank you!

On Sunday we went to Teotihuacan which is an ancient city of pyramids which has been excavated just outside Mexico City. The guide said that they don't know who built it, but they reckon it was built around 100AD, and it covers an area of 20 sq. km, but only 5 sq. km have been excavated. I read somewhere that the temple of the Sun is the worlds 3rd largest pyramid. It's a pretty awesome place.

Here's some geology for you, just in case you were thinking it was all holiday! We went to a place where they carve stones and make posh jewellery and masks and things for rich tourists. The guide had a whole bunch of semi-precious stones - turquoise, obsidian, lapis lazuli,malachite, tigers eye, and he had a couple of stones that I've never seen or heard of before. He called them Venturina. One was dark blue and the other brown, and when in the sun they sparkled like they were covered in glitter! I told him I'm a geologist and he gave me a bunch of pieces to add to my rock collection - see I'm working! I told Carlos about them and he'd never heard of Venturina - he asked me if they were plastic!

These are just some photos from our travels - sweeping in pink stiletto boots(!), San Pancho church, and a campervan!!

After Mexico City we drove to Zitcuaro, where we saw the Monarch Butterflies. You might have seen them on David Attenborough's "Life" series. It was absolutely incredible. Every year anything from 60 million to 1 billion Monarch Butterflies migrate from Canada to a particular forest in Mexico. This year they reckon there were 150 million of them. They spend 4 months here, then in early March they head north again and after a month, once they reach Texas, they lay eggs and die. The next generation then flies on further North, and also lay eggs and die after a month. The 3rd generation make it to Canada, and then leave again in October to fly all the way down to Mexico. These guys live for 8 months. No-one knows how they know where to go as they've never been here before and their grandparents who were here are dead so can't tell them. One of life's mysteries! I've seen "Life", and still it didn't prepare me for quite how amazing it was. Butterflies were everywhere - the trees were orange so many covered them! Poor Aunty Diana stood on one! It was incredible to lie on my back and watch the butterflies filling the sky. There were so many, the combined fluttering of their wings sounded like light rain. They landed on all of us. This doesn't even begin to give justice to just how beautiful it was! Hopefully the photos will give you an idea - these are a very select few from about 100!