Zitácuaro

Sunday morning we headed out of town early, hoping that the traffic would be light and that we would not have any trouble with the width of the jeep as we negotiated the narrow streets.  We stopped to get a cup of coffee and I found a bakery to get a couple of sweet rolls for the road trip.  We would be driving for about 6 hours back northwest to the mountains that we had left 3 days before.  We would be heading to the town of Zitácuaro and staying at Hotel Rancho San Cayetano. Rancho San Cayetano www.ranchosancayetano.com

 Everyone said that this was a must stay place and Peggy even suggested getting this reservation first and then planning your other stops around this reservation.  We followed that advice and we would recommend the same thing to anyone else interested.  There are 12 comfortable rooms, pool and 13 acres of groomed landscape.  The dining room is a communal affair where guests share tables.  We met a great couple, Helen and Nick Cuccaro who drove down from Colorado to visit the butterflies.  Helen has spent one month a year for the past 12 living with a family in Mexico so it was great to have a very fluent Spanish speaker around us.  This dining area is decorated with many local crafts, a large welcoming fireplace and an area to watch three videos about the monarch butterflies.  If you did not know it before the videos and the following discussion, the owners of this hotel, have a passion for the butterflies.

Points of Interest

 There are eight sanctuaries in the area and the newest one, Cerro Pellón has the least amount of illegal logging and therefore more shelter for more butterflies.  Also this is not a high tourist attraction area so you will not find 5,000 tourists there on a weekend like you would find at the best known area. Our group of 10 people went with our guide to the staging area where we mounted horses and proceed to ride for an hour and ½ up the mountain.  Many men walked with us and I believe that each woman rider had someone walking along, leading the horse.  After we reached the spot where we dismounted the horses, we had about another 20 minute hike up the mountain to see the best collections of monarchs.  Now we had been seeing butterflies all the way on the trip, but when we got to the trees where they rest, we were dazzled by the number, the beauty, and sound of their fluttering wings.  When a slight breeze rustled the branches a wave of flapping wings took to the air.  They bobbed like aimless acrobats, as we sat and observed the orange array below us.  They were everywhere and our cameras were a constant click in the hope of capturing the wrap-around action.  Picking a photo of the butterflies was difficult because Hank and I both took about 350 pictures.

After walking back down to the horses, eating our lunch that the hotel had sent, we walked down the ravine to see where the butterflies go for water.  Finally it was time to remount and ride back to the cars.  It was 3:30 in the afternoon and we had started out at 10:30 in the morning.  We were dusty and tired but we were smiling from ear to ear at what we had experienced.  The hotel pool was very attractive to the dusty tired riders and we each dove into the unheated pool to swim a few strokes before basking in the sun. 

 The following day we took a sight seeing trip to the small towns that are near Zitácuaro.  We stopped at the office of the hotel and Pablo Span, the owner, was right there ready with maps, lunch suggestions, and places of interest. I wanted to visit the town of Tlalpujahua where famous Christmas balls are made.  We had been told about this town by two gals we met while having breakfast in Pátzcuaro. 

 We headed north for about 9 miles and turned off the road to see the archeological site of San Felipe de los Alzati.  It was early in the morning so we walked into the site and again marveled at the way heavy stones had been moved to form pyramid shapes.  

 Continuing up the road toward the town of Ciudad Hidalgo which is about 30 miles north of Zitácuaro, we wanted to stop and explore the Tziranda Grots (Caves).  We missed the turn off on the first go round, but finally we found a sign pointing the way.  We went with a Spanish speaking guide and found underground formations of great beauty as well as a grot of 300 meters illuminated and with environmental music which adds to the magical experiment.

 After leaving the grots we headed to the town of Senguio, we were driving on a small road and when we got to this town we had difficulty finding where the main road went.  After our second tour around the town plaza we asked a man who proceeded to draw us a map of how to get back to the main road.  As he drew he explained in Spanish what the directions were, we followed his instructions and the road we were on finally joined the main road to Tlalpujahua.  This town was a real disappointment to me for the House of Santa Claus was closed for lunch and the only other Christmas balls we saw were the regular type that you can find in any store.  We did find a stand that was selling fruit pastes that look very much like a brick and are called “ates.”  We asked a store keeper where to eat and he recommended a home type place that we were able to share a wonderful lunch.  We didn’t stay too long for we were going home by a different route and we didn’t know what to expect, but we knew that you don’t want to drive at night in Mexico. 

 The San Pancho’s Church is a very unassuming being a simple stone building.  Its real name is Saint Fracis Coatepec and is one of the oldest in eastern Michoacán.  In 1991 it was almost in complete abandonment due to the lack of economic resources, but in 2000 the father decided to try to remove the vinyl paint which covered the altar.  He realized that the altar was from around 1550.  Even though the altar is plain it appears to be golden the way the light plays upon the stone.  This was the only church visited by Prince Charles on his 2002 trip to Mexico.

 Restaurants 

Staying at Hotel Rancho San Cayetano you don’t need to worry about where to eat for they fix a wonderful breakfast and if you make reservations, a 3 course dinner that would rival any 5 star chef in the United States.  We ate there two of our three nights and loved our meals. The third night we ate at a Zitácuaro restaurant called Memo y Johhy’s which was on Martinez de Lagarza, phone number 715-153-61-95.  We split a dinner and had more than enough food, most importantly it was delicious!