I departed early from the village of Angangueo, in Mexico's Transvolcanic Mountains, with a small group, all from "Gringolandia." We were hunting for monarch butterflies. Lots of them. The day was deliciously perfect. Something good was in the air. After a short hike we mounted horses for a jaunt through the misty, evergreen woods. After awhile we had seen nary a butterfly and murmers of unrest began to spread through the gringo group.

Eventually we began to see an occasional monarch. Then there were a few clusters and unrest became anticipation. We dismounted the horses to march on up the mountain. Soon, without warning, we rounded a curve in the trail, lifted our eyes, and encountered a massive orange and black wall of 300 million monarch butterflies. More or less. It was the holy grail of insectdom! Our quest. Where had it come from? It seemed to magically materialize out of the forest - only Bambi was missing from this fantasia of murmering wings. And every gringo exclaimed, "Oh my God!" (next photo)