Mexico’s monarchs: a magical experience for the whole family
The secret to having a great family trip to Mexico’s monarch butterfly sanctuaries is finding the one that’s the right fit for your group.
It’s high season for monarch butterfly viewing in Mexico — the time of year when millions of butterflies arrive to their wintering grounds in the central highlands. These amazing insects migrate upwards of 3,000 miles to their winter habitat in the mountains in México state and Michoacán.
They’re here from November through March, so there’s still time to see them this winter.
We made the trip to the monarch sanctuaries of Cerro Pelón and Sierra Chincua in January with our 10-year-old daughter, friends from the U.S. and their two kids (ages 10 and 13), as well as their grandmother in her 70s. We were pleasantly surprised to find out just how accessible and family-friendly the experience was.
First of all, you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to see the butterflies. In fact, they aren’t active until midday, when the sun is strong enough to warm their bodies.
Secondly, you don’t have to hike long distances. While their colonies are high up in the mountains, most sanctuaries have horses you can ride to the top. Thirdly, you don’t need binoculars or spotting scopes like with most other wildlife viewing. In fact, the butterflies fly so close — some will land on you — you need to watch your step so you don’t hurt any.
Now back from our adventure and still abuzz with beautiful butterfly memories, I thought I’d share some tips for how to make your experience even more enjoyable if visiting the sanctuaries with kids (and grandparents).
One of the writers’ most enthusiastic pieces of advice is to get to the sanctuaries early in the day so you and your group can enjoy the magic of the monarchs without battling crowds.
Plan to stay a few days
It’s a good 3–4 hours from either Mexico City or Morelia to the nearest sanctuaries. A seven-or-more-hour round-trip car ride (with kids!) to spend just a few hours with the butterflies really isn’t enough. And if you arrive too late, there’s a crush of tourists. Instead, stay a couple days in the area and pick a few sanctuaries.
We based ourselves in the town of Macheros, México state, where we stayed three nights at the Cerro Pelón Butterfly B&B. It’s adjacent to the least-visited sanctuary of them all — Cerro Pelón, and owned by a local family that’s been protecting the butterfly colonies for decades. Managers Joel and Ana Moreno, whose father, uncle and cousin worked as forest rangers here for more than 30 years, are continuing their family’s legacy.
Their beautiful B&B and guiding service caters to butterfly tourists worldwide, and their nonprofit, Butterflies and Their People, supports a new generation of forest guardians.
With a pool, a big lawn where the kids can play, cozy rooms with fluffy robes, piles of fleece blankets (it gets cold at night!) and stuff to fix yourself a warm drink, this was the perfect home base for our group of eight.
Pick the right sanctuary for your family
Each sanctuary offers visitors a unique experience, and some require a bit more effort than others to reach the butterflies. For families with younger kids and less mobile adults, El Rosario or Sierra Chincua is a good option, with its easier hiking trails and 15–20 minute horseback rides to the butterflies. There are bathrooms, food and craft stands, picnic areas and parking at the bottom.
If visiting here, I’d recommend staying at the lovely Pueblo Mágico of Agangueo, Michoacán, a half-hour drive from either site. Have older kids or active older adults? Cerro Pelón is a must; it feels more like an adventure than the other sites.
No matter what the fitness levels and amenities preferences of your group, you’ll want to say yes to the guided horseback rides to the butterfly colonies.
It’s a little over an hour on horseback to the colonies, and a climb of 2,000 feet. (You can also hike it.) The view at the top feels much more intimate than at the more developed sanctuaries.
Trust me: hire the horses
All sanctuaries require you to go with a guide. You can either hike to reach the colonies or go by horseback with the guide leading the horse. If you’re wondering which way to go on this, trust me, you want a horse — especially if you are traveling with kids. All the colonies are at about 10,000 feet in elevation, so even a short hike at that altitude can be taxing.
Since the Cerro Pelón ride is the longest, I’d recommend visiting this sanctuary first if you are visiting more than one; if your bum is too sore to get back on a horse the next day, the hike on foot will be easier at the other sanctuaries. We opted for the horses every time, and the kids had a blast.
Don’t visit on weekends
The sanctuaries are far less crowded in the middle of the week. We visited Cerro Pelón on a Monday and were among just a small group of people quietly viewing the butterflies at the top of the mountain. It was magical, sitting and watching the butterflies fly all around us. Our whole group was mesmerized; even the kids never once said they were bored.
We visited Sierra Chincua on a Tuesday and arrived just before the crowds got too big. It was a lovely viewing experience as well.
Bring creative tools for capturing the experience
Our younger girls spent time each afternoon drawing colorful butterflies, and the teenager brought her camera to take close-up butterfly photos. I thrilled at the sight of our kids entertaining themselves without screens after our day’s adventures. One of them even said that they were glad not to have Wi-Fi at the B&B so that they could just have fun and create. (We didn’t tell them the B&B had perfectly good internet.)
On the way from Mexico City to the Cerro Pelón butterfly sanctuary on the Mexico-Toluca highway, La Marquesa — an amusement park of sorts — has food, hiking, swimming, quad bikes and many other enthralling activities for kids, including this “gerbil ball.”
Hire a driver to get you there
After weighing all the options for getting to Cerro Pelón — buses, Ubers, taxis, etc. — we opted to hire a private van and driver. It cost us US $760 round-trip from Mexico City, but it wasn’t much more than the two Ubers we would have needed.
A van and driver meant we could stop whenever we wanted, and everyone had lots of space to spread out or nap. We arranged our driver through our B&B, so you might get a better deal if you find one on your own, but the turnkey service was so worth it and our driver was such a pro.
Our driver, Hector, made a stop at La Marquesa — a national park in Toluca off the Mexico-Toluca highway — where you can ride horses or quad bikes, fish, go boating and more. Or, do what our kids did: tumble around in a giant, inflatable gerbil ball!
Our time with the monarchs was one we’ll never forget. And now that we know how family-friendly it can be, we are already thinking about a return trip with our daughter’s grandparents next year.
9th Annual Taste of Lo de Marcos to be Held February 19
Lo de Marcos, Nayarit – Get ready for the 9th Annual Taste of Lo De Marcos! Each year this annual Fundraising Events gets more and more popular and it’s time to get the party started! Let’s get excited as we welcome of the return of The Taste of Lo de Marcos for its Ninth Annual Fundraising Event in Lo De Marcos. (Actually we took two years off for Covid so it’s really our 7th consecutive event.)
The Taste of Lo De Marcos will be held Sunday, February 19, 2023 from 3:00 until 9:00 pm in the town plaza. The event will feature LIVE music from 3:30 pm until closing.
In addition to the music, the event features food from restaurants located in the Pueblo of Lo De Marcos. The meals and tastes will range from casual to Five Star Dining. There will also be several Artisanal Booths with unique handcrafted items and jewelry for purchase scattered throughout the event for the shopper in all of us.
This year’s entertainment will feature the beautiful and talented Paty Maciel from 3:30-5:30, and then The Municipal Folkloric Ballet “TINTOC” will take over the main stage from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.
Founded in 1999, the group has grown and currently has a total of 45 members ranging from children and young people from thirteen to twenty-two years of age who form the Ballet Folklorico, which is representative of the municipality of Bahía de Banderas.
The group has performed at many of the towns within the Municipality of Bahía de Banderas and on an International level sharing the Culture of Mexico, its musical notes and dances that fill our hearts. The group brings the National Cultural Heritage of Mexico everywhere they visit.
Bringing the Ballet to Lo de Marcos for the Taste of Lo de Marcos would not have been possible without the effort and dedication put in by Karen Contreras, the Director of Operations for Galvan Real Estate and Services.
Admission to the event is Free, you just pay for consumption. If you wish to reserve a seat for the entertainment, that can be done by emailing GalvanRealEstate4(at)gmail.com or stopping by the real estate office. The cost for reserved seating is $100.00 pesos each.
The proceeds of the event are donated equally to The Amigos de Lo de Marcos, A.C., who provide service and funding for many of the projects undertaken in this coastal town, and Citizens Actions Committee of Lo De Marcos, who is responsible for organizing the traditional and cultural events of the year. We encourage you all to come on out to support this worthy Fundraising event and have a whole lot of fun at the same time.
The event, organized by Galvan Real Estate and Services is done to help facilitate the donations that continue to keep Lo De Marcos the jewel that it is. Luis Armando Contreras Galván, Broker of Galván Real Estate and Services is pleased to support the fine work of the Amigos Group, with whom he currently serves as the group’s President, and The Citizens Action Committee. Both of these organizations work diligently to promote and preserve the unparalleled and unspoiled beauty of Lo De Marcos.
“We are happy that this event is such a success each year because it really brings the entire community together,” Luis Armando said.
Event Sponsors include NovaMar Insurance, Galvan Real Estate and Services and Riviera Nayarit who will each be present at the event and look forward to welcoming you!
The Event Sponsors include NovaMar Insurance, Galvan Real Estate and Services and Riviera Nayarit who will each be present at the event and look forward to welcoming you!
We encourage everyone to come on out to Lo de Marcos on Sunday, February 17th from 3:00 to 8:00 pm to support this worthy cause and have a whole lot of fun at the same time.
