The monarchs are here! The offspring, or even second generation, I think, of the monarchs we saw in Michigan, Canada, etc. last summer are now here in Mexico. There are three main places where they overwinter, and in the mountains outside the Valle de Bravo, state of Mexico, Mexico, is one of them. We hiked with our guide Claudio up up up a steep pine-spruce mountainside to the spot - about a 100 square meter (maybe less) patch of forest where *las monarcas* are congregated on every tree trunk, branch, and twig. They look like fur coats on the tree trunks, they hang like spanish moss from the branches in great globs of wings and bodies, and they line the underside of twigs like fringed sleeves. The dead monarchs carpet the forest floor, but some are
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