It is a beautiful Autumn morning, the sky is blue, the morning mist feels as thin as the breath of the lovers, when in the Sierra Chincua sanctuary, the kids of the place were all ready offering seasonal fruits to the tourist that, after a lot of rumors, at last, they were there to visit the place where the Monarch butterfly hibernates. And it couldn't be other way, after knowing the marvelous trip this insects do every year, the curiosity after them cannot be left for a next day.

The Monarch butterfly arrives each year to the east side of the Michoacán state, bordering with the State of Mexico, where it finds shelter in a warm enough place to keep its lethargy from the hibernation alive, and the special food they need satisfying for moths their necessity in Mexican land. The most surprising about the butterfly that we see warming their wings to the sun, is, that they are the most long-lived of their species, and they have made the incredible distance of over 2500 miles to arrive.

This sovereign is fragile, it lives for a few months only, coloring the waves of the air in the forests. But the one that leaves of Canada and north of United States toward Mexico is the more long-lived one; Almost as if their ancestors had sacrificed time of their lives to be given it in form of inheritance of hope, and this way, it could take the long trip at the beginning of the winter, flying toward the promise of a place that some great grandmother knew just the last year. And it will navigate trough the skies without frontiers, with all its life and faith, until the end, that are the sanctuaries that we have for them; ending up navigating the winds at the great speed of 20 km. per hour.

When it arrives to Mexican land, their life is wrapped up among the clouds of dreams, because they are in hibernation lethargy. They have burned great part of their energy in their trip until they arrive to the aromatic forests; then they use the benevolent caresses of the sun to heat their wings and then go down to the ground to drink water in the puddles that the dew has formed. This way, day after day passes by, along the winter; and it is during this season that is possible to feel the subtle magic that this butterflies remove off their wings, when one walks in their territory. It is impossible to hide a smile and the marvel that it flourishes in the heart.

When finally, the days begin to heat, leaving behind the winter, the Monarch begins to wake up from its winter dream and to look out for a mate, performing a sensual flight. Soon, they will begin their returning trip... they have lived until then about 6 months; over four times more that their progenitors or their descendants, and they will still go disrupting their forces during the next weeks until they arrive to their origin place.

FOR THOSE WHO PLAN THIS VISIT:

The monarch butterfly is considered as a patrimony of the whole humanity, and is all the visitors' responsibility to respect the protection norms, because they are very fragile insects. Therefore, before visiting the sanctuaries consider the following rules:

• It is necessary to keep silence, control your children to follow this recommendation; try to listen and enjoy the sound of the forest.
• It is forbidden:
• To hunt, to capture or to collect any species of wild fauna, as well as to cut trees or plants.
• To throw pollutants to the air, water or ground. Please, don't throw garbage neither smoke!.
• To light up fire or to smoke.
• To leave the paths marked to be the tourist journeys.
• To eat or drink inside the reservation.
• To touch or to step the butterfly.
• To throw away any object to the butterfly.
• To use flash of photographic camera.