We climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.  Here we are looking towards the Pyramid of the Moon.

We made it up the Pyramid of the Moon as well.

Looking over Teotihuacan and the Pyramid of the Sun from the Pyramid of the Moon.

The New Years Eve party at our hotel.

We wrote wishes on cards and tied them to balloons to be released at midnight.

There go the balloons!

Celebrating out on the balcony on New Years Eve.

On our way to Alternare, we stopped for lunch at the house of Tiburcio Fernandez.  He is an incredibly talented artist who makes “Trees of Life” out of clay.

Tiburcio and his sons showed us how the clay was prepared and gave us a demonstration of their sculpting.

We also got a chance to try our luck making something, with varying degrees of success.

Lunch at Tiburcio’s house was an authentic home cooked meal.  It was absolutely delicious.

During our time in Michoacán, we stayed at Alternare.  It is a training center for alternative farming methods.

It was very cold at night, but warmed up nicely during the day.  Here we are in front of the dorms early in the morning.

This is Angangueo, one of the towns closest to the monarch sanctuaries.  It’s easy to see that we’re in mountainous country.

A monument to the monarchs in Zitacuaro.

Having some fun at Sierra Pelon.

Our guide at Sierra Chincua was an 11 year old girl.  She led us up the mountain to the butterflies.

The climb uphill was well worth it once we got to the butterflies.

Monarchs completely covered entire trees.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one land on us.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one land on us.