Querétaro Language School – Spanish School in Mexico

Like all of our day trips, the day started early.  We all meet at the Querétaro Language School campus before the sun rose to board a private bus that would take us to Angangeuo, Michoacan, the home of the Simetario Monarch Butterfly Reserve.  We were joined on this trip by Joby and Ethan who had just arrived in Querétaro the night before.  With a full bus (14 people) we headed out.   In the small town of Acamparo,  known for its delicious sweet bread we stopped for a quick bite to eat before continuing the trip.  The 4 hour drive took us through many small towns in the states of Querétaro, Guanajuato and Michoacan.

Just before 11, we made it to the small town of Angangeuo, and with the help of one of the local kids we made our way up into the mountains to Chincoa, of the 4 entrances to the Mariposa Reserve.   From there we started our 45 minute hike through the beautiful pine forest to get to the main gathering spot of the Monarch Butterflies.  As we got close to the actual site we slowly started to see the butterflies flying overhead, then to our sides, then they were all around.  The forest echoed with a strange buzzing sound, and as we approached what looked like red trees we notices that they were the source of this strange noise.  The red trees were actually pines, covered so thickly in monarch butterflies that the tree was entirely covered.

We spent about 45 minutes in complete silence, watching in wonder as thousands upon thousands of butterflies fluttered around our small group.  After recovering from the awe we felt, we made our way back through the pine forest.  Dinner that night was eaten in the small town of Angangeo (which only had 2 restaurants), and the topic of conversation was the amazing sites we had seen that day.  We arrived back at Queretaro late that night, but the exhausted group all agreed that the long day was worth it.

Learn Spanish in Mexico