Last weekend, I went along with Laura, Dave and three new friends (one Yankee, two Brits) to a monarch butterfly reserve about 2 hours west of D.F. in the state of Michoacán. The butterflies nest and procreate there in the mountains before fluttering north to Canada. I guess that means the ones we see in Ohio probably got benched a lot in butterfly field hockey. The lady Brit was on a freelance assignment for the BBC, so we followed her agenda a bit, which was a good one to follow.
We stayed in the small town of Zitácuaro, which resembled most other Mexican towns I’ve seen: grid-like streets, a central plaza, lots of small restaurants and clothing stores, but not a whole lot else going on. We stayed in a fairly nice hotel, though I did find a few ants creeping on my sheets.
On Saturday afternoon, we arrived a little late to the reserve and decided to travel up the mountain by horse. I’ve ridden a few trails at a very slow trot in my day, but this was far more intense. We climbed uphill over rocky terrain, the horse didn’t wear horseshoes and mine was a little crazy, taking me for a few jumps of little ledges - much to my horror. We weren’t wearing helmets. About an hour and one sore butt later, we arrived at the top where the butterflies hang out. It was amazing. There were so many butterflies swarming around us they sounded like a breeze running through big maple trees on a fall day (what a scenic picture I paint). The ones that weren’t fluttering by were clustered into groups on the trees…at first glance, they seemed more like thick leaves than butterflies. We saw an incredible amount, and apparently it can get even more intense than that. It was a very beautiful view, as we were on the top of a mountain and looking down at the city and valley below.
Sunday afternoon started with great promise. After stowing our packs at the bus station and commencing a high-speed food run in a nearby supermarket, we set off around 10 a.m. to see a new butterfly zone. This time we went on foot, as no one could even joke about taking the horses again. The hike up the mountain was very steep and about three hours long. We reached 3,800 meters elevation, or about 12,500 feet high (according to my online calculations). We were winded and stopped for the occasional M&M or empanada break. It was bright, warm and sunny the entire time.
Then it hailed.
We were within a half hour’s reach of the butterflies. A giant, ominous cloud swept over the mountaintop and blanketed us with a dismal gray. We all remained pretty slaphappy, as there are only so many ways to cope when you’re freezing, miserable and a two-hour hike from the bottom. When the hail hit the dirt it looked a bit like bird poop. In some spots further down the path it looked like it had snowed. But trek onward we did to the butterfly spot. None were fluttering around, but from the thick clusters on the trees, I’d guess we would’ve seen more that day than Saturday. However, I did get the cynical pleasure of seeing an entire trail carpeted with dead monarchs. They also looked like leaves, but this time we had to step on them.
Finally we reached the bottom, our newly found walking sticks our saviors. A small community runs the touring, horse and hiking operations, and when we returned, we had a delicious meal awaiting us at a restaurant/house. They took our drenched sweatshirts, hung them to dry over a stove and gave us their own fleeces to shiver in. The first course was a very warm tortilla soup with cups of café de olla, coffee made with sugar and spices. We ate very tasty trucha empapelada, which is fresh trout wrapped in aluminum foil and cooked over a stove with peppers, onions and tomatoes inside. For dessert, apples in condensed milk (some kind of milk-like syrup, at least). And, lest I forget, a large bottle of Jose Cuervo. Before sunset, one of the men drove us back in his big van and dropped us off at the bus station, where we changed into our dry clothes (read: pajamas) and giddily celebrated our warmth.
Nice to know that all the times I made you go hiking with me proved to be good training for your future adventures. Madre
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