Quest for the Monarca

No, paragliding friends, not the Monarca comp but the mariposas!

For those who follow our adventures, you know we love butterflies and other nature-related things. From all over North America, the Monarch butterflies migrate, spend the winter and shelter in the pine and oyamel fir trees in the high mountain forests west of Mexico City.

We first went to the Sierra Chincua Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca near Ocampo, Michoacán. A place that also has several food and craft stalls and a zipline. On a Sunday. Ugh! We should know better! And it was a cloudy day which didn't help the butterfly situation.

Amongst a long line of other tourists, we slowly made our way about an hour's walk up the people path to where the butterflies were (as opposed to the horse path which also carries tourists to the destination). It was underwhelming to say the least. While there were thousands upon thousands of butterflies gathered on the trees, they were far away and very few were out showing their colors. The few that were, almost seemed to be "planted" there by the park staff.

Highly zoomed-in photos of the Monarca attached to trees.

We resorted to taking photos of other things and I did find one butterfly attached to this thistle. 

This was not what we'd read about and been excited about. We spent a night in Zitácuaro and decided to try again at another location.

The Ejido El Capulin Sanctuary was a completely different, and amazing, experience!

When we arrived at the small parking lot just before noon, ours was the only vehicle there. So far, so good. Plus, it was sunny so we were hopeful for a better butterfly day. We were assigned a guide (all the reserves supposedly require a guide although at the place the day before, when we indicated we were English speaking, they waved us through). Despite previously asking if we wanted to rent horses, we were asked again. Our guide soon got on his horse and another guide on a horse followed us. After about 20 minutes of asking us again, and again, if we wanted a horse they finally realized we were serious about walking and gave up. Our guide laughed when I flexed my arm, pointed at my bicep and told him we were strong!

It wasn't long after this when we were immersed in bright orange Monarca flying all around us! After many photos and short videos later, we decided to keep going. It took about another hour and a half steep hike up to where they were attached to the trees like they were the day before. But also so many flying around, settling on branches in the sun and on the ground. 

The photos don't do it justice but perhaps this 20 second video will give you a better idea of what it was like. (Be sure to watch in HD.)

In the end, it almost felt like we had the whole sanctuary to ourselves. We only saw about three other groups of people while we were there. It was a great experience and we would highly recommend!!

Chapala and the Tzintzuntzan Archealogical Site

After a couple more days flying at Tapalpa and San Marcos, we decided to do some non-flying things and headed to Chapala for the night and then onwards from there.

Chapala is where some of the other pilots from Canada and the US are staying. It's lower in elevation, and therefore warmer, than Tapalpa so we wanted to check it out. Andrew and I agreed we liked being closer to the flying site and the town of Tapalpa itself much better.

We treated ourselves to a nicer hotel for the night. This one was right along the malecon and we had a lovely view of the lake from our room. Arriving here though, we really wondered what we were getting into. The other side of the hotel is basically just a long blank, dirty looking wall with no obvious signage. I parked where we thought it was and Andrew went exploring. He located a gate, got us checked in and motioned for me to drive into a very small parking area. We're discovering this is quite typical of a lot of the hotels here.

We got out for a run the next morning and, while Andrew went for a longer run, I got my camera and took a few photos. I was a bit later than the best light and it was cloudy so these aren't the greatest.

Lake Chapala is quite large and, rather than get back onto a main highway, we followed along the lake road which was slow but very scenic and interesting. Narrow, bumpy roads and small villages hugging the shoreline. Kids riding their bikes and a group in sports uniforms running to their soccer game. 

Eventually we got to the end and took some of the toll roads (smooth, double lane) to get most of the way to our next destination, the Tzintzuntzan archeological site. Tzintzuntzan means "place of the hummingbirds" but unfortunately we didn't see any hummingbirds. 

One of five yácata pyramids overlooking Lake Pátzcuaro

Both round and square construction and the layers showing how they are built.

If you looked closely, petroglyphs could be found throughout the site. 

We kept seeing large trees with red flowers at a distance as we were driving and couldn't figure out what they were.
Here is a smaller version of a poinsettia tree. 

We stayed the night in Pátzcuaro in another lovely but well-disguised hotel. 

Cascada el Salto del Nogal and More of Tapalpa

At 105m, Cascada el Salto del Nogal is the tallest waterfall in state of Jalisco. There was lots of downhill on the way there and, as result, lots of uphill on the way back. But it was spectacular and well worth the hike. The photo does not do it justice. With several stops for photos and a longer stop at the lower falls, it took us about an hour each way.

Cactus growing on the steep slopes near the top of the waterfall.

Beautiful stream and trees between the upper and lower falls.

Other curious users of the trail.

Due to the elevation gain from the coast, Tapalpa is quite a bit cooler, especially at night. We even used the fireplace in our room a couple times!

We quickly found a favorite breakfast spot. It had friendly staff and a balcony with a view of the town square and the old and newer cathedrals.

Looking down from the Tapalpa flying site, there are several greenhouses. The one we land right beside is growing raspberries. We've seen a few Driscoll's signs around so it's likely these are ones that we find in grocery stores in Canada and the US. 

On the same non-flying afternoon that we went to the waterfall, we went to the Tapalpa Country Club and had a late lunch on their deck. Very posh and lovely views!

Flying at Tapalpa

Me launching

It was relatively easy to get the flying in Tapalpa figured out. We initially headed to the launch area, only to miss the turnoff, so decided to head down the hillside to see if we could find the landing zone. Unfortunately the LZ wasn't marked on the paradgliding earth site and although there are lots of landable looking areas, nothing was obvious. We discovered it's probably not marked because the LZ can change depending on what crops are planted where.

We emailed one of the local pilots (whose advertisement we'd seen in the hotel) and headed back up to launch. Miguel answered right away and happened to be on launch managing some tandem flights as we were conversing with him. He was extremely helpful and gave us lots of good local information on where to find the thermals, pointed out the LZ, and hooked us up with Pedro who looks after the site and, for a small price, will drive retrieve.

Since I hadn't flown since summer, I wanted to do some kiting before getting in the air and there is a large top landing area which was the perfect spot.

By this time it was later in the day. I encouraged Andrew to take a flight and I would pick him up. I wanted to check out the LZ up close and personal before landing there.

Andrew in the air

The next day we both did short flights in the morning and Pedro picked us up. It felt great to get that first flight done!

Me in the air

View from the front row

We got back up to launch, left our wings in the vehicle and grabbed our lunch to have a bit to eat before another flight. We observed a pilot just launching as we walked to where we were going to sit. He got a bit of lift right away and turned . . . a wing tip collapsed, then the front, and spun down and crashed into the hillside. I dropped our lunch and a water bottle where I was and Andrew and I both ran down the hill. We were both wondering what we were going to find when we got there and were imagining worst case scenarios.

Wing in the trees. Further away than it looks in this photo. 

I called out to the person several times along the way, both to make sure Andrew and I were headed in the right direction and to see if he was at least well enough to answer. Thankfully, he was! And luckily there were a few slightly overgrown trails to follow which made getting to him much easier than bushwhacking through very thick jungle type trees and vines.

I was appreciative of search and rescue training and a recent advanced wilderness first aid course (thank you Back40!) as I thought about scenarios of what we might find when we got to the pilot. Although I also thought about my first aid kit which was back in the vehicle! (On debriefing after the incident, we agreed that one of us should have gone to get the first aid kit while the other went to the pilot.)

It look less than five minutes to find him. He was standing up and had his harness part way off. Andrew immediately told him I was with search and rescue which put the pressure on! He complained of a sore shoulder; maybe ribs, maybe wrist. He didn't seem too sure. After asking a few questions, getting his jacket off and observing (looking for blood), I did a head-to-toe secondary assessment. All else seemed good. I took a closer look at his shoulder and didn't see any deformities but by now he was more definite about that being where it hurt the most. We offered to make an improvised sling for him with Andrew's long sleeve shirt but he said it felt better hanging down by his side.

By this time, the pilot's wife (who had been watching on launch) and Pedro (who grabbed a machete before heading down) were there with us. Thankfully the pilot felt well enough to walk out so, with Pedro making a clearer path with his machete, it didn't take us long to get back up to launch. We would have had a heck of a time, and needed a lot more people, to get him out of there if he hadn't been able to walk. He was a big guy!!

As more information came out, we learned that the pilot was using an old, high-end wing that he left in Mexico for times that he came here. His wing back at home in Germany was a more conservative one and it had been a while since he'd flown. It's likely that all of these things factored into his first accident in almost 30 years of flying.

As he went off to hospital to get x-rays, a large group of US and Canada pilots arrived. Paragliding is a small community so we'd met several of them before. We spent the rest of the afternoon "parawaiting" for the wind direction to cooperate so that we could fly again. I was losing motivation (plus thinking about the accident) so once conditions finally changed in the very late afternoon I decided to just drive retrieve. What a gong show trying to get rides figured out for everyone!

Ready to go but waiting for wind conditions to cooperate

Andrew coming in to land

The next day I skipped the first flight due to a very upset stomach but had a great second flight, lots of lift and thermals in the air. I forgot to mention that Pedro doesn't speak much English and we don't speak much Spanish so our pick up phone conversations are "Hola Pedro. Shelley and Andrew at Piano." "Ok." "Gracias." (Piano is the name of the regular LZ.)

Looking back towards launch

The LZ is one of the large bright green fields to the right of the green houses

The injured pilot showed up at launch again with a sling/brace around his shoulder and confirmed his shoulder blade was broken. He will have to have the brace on for about 6 weeks. It could have been so much worse! As noted in a podcast we listened to recently, "the ground is hard and unforgiving." In the same podcast, "the ground is fucking hard!" 

Anyway, it's been a fun first few days of flying, albeit with a bit more "excitement" than we ever hope for.

View from launch

The paragliding world cup was held here a few years ago and this beautiful shelter was built for it.

Mexican flag used as a wind sock to determine wind direction.

Andrew's blog post about the accident and first few days of flying can be seen here.