We had been debating whether to visit La Reserva de la Mariposa Monarcas, a mountain sanctuary for Monarch butterflies that migrate south from the US and Canada, for some time. Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue, but it’s in the state of Michoacán, which has been experiencing some problems lately. In a nutshell, the drug cartels moved in and started extracting protection money from local businesses. Frustrated at the lack of help from the police, the locals took matters into their own hands and organized vigilante groups to fight the cartels. The main cartel asserts that the vigilantes are in fact under cover operatives for a rival cartel. The feds finally took notice and sent in the cavalry (or the Mexican equivalent thereof – usually armed guys dressed in black toting machine guns in the back of pickup trucks). The locals still didn’t trust them, so they conscripted the vigilantes into the police force so that they could continue to fight legitimately. The upshot of all of this has been some violence.

We had decided not to go up until the morning we left San Miguel. While saying goodbye to some folks at the RV park, we learned that they had visited the butterfly reserve two weeks before and had had a great time. Gotta love last minute changes of plan.

We diverted South, and spent a fairly long day driving to the tiny mountain town of El Rosario at 9300 feet. We saw one long convoy of the aforementioned Federales on the highway, but no other signs of the problems in Michoacán. To be fair, though, we were only going into the very edge of the large state.

Some farming is still done the old fashioned way.

The next morning we set out to see the butterflies. Since Q has never ridden a horse before, we decided to rent two horses for the ride up. They took us about two thirds of the way up, which was followed by a 15 minute hike. Although the biosphere reserve is large, the butterflies only occupy a small area of forest. It was a truly amazing sight, with monarchs swarming the area and blanketing the trees in black and orange. The story of their migration from the north is pretty fantastic.

These giant succulent plants are everywhere. We thought they’d make a great start to a bad horror film. Watch out Quinn!!

Ride ’em Cowboy! Quinn loved the horse ride, but we were all allergic to the horses and the dust and so we ended out sneezing a lot. We decided to walk back down.

Our next stop was to be at Teotihuacán for more pyramid viewing. We finished lunch in El Rosario at about 1:30pm and decided to try to make it there the same day. We did, but only just, as it was after dark when we arrived. That’s not something we normally like to do, but it worked out. We found the campground, ate some leftovers for dinner, and hit the sack. The next morning we went out to tour the pyramids. They were very impressive, with the temple of the sun being second only to the pyramids in Egypt in size.

Atop the Temple of the Sun. (The Temple of the Moon is visible in the background).

After lunch we set off once again for our next destination, the town of Cholula. Cholula also has a pre-columbian pryamid, and we found it more impressive because it’s only been partially excavated, and because there’s a Catholic church perched on top, possibly built there in ignorance of the pagan temple beneath. Quinn particularly enjoyed exploring the tunnels that were bored into the pyramid by archeologists. As is usually the case, the pyramid wasn’t built all at once. A first one was built, then a subsequent ruler decided he had to out-class his predecessor and ordered his minions to expand it. So there are multiple phases of construction in evidence starting at ~500 B.C. and spanning up to 1500 years.

A model of the temple in Cholula with the Church on top

The Catholic Church that sits atop the pyramid

We ran into several groups of very excited and giggly teenage girls at the top of the pyramid who were taken by Quinn’s blue eyes and blond hair. He’s hiding behind Mom.

Through the thick smog that unfortunately covers this part of Mexico (we’re only 50km or so from Mexico City) we could just make out a volcano that gives off puffs of smoke regularly.

After Comida (the largest meal of the day, eaten between 2-4pm) we spent some time in the town square where Quinn found a playground and a trampoline. The business of trampolines is like that of the little cars he drove in Guadalajara. An enterprising person sets one up in a public area and charges 15 pesos for 15 minutes. Good stuff.

Yay! Balloons!

On Saturday we headed South once again for Oaxaca. We saw Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak at 18,491 feet, from the highway. The haze gradually cleared as we headed away from Mexico city, and the road snaked through some impressive mountainous terrain. We really noticed the ongoing power issues in the van when climbing the long grades. We’re hoping that if we can re-produce the problem while in Oaxaca we can find someone to take a look at it. We arrived just in time for Comida (notice a recurring food theme here?) and Jen found us a great restaurant where we enjoyed cold beers, Ceviche, and salmon.

Pico de Orizaba, as seen through Mexico City’s haze.

We’re staying at a very friendly campground outside of town called the Overlander Oasis that is run by a Canadian couple. We’ve signed up for more Spanish classes starting Monday, and we’ve got some volunteer work to do here, so we’ll be stationary for another week.