Surprise trip to Toluca

Just getting caught up on the daily blog posts because... there wasn't one yesterday. Not often that we miss a day, but there was just too much going on. So if you missed yesterday's post about our paragliding fun, you can read all about it here...

https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2020/01/another-fantastic-paragliding-flight.html

We got up on Saturday morning with plans to go to the top of the Toluca Volcano. Ruth and I had been there in 2013 and we figured this would be a fun excursion for the group.

Another fantastic paragliding flight

Last year on January 1st, we took some of the group paragliding. What a great way to start off 2019! I thought the flight was fantastic, and was really looking forward to doing it again.

I was not let down by my second flight. In fact, it was even better than the first!

Valle de Bravo is a world class paragliding destination, and it's one of the reasons that the area gets a lot of international visitors.

Filet Mignon for dinner!

Yesterday before lunch, Ruth and I took the collectivo taxi into Valle de Bravo. We had a few errands to run, including booking some of the group for another paragliding flight like the one we did on January 1st last year.

First stop was the bank to pick up some more pesos, then right beside the bank was a really busy street taco stand where we each had two tacos for lunch.

Yet another visit to the butterflies

With clear sky all around Valle de Bravo, it looked like a perfect day to visit the butterflies again. This time, nine of us headed to the Cerro Pelon Reserve near the town of El Capulin. We rented a van and driver to take us there.

For Ruth and I, this was our 7th visit to see the butterflies over the years. And, our fourth different sanctuary.

A relaxing day by the lake

After such a busy day on Monday, Tuesday was a bit of a relax day. I did some planning for our future stops and got caught up on some computer work in the morning.

The newer people in our group took off into Valle de Bravo to do some exploring, while the others walked into nearby El Arco to pick up some things.

Never a dull moment!

Well, that was an interesting day!

You never know what's going to happen on a travel day, so we always try to get an early enough start so that if anything goes wrong you have lots of daylight hours to fix it.

Yesterday, we only had about an 80 km (50 mile) drive, so we didn't leave Zitacuaro until 10:00am.

An odd propane problem

Yesterday was a day off for the group, with nothing official planned. However, we are very close to the small city of Zitácuaro (pop 200,000) so some of the group decided to hop on the collectivo and go into town.

Ruth and I have driven right by Zitácuaro several times, but have never made a stop. This time, we had some other things on the go and just decided not to go. Zitácuaro will have to wait for another time.

Not the best visit to the monarch butterflies

But, it's still a fascinating experience.

This was our sixth visit to see the monarch butterfly wintering grounds in the mountains west of Mexico City. And our second visit to the El Rosario sanctuary. Depending on which article you read, there are anywhere between 8 and 16 known locations, but only 4 of them are open to the public. We have now been to Sierra Chincua twice, Piedra Herrada twice, and El Rosario twice. We have not yet visited Cerro Pelón, however that may change over the next week!

Mexico RV Caravan Travel Day - Patzcuaro to Zitacuaro

With a 9:00am start on the schedule we were up early getting Sherman ready to go. As always, everybody was ready on time, and we set out towards the big city of Morelia (pop 650,000).

We didn't really want to have to drive through the city, but the only other route option would have had us taking toll roads for most of the day. And we wanted the group to be able to see the fantastic scenery from old highway 15 going through the mountains east of Morelia.

Out exploring, and time to move on

Yesterday, some of us just hung around the campground and some of us went exploring. Ruth took off with Roger, Mona, Aron, Owenita, and Denise to go see Lago de Zirahuén.

I never left the campground.