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!!