Biosfera Sierra de Manantlan

This is a beautiful area and the most beautiful are not real easy to access. I've seen a very little bit from the Colima side and considerably more from the Jalisco side. Cuzalapa (the coffee town) is part of it as well as the 3-4 little towns on the way to Durazno. There is a road that goes from the Jalisco side over the top and down into Colima but I don't have the car to try it in. The biological station, sponsored by UNAM I think, is accessed further up highway 80.

Did you know? The Biosphere Reserve Sierra de Manantlán is included in the International Network of Biosphere Reserves UNESCO MAB program. It is an important bird conservation site and is one of the priority mountains for Conservation in Mexico.

A back road trip to Cuzalapa and Durazno

A little rain two mornings in a row

About eight this morning we had our second morning rain in a row though yesterday was not quite as dramatic. That is, no interesting cloud formations and no rainbows (arco iris or Arcoiris). Looking at the weather for the following week it looks like we may get real rain starting next weekend. It has been overcast here for at least the last week.  A meteorologist from UNAM predicts more rain than normal this winter due to El Niño. We'll see!

Front walk

Kinda rain clouds to the south

Brilliant rainbow to the north

It was actually a double rainbow from horizon to horizon

I borrowed this from the La Manz board - by Sue

The double rainbow I didn't get a good view of

UNAM Biological Station in Chamela

UNAM Biological Station in Chamela had an open house Dec. 6th

It was probably eight years since I'd been there and it was the time of year everything was brown and dry. This year all was green and pretty. The last time there wasn't much to see except a short walk on their loop trail with plants marked. This year they really put on a show. At first we thought it was going to be too dry and educational but the more we walked around we found neat stuff for the kids, a puppet show and some very nice displays.

The girls decorated a paper butterfly on a stick, made a parrot mask, made pinwheels and got some nice coloring books. Surprised there was no food or drink available but we brought a cooler with sandwich makings and a coke. Pretty long drive up there but glad we went.

Butterfly booth

Puppet show

Don't buy parrots - it's illegal

Nahima and Lorena decorating a butterfly  

Butterflies native to this area

UNAM protesters removed again

This from International news and it just reminded me of 1998-99 when I was staying with a girlfriend on the UNAM campus.   We woke up one morning and thought it was a Vietnam like landing invasion.   Helicopters, trucks and army/police personnel were everywhere.  Students and many non-related to the cause had occupied the campus for  over  9 months and sorry to say I don't remember their cause (you can Google it).    Even though we were in Campus housing we couldn't leave for 2 days

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's top law enforcement agencies said Tuesday that they were poised to order the removal of a group of masked individuals who have occupied the main administrative building of the national university since Friday.The occupation of the university's rectory tower is linked to a relatively minor political dispute at one of the campus' public feeder high schools, yet the incident has struck a nerve at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM by its Spanish acronym, which has an enrollment of more than 330,000 students this year

 Mexico authorities ready to retake occupied university rectory