The road to El Rosaria Monarch Butterfly Reserve took us through many small villages.  We often decide to take the libre instead of the toll roads….it takes a bit longer and the roads can sometimes be rougher, but you get to see the countryside a lot better.

The last 10 or so kilometres to the Reserve were on an old cobblestone road which were narrow and very steep in places.  Here is a little video…I don’t think it fully represents just how steep and narrow the road was, but it will give you an idea.

We camped for the night in the parking lot of the Reserve and started the climb to see the butterflies in the morning.

We climbed for about 2 kilometres at an elevation of about 3,000 metres (10,000 ft).  Our young guides wore down vests but Derek and I were soon down to our shirt sleeves as we huffed and puffed our way to the top.

Each year millions of monarch butterflies come to this 56,000 hectare reserve to over winter.  They inhabit a small portion of the reserve, clinging in clusters to the trees in the cool air, their numbers weighing down the branches.

The ground was littered with butterflies as well, some alive, many dead.  Where the sun hit the clusters, a few butterflies would warm up enough to start flying.  We hung out for a bit, then our  guide indicated it was time to get going…we tried to explain that we wanted to wait for it to warm up some more so that we could see more of them flying, but our guide told us, we think, as we were having trouble understanding, that they wouldn’t be flying today because it was too cool.  We had heard that January and February are a better time to see the butterflies, and I have read that when they do start flying en masse, that it looks like orange confetti in the air and the sound of millions of wings flapping sounds like rain falling.

We hiked back down through the beautiful forest, a little disappointed to not see the insects in flight, but we know that nature works on her own time schedule and cannot be forced to perform for the tourists.  It was amazing to see so many butterflies in one place, quite magical, and perhaps one day we will return to see them in flight.

View over the valley on the drive down from the reserve.