November 25, 2008

From having coffee con leche to Mariposa’s Monarcha, today was amazing.

It began with having a restaurant open just for us so we felt pretty special from the start. Tlulpujuahua is a pretty sleepy little place other than during the Santa Cecelia Fiesta. Things don’t seem to open or really get moving till at least 9:30 and maybe even 10:00 for many people. We were looking for breakfast at 9:00 as we had a 9:30 departure scheduled which is why the restaurant opened early for us. To give you a more complete picture ..... we ordered coffee with milk and something for breakfast and so one of the staff had to run out to the store to buy the milk and to the bakery to buy some pastries so they had something to serve us. Mexican pastries aren’t sweet – they’re very plain but good with a cup of coffee.

Moving right along with the traditional Mexican schedule, our ride arrived and we were off about 45 minutes behind schedule. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to matter in the least here – not for either Lynda nor I, or the driver or anyone for that matter. It’s all very relaxed and relaxing.
Clera, desk clerk from our hotel, had made arrangements with her cousin Julien the day before to take us to see the Monarch Butterflies. The only way there is by taxi or similar ride. We worked out a very good deal as “family” so Julien would take us all the way to Querraterro after the Butterflies. He has an aunt there so this would be a way for him to get a free trip to visit her and a way for us to get all the way to Querraterro in comfort and for a reasonable price. Clera joined us as well so she could have a visit with her aunt too. It was fun to be part of their family adventure and they certainly enjoyed seeing the butterflies with us.

The Butterflies are one of those once in a lifetime kind of experiences. We drove up some pretty rough roads (lots of gravel and the pavement had so many giant potholes that it might have been better to have been gravel)as far as cars were permitted. From there we climbed aboard horses.....yes, that’s right.....horses. Both Lynda and I were not so sure but were assured by our guides that all was well. “Esta bien” was a much stated phrase for the first part of our journey. The horse trip was uphill (so thank heavens for the horses) and took about an hour each way. I’ll leave it to your imagination as to how well we’ll be walking tomorrow!!!

Once we arrived at the top, it was all worth it....there they were dancing in the sunlight.....hundreds of butterflies. Our guides instructed us to continue along the path on foot as horses weren’t allowed beyond that point. We began a downhill climb to an area where there were no longer mere hundreds of butterflies....now there were hundreds of thousands. They were everywhere! And it was soooo quiet....we were very high up in the mountains and the butterflies all come there to feast on a particular type of plant leaf. It’s an amazing thing to see and an amazing thing to reflect on. They fly all the way there from Canada and if memory serves me it takes four butterfly lifetimes to get from Canada to Mexico so their flight path is programmed into their genes. Nature is pretty darn smart!

Once we’d spent some time with the butterflies, it was time to start back to the base camp. That meant making the long climb back to our horses. Yikes! It was the volcano all over again. You don’t realize how far you’ve come down till you have to go back up again. We were pretty darn glad to get back on those horses for the return trip and stayed on them till the trail became so steep at the last leg of the trip that both Lynda and I opted to get off at the top of that last hill and walk the rest of the way. I think it was a wise choice as the hill was super steep and it felt as though we might have gone right over our mount’s heads!

From the butterflies we were off to Querraterro – about a 3 hour trip. It would have taken us more than twice that long on a bus and we would have had to change buses several times so going the way we did (with Julien) was a wise move!

The countryside we passed through was much like BC’s interior. Corn (maize) crops filled the valley’s and decorated the hills. Michoucan (the state we were traveling through) is maybe a bit like the prairies in that it looked as though it could be the country’s breadbasket.

We weren’t sure that we’d be allowed in the door because we still smell like horses but they took pity on us and we’re booked into a hotel in Querraterro tonight (another City Express) and will likely head to San Miguel de Allende to stay with Rosa and Allen tomorrow. Still smelling like horses we located the only restaurant in the area of the hotel and it was so fancy that we had 3 waiters at our table the entire time! I’m not sure how much they enjoyed their work this night as we smell like we’ve been on horses and the road for days!

Till next time,
Lorrie