Zitácuaro

We got up at 5am on our last day in Guanajuato. Painful, but worth it. We got a bus to Morelia, 3 hours away from Guanajuato. Then we got another 3-hour bus to Zitácuaro.


We've been really excited about this destination. It's in the state of Michoacán, which is where millions of monarch butterflies (mariposas monarchas in Spanish) migrate to each November to March. We happened to be in the general area, so we had to check it out. Plus we read that there's a Monarch Festival happening there for three weekends, including this one. Perfect!

We arrived in Zitácuaro pretty tired from the early start and a really hot bus. We got a taxi to the hotel we'd booked (in case the whole city was full up due to the butterfly season) and nearly fell asleep right there and then. Instead, we ventured out to find the main square, which was being prepared for the festival that night. Then we found the tourist office, where this really nice woman gave us loads of info and maps for the area. It was only at the end of our conversation that she mentioned she's the mayor of the city! Wicked.

We also found a restaurant recommended by our guide book. It's run by a family, and they practically adopted us while we were there. They taught us some Spanish and showed us their garden, pointing out the fruits and veg they grow themselves to serve in the restaurant. We had a great time and had enough food left over for dinner later that night! Genius.

We meant to check out the festival that night but were far too tired. We had an early night and got up early the next day to go find some butterflies. We got a combi taxi (a van-sized taxi that acts as a bus but costs less than the bus) to the bus station and then a bus to a smaller place called Angangueo, from where we got another combi to a butterfly sanctuary.

The sanctuary is quite high up (3,400 km above sea level), and between the altitude and the millions of stairs we had to climb up to reach the top of the sanctuary, we were knackered by the time we got up there! There were loads of other people there too (many more Spanish-speaking people than people like us), and luckily we were all gasping for breath. It was so worth the effort, though. On our way up, we saw monarchs here and there. At the top, though, we found clusters of trees with millions of butterflies resting in them and flying around them. We paused to check them out when suddenly the sun got brighter and thousands of the butterflies flew from the trees and all over our heads. It was amazing. Iff got some video:


We hung out there for a while, enraptured by these gorgeous creatures, but we started to get really annoyed with kids picking up butterflies (and their parents not doing anything to stop them). There were a LOT of people there, including MANY obnoxious children. So we began our way back down. Funnily enough, the descent was much easier than the ascent! It was gratifying to pass by loads of people making their way up, gasping the whole way. Ha!

After we passed through the sanctuary gates, we had to walk quite some distance down through hundreds of stalls and cafes rigged up along the path to the parking lot. We were a bit hungry by that point, so we stopped at a wee cafe and had some cheese quesadillas. And we finally managed to find some postcards of the sanctuary; out of all those stalls, we only saw one vendor with postcards!

We then got a combi into the town of Ocampo, then a bus back to Zitácuaro. We took a wee siesta until it was time to venture out for dinner. Everything seemed to be closed except for a pizza place, so we chose that (tough luck!). It turned out that the owner lived in California for 17 years, so he was happy to talk to someone from the US. Plus he insisted that Iff looks Mexican, so that was cool. We enjoyed our olive pizza and then made our way to the festival going on in the square. It was lovely: live music, kids playing with balloons, lots of happy people filling the square.


So we're leaving Zitácuaro on a very happy note. Next up: Oaxaca...