4. Mexico - Monarch Butterfly extravaganza

covering 19 January - 23 January 2020


the cathedral, early evening


After the coast we were heading to higher ground where it would be less humid and cooler.  A number of places had been recommended to us but we chose somewhere different based on a comment in Lonely Planet.  This is a risky attitude to take because they try to make everywhere sound good and they often exaggerate the appeal of some places so I now think of Lonely Planet as an impeccably unreliable source.  I can imagine their review of Hell (not the town in Norway) suggesting that the company was lively and there was no need to take a coat in order to keep warm.   On this occasion Morelia, west of Mexico City was a great choice and they described it well.  A compact centre, a few sights to see plus excellent dinner on four consecutive nights which for me set a new All-Country record.  One thing we have never seen anywhere else but which is quite common in Mexico is a four foot high hat/coat/bag stand delivered to each table in a restaurant.  To add to the attraction of the city we had a comfortable little hotel with a courtyard only five minutes walk from the central square, as usual called the Plaza Mayor.  There were few tourists that we could identify, certainly not from Europe or the United States and the city overall had a very pleasant atmosphere.



our hotel courtyard, containing a collection of typewriters ! 


recycling Morelia-style.  rubbish is tipped in and the two men in the back
sort out the recycling and toss it into the big bags at the rear. they did have gloves



The Plaza Mayor was colonnaded on two and a half sides with the huge cathedral at the non-colonnaded end and we took every meal around this square.  We had breakfast every day at a very pleasant cafĂ© in front of a wonderful real bread shop whose products we managed to get ourselves outside of every day.  That may not sound much but finding good bread here in Mexico is a real treat.  So, fresh bread, butter, coffee, orange juice and yogurt, sitting outside in the early morning sunshine.  If you think hard you can almost smell that bread.


the impressive almost 2 km long 18th century city aqueduct.
used until 1910 to bring water into the city

Walking around the city centre we’d find ourselves crossing the street at traffic lights which for some reason always had a policeman/woman blowing a whistle and waving traffic through.  Totally pointless, it wasn’t as if the drivers were being tardy at getting some acceleration through the lights.  We were surprised though to find the traffic police would occasionally wave to us and call out “buenos dias”.  It must be my bowler hat and tightly furled umbrella that gave us away.  


a single Monarch butterfly


a lot of Monarch butterflies


One of the reasons we chose this city to stay in for a while was that it was within a few hours of the famous Monarch Butterfly roost, one of the great wonders and mysteries of the natural world.  I know that some of you will have heard of this phenomenon and others among you will not.  So I’ll explain briefly.  The Monarch is a large butterfly with orange and black markings and is found all over north America.  Every year there is a huge migration southwards.  Those from west of The Rockies to roost in California, where we’ve seen small woods with thousands of Monarchs hanging from the trees.  Those from the rest of Canada and the USA go to Mexico and roost in a relatively small area of woods some way west of Mexico City.  We took a tour and after a three and a half hour mini-bus ride we arrived at the market place set up at the entrance to the reserve, El Rosario.  Our guide tried to persuade us that it was a strenuous uphill walk and taking a horse would be a good idea, so we didn’t.  It was about a mile and a half pretty steeply up, much of it on steps but it wasn’t difficult even at altitude.  We reached a line of those red and white tapes you see on TV at crimes scenes stretched across the path and just that point the trees were absolutely covered in butterflies, there were hundreds flying around above and in front of us and it was a truly staggering sight.  Another genuine real use for the word, awesome.  What was really interesting was the way the people behaved, something we have seen before at real jaw dropping moments like this.  There was a sort of reverential hush, no loud voices, no shouts and slow and calm movement.

 
loads of Monarch butterflies


if you didn't know, you'd never guess that these trees are festooned with Monarchs








there's a tree trunk under there





It would be astounding enough for these butterflies to fly all the way from Canada and the USA and back again but in fact they don’t.  The truly amazing thing is that female Monarchs lay eggs during the migration and no individual butterfly makes the round trip.  Four generations of butterfly are required to complete the entire migration cycle.  I can’t find any corroboration on the internet of migration numbers but our guide told us that 140 million butterflies (almost certainly a gross over-exaggeration) arrive over a three week period.  However many there really are, and believe me there are a helluva lot, imagine if they all flapped a wing at once, the damage could be enormous.












A few days before we visited, the manager of the El Rosario reserve, Homero Gomez Gonzales disappeared.  He had been trying to stop illegal logging in the area which as you can imagine is a huge threat to the reserve.  Gangsters in Mexico don’t just ship drugs and people, timber is valuable.   As I’m writing this, news has come in to say that his body has been found in a well.  Apparently no signs of violence were found but as part of the investigation the entire police forces of Ocampo and neighbouring Angangueo have been detained for questioning.  Now a second butterfly conservationist, Raul Hernandez has been found dead in the same area



So instead of ending as I usually do with something a bit jolly, I think I’m just going to stop this blog here on a more sombre and sobering note.

Comments

  1. We would have been part of this adventure if we hadnt left so soon. Slightly(?) envious!
    BTW, if the cartels mess with our monarchs there will be hell to pay!

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