Spotlight on Michoacan

The Mexican state of Michoacan’s tourist trade is getting a helping hand from Mother Nature.

Michoacan serves as the winter home for millions of monarch butterflies that make the journey south from Canada and the US in the fall, and four butterfly sanctuaries welcome visitors from late October into late February, Roberto Monroy Garcia, the state’s secretary of tourism said in Toronto Thursday.

“It’s amazing,” he said of the natural spectacle, adding those visiting a sanctuary will find butterflies hovering around them and even landing on them. Monroy Garcia added that Michoacan played a pivotal role in Mexico’s struggle for independence and visitors can also see outstanding displays of Spanish colonial architecture.

Pictured at the Toronto event are (l-r) Garcia, Flight of the Butterflies producer Jonathan Barker and Rodrigo Esponda of the Mexico Tourism Board.