January 7, 2019 - Butterflies In Michuacan

Breakfast is lovely and starts with a huge fruit plate.  I have a couple of slices of Marilyn’s banana and a cup of peppermint tea.  That’s all my tummy will tolerate.  Elizabeth is under the weather and doesn’t come to breakfast at all, poor baby!  We’ll be spending two nights in our next hotel and rather than carry our heavy luggage, Marilyn and I our necessaries in our backpacks and will leave our suitcases on the van.

Our darling hotel and our luxurious sixteen-seater van for the ten of us!  Wish the hotel had heat, though!

And we’re off!  On the bus we finish the video of Teotihuacan and then Juan has a Nova episode about the Monarchs.  It actually takes four generations for them to make the round trip from Mexico to the northern United States of Canada!  It takes three generations for the northbound trip and only one for the return flight!  They live so much longer than the other three!  They cling to the trees for warmth and one reason they are disappearing is that illegal loggers are clearcutting the forest.  There are government agents patrolling the sanctuaries, of which there are fourteen, but the loggers come in the middle of the night and are very difficult to catch.

The three countries through which the monarchs migrate

You can see the little shops behind our waitress.

I read an article saying that the California monarchs have decreased by 85% and the Mexican ones by 15%.  Sure glad we didn’t go to California!!

Our darling little hotel in Angangueo already has a large party for lunch, so we ask for directions to another restaurant.  They suggest that we eat at the sanctuary!  We turn onto the dirt road and drive long enough to doubt that we’re in the right place!  At one point we are asked to pay for parking;  but there isn’t a parking lot in sight! Onward!  Oh, look!  There’s a whole little complex here!  There are little shops and a couple of place to eat!  We settle on one and everyone has something to eat.  I have two quesadilla’s, one with cheese and squash blossoms and the other with cheese and mushrooms.  They are made with black corn!  And there’s a strawberry soda that tastes just like strawberries!  🍓  There are also several very friendly dogs who are eager for our leftovers.  (The name of the sanctuary is Sierra Chinqua Reserve.)

With everyone’s tummies satisfied, we hike up to the horses.  The happiest part is that there isn’t a scale and no one questions whether or not anyone is able to ride!  Everyone mounts up, except Juan who chooses to hike!!  The Mexican saddles are a little different from what most of us are used to, with a saddle horn that is a bit harder to hold on to.  Each pair of horses is led by a single man and we learn that the pairs always work together with the same handler.

Dusty ride!

Gorgeous countryside!

The ride is about forty minutes over a rocky path. When we arrive there isn’t that handy step that we used to mount up, but our handler is used to ineptness!  Yay!  At least I don’t wind up on my derriere!  Now we hike.  It’s rocky and steep and slippery in some places and we estimate that it’s about a mile.  We pass a man who says that no matter how tired we are, we need to keep going because it is amazing!

It’s quite encouraging, as the way is pretty strenuous come directly after climbing all the pyramids!  (Okay, I skipped the Pyramid of the Sun!)  Marissa finds me a hiking stick and it’s very helpful!  And Fred keeps checking on me.  I make it and we can see the trees just encrusted with monarchs!  They are further away than I was hoping for;  but you can see them against the sky flitting against the blue and Fred finds a place with a clearer shot, along the creek bed.

When we’ve all decided there isn’t much more to do we start the arduous trek back to where we can get the horses.  It takes a lot longer getting back! Kathleen thinks she might want the horse to come closer;  but when she finds out no one else is doing that, she keep walking.  The wonderful man who was leading her horse before, comes down the path the make sure she arrives safely, and we all mount up for the return journey.  Fred had discovered that there are handles on the back of the saddles, and that makes the ride much easier.  There aren’t any mounting steps out here and I really give my quad a work out - but I make it!  Forty minutes later and we’re back at the complex.  One man is selling his photos and since they are a million times better than mine, I buy a couple!  It’s even hard getting back up the slope to the bus!!

Its a quick ride back to the hotel and I’m so exhausted that I lie down on top of the covers, just having taken off my shoes.  Marilyn puts a blanket over me and I stay put!  My tummy still doesn’t want anything and the rest of me just wants to sleep!  Eventually I manage to change in to some warm sleep ware (there isn’t a heater!) and I don’t even hear Marilyn come in, much less when she took a shower!  There are so many covers on the bad that I feel like a mummy, and as I warm up I peal back the layers!  I’m told that dinner was lovely, with a vegetable soup that was to die for and chicken in a cream sauce.  All I really needed was some sleep, and I finally got some!!  Yay!!