Seeing the EPIC Monarch butterfly colonies in Mexico

Okay, that was nuts. That's definitely the most butterflies I've ever seen in my life. I'm very excited today because I'm gonna see something that happens only in one specific place here in Mexico and only during a specific time of year. It's the overwintering monarch butterflies that come here by the millions to prepare for their annual migration back up to the United States and Canada. The reason the monarchs come here is that they wouldn't be able to survive the cold and freezing temperatures further north. And they come specifically to this place in central Mexico because the location and climate are just right. At an elevation of over 10,000 feet or 3,000 meters, the forest is not only nice and cool at night, but the fog and dew in these mountains help provide the butterflies with the moisture they need. The estimates of how many monarchs overwinter here seem to vary, but I've read anywhere from 60 million to 200 million. Okay, first I should probably explain how the monarchs migrate because it's actually pretty insane. When they head north, they can't make it all the way because of their limited lifespans, so it becomes a kind of multi-generational relay race. Each successive generation travels further north, and it takes them three to four generations to reach the northern United States and Canada. You'd think the migration south would work exactly the same, but no. Here they develop into a super generation. Stronger and able to live longer, this generation can make the whole journey of up to 3,000 miles in one go. Arriving in the morning, it's utterly quiet in the forest. Visitors are expected not to make noise, so there's this wonderful calm sense of anticipation. At first I thought, oh yeah, I guess there's quite a few butterflies here. But then you look more closely at the leaves on the trees, and you realize those are not leaves, but hundreds of monarchs on the branches with their gray inner wing colors showing. They're still asleep, hanging in bunches from the tall firs, swaying gently in the wind. As the sun slowly warms the butterflies, they awake from their slump, and the treetops become abuzz with activity. That was just amazing. What a spectacular sight. Like sometimes one of those clusters of butterflies will just like all together launch themselves. And sometimes like two of them that are attached to each other because they're mating, they would just like fall slowly from the sky like two tandem skydivers. Yeah, I'm so glad I went in the morning because there were only a dozen people there or something, and it was just cool to see things transition slowly from like, oh yeah, there are a lot of butterflies here, to oh my god, there are just butterflies everywhere. They provide you with a guide here, which is mandatory because some of the monarchs may be on the path, and if people don't watch out, they will step on them and things like that. So they carefully like scoop up the ones that are on the path and put them in the bushes, and they make sure that the monarchs are not disturbed, which is really cool. This isn't getting tiring at all. Like I spent maybe three hours there just watching. It's amazing. Just totally amazing. Here's an important FYI. When it's cloudy, the butterflies don't fly. Look, all those dots are butterflies that are just chilling in a tree. But when there is sun, they will fly. It was time to head back, and while I loved the wonderful spectacle I just witnessed, it was also just great to be hiking through these beautiful forests. Unfortunately for me, there was no transportation available, but along with another traveler, I managed to ask a local farmer to give us a lift, and this very chatty and friendly man made the trip all the more fun. The town of Anguangueo is a former mining town that's closest to the sanctuaries, and I highly recommend staying the night here so you can see the butterflies in the morning. What struck me about the town is how much they've embraced the monarchs. You see it in the street art, the signs on the houses, even the local beer brand. But instead of just cynically slapping images of monarchs onto souvenir t-shirts and hats, I got the sense that the town takes a genuine pride in these creatures that come and go every year. Look at this wonderful mural of the town. I also like this monarch skeleton. Very good, very good. Flying skulls that are monarchs. Epic. A little bit of history here, mining history of the town, and a famous National Geographic cover. They have several weeks of festivities here to mark the end of the butterfly season. That is kind of crazy. Yeah, you can just see everywhere the butterflies are part of the identity of this town, which is really cool. It didn't used to be that way. I was reading up about it, and in the beginning, maybe like 100 years ago or something, people thought they were a pest, like a plague, because there were so many of them. So they thought there must be something wrong, like these guys are multiplying, I don't know, burn them. I don't know what they were... burn the witch. I don't know what they're saying. But yeah, clearly, it's led to a better understanding of why they are here. This town is clearly also benefiting from the monarch butterfly, and the monarch butterfly probably is benefiting from this town having an incentive to keep the forest standing and not mess with them too much. So that's very cool to see. There are actually several sanctuaries, and the next day I visited another. On my hike there, I spoke with a Mexican-American family who were originally from a nearby city, and they had come back for a vacation to the region that their parents were from. It made me wonder if perhaps the monarch's remarkable journey resonates just a little bit more here because of Mexico's own relationship with migration. Like the butterflies, some Mexicans go north seeking opportunities or go back south to their hometowns or cities. In fact, some locals believe the butterflies to be the spirits of the dead coming back to their ancestral lands. Whatever it is, there might just be something magical about the monarch. By the way, I should mention this particular migrating species is listed as vulnerable, but you can help them by planting native milkweed plants in your garden. As this is the plant they most need. If you're interested in this, you can read more details in the link in the description.