Beathtaking Butterflies (Monarcas en las Montanas de Michoacan)

Yesterday, we went to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Michoacan, Mexico. It's about a 2 hour drive from our house in Toluca. It's become popular for people to drive from all over Mexico to see the monarchs, and also for North Americans to travel to Mexico in the winter just to see them. I don't think I'd ever spend that kind of money just to see butterflies, so we decided to see them while we were so close.
The Monarch Butterflies spend their summers near the Great Lakes of the US & Canada and their winters hibernating in central Mexico. While they're here, they mainly just sleep in the trees and try to soak up as much sunshine as possible.
I think the butterflies are natural snowbirds.
Which was pretty funny, considering that most of the North Americans who came to see them (this weekend at least) were also early retirees - snowbirds themselves, most likely. We definitely stood out, speaking accented Spanish but looking very gringo, hiking with appropriate difficulty up to see the butterflies.
It's a 2 hour drive from our house to the reserve, then a 90-minute uphill climb to the trees where the butterflies are spending their winter. After about 15 minutes, the crowds overpower the sense of awe, and we started back down the mountain.
But was it worth it?
Definitely.
Mainly bc now I can cross something else off my list of things to see and do in Mexico, but also bc I can identify with those butterflies. They flew here all the way from MI (or somewhere close) and all they want to do, when they get here, is to soak up the sun and hang out with other butterflies. The least I can do is climb up the mountain and appreciate their travels.
Unfortunately, these butterflies will never see the great lakes again. They'll mate in Mexico, and then the males will die here. The females will fly en masse back to the southeastern US in April, where they will lay their eggs before they die. The caterpillars will hatch, morph into new monarchs and then go north. (Some of those butterflies will mate again in the Great Lakes region.)
I'm very thankful that we get to share our Mexican experienes with many generations of our families, whether they can visit us here or not, and that we get to go home and tell others about it.
But monarchs may always symbolize this trip for me.