The Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS) is sponsoring an eight-day tour to two Monarch Butterfly sanctuaries in the western Sierra Madre Mountains in central Mexico next February.

The tour is scheduled for Feb. 18-25, 2017. The cost will be $2,040 per person, double occupancy. This price includes all room and board, transportation and fees within Mexico and guide fees. It does not include airfare, inbound transportation from the airport to hotel or tips. The price includes a $100 tax-deductible donation to PVAS.

The tour is open to adults 18 years or older in good physical condition.

Registration is restricted to PVAS members or members of the Monarch Alliance until Oct. 1. After that date, members of the general public may register if there is space. However, members of the general public can register before Oct. 1 by becoming PVAS members. The membership fee is $20 per year, $15 for seniors and students.

Registration, PVAS membership and full detail about the tour are available on the PVAS website at www.potomacaudbon.org.

A completed registration form and a $300 deposit will be required to secure a reservation. The full cost must be prepaid by Dec. 15.

Eastern Monarch butterflies, which are common in the Mid-Atlantic area in the summer, migrate thousands of miles each year to and from about a dozen specific sites in Mexico where they cluster in large numbers to spend the winter.

The PVAS tour will be conducted by S&S Tours, LLC, of Sierra Vista, Arizona. It will focus on two overwintering sites in the Mexican state of Michoacan that have been designated as sanctuaries by the Mexican government: the Rosario and Sierra Chincua Monarch sanctuaries. Participants will also visit several small folk art villages, the Paracutin volcano and the ruin of a town destroyed by that volcano and the Uruapan National Park.

Participants must be able to walk considerable distances at elevations of 9,500-11,000 feet above sea level and enjoy off-the-beaten-track places.

For more information contact Joette Borzik of PVAS at 240-440-4221 or pep4223@comcast.net.