Mexico is all about families, they go everywhere together and are very close and most of the time very happy from what we see. We also notice that it is totally ok to be affectionate with friends and siblings and parents and there are always couples kissing and cuddling wherever we go.
On the bus from Morelia to Zitacuaro Carol talked to a lady who persuaded her to get off and stay in the town of San Felipe instead of going on to Zitacuaro. There we found a lovely almost new motel for 200p and walkd into the small pueblo to eat. As we wandered about in the evening we passed a bus parked in a dark street and a man popped up at one of its windows and spoke to us in english, giving us quite a fright. This was our first moment of meeting Jorge, there was a fiesta on in town that evening and he was performing there with his group - 'come' he said ' and see everyone dancing'. So after sampling some new foods - pozole (spicey soup with chicken), pamboza (fried bun with meat and salad in), and boiled corn on a stick covered in mayo and cheese and chilli (Carols favorite) - we went to the fiesta. There were lots of groups playing one after another but the best was Jorges group that came on at about 10.30pm. They were so good that we were on our feet the whole time and even danced - YES Kent danced! Sorry no pics :) That evening the air was quite cool and Carol only had sandals on so we went home at midnight but the fiesta continued on until the wee small hours. Meanwhile though Jorge gave us his address and phone number in Zitacuaro to visit him there.
The next day was a bad one for us. We caught a local bus and asked to be let off in Ocampo where the road is to the El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary. But they didn´t let us off and took us instead to a place called Angangeo further on and told us we have to go by taxi from there. This is how it was described in our 10 year old Lonely Planet guide so we believed them (there has since been a new road made from Ocampo up to the sanctuary). So far people have always been honest with us but these bus people and the people in this town were liars. The taxi there was too expensive but we finally negotiated a lower price with another man on the street. He was to take us and wait and bring us back. He took us up this diabolical road that was really hard on his nice car but when we got within sight of the sanctuary he stopped and wouldn't go any further. Carol could smell a rat especially when the man wanted all of the money and was clearly dumping us and not waiting at all. We all got very angry and in the ensueing arguement we paid the guy off but forgot one of our bags which he took off with in his taxi. Luckily it just had our food for the day in it. It was all really upsetting and we walked to see the butterflies in a pretty foul mood realising by now about the road from Ocampo (where we had wanted to stop) and the 7p bus.
The forest was full of Monarch butterflies including the forest floor which was littered with dead ones. They fly from Canada and USA and winter over here. After watching them for a while (nothing else to do) and taking some pics which really didn´t show how many there were, we hitched and got a ride all the way back to San Felipe and cooked our own dinner on our little stove and watched some tv and had a good nights sleep.
