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But wow, was it cold that night. Before that we'd been thinking we should have left the warm clothes at home, but can you see the frost on the tent? Our water bottles were frozen.
DSC02219 Frosty morning campsite near Paracho
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Our next destination was Patzcuaro and the lake of the same name. It's a beautiful colonial city, with a lake and interesting islands. The little launch we took out to the island of Janitzio on Patzcuaro lake was primarily used (on this day anyway) by people going to and from, and hauling their merchandise. We watched the woman who owned all this stuff bring it all down to the boat (over several sets of stairs) one box at a time.
DSC02233
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The fishermen of Janitzio are famous for butterfly-shaped nets. We don't actually know if they ever catch anything, but after every boat passes they come up and get a few pesos from the tourists for their performance with it.
DSC02239 Butterfly nets at Janitzio
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Another view of the butterfly nets.
DSC02240
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Bardomiano and Consuelo took us in when we stopped to ask for some water near the end of the day. They figured the best place for us to stay was in their spare bedroom. Consuelo had the most incredibly wonderful laugh, and they both had the biggest hearts we've ever come across.
DSC02268 Randy with Bardomiano and Consuelo best
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Consuelo has an incredible collection of mugs!
DSC02275
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After Morelia we climbed up the Mil Cumbres road. It turned out to be an incredible delight, even though it was 30 miles of uphill. There was *no* traffic, and the views were incredible. This is one of many views from the Mil Cumbres road.
DSC02283 Mil Cumbres view
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This is the setting of the fire we brought under control - the one where Nancy saved all of Mexico. This is after it was well under control.
DSC02290 Mil Cumbres fire
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Here's what the fire looked like after it had been settled down quite a lot. It really was burning much, much higher than this when we first started fighting it.
DSC02292 Mil cumbres fire
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Now our goal was the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly sanctuary. Every year untold millions of monarch butterflies make the flight from southern Canada to winter in this area of Michoacan. Somehow they come back to the exact same place every year.
We made the mistake of riding up the road from the town of Ocampo to the sanctuary on our loaded bikes. We wouldn't do it again :-)
DSC02304 Riding up to El Rosario Monarch butterfly sanctuary
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