Soon, I come to the top of a rise along the road, and see ahead of me what appears to be a compound of sorts consisting of a number of makeshift wooden huts with smoke rising from a few.

As, I approach the compound, the road expands into an area for parking behind which the huts are arranged in a u-shape.

As I drive into the dirt parking area, I see a young girl waving at me to come to her and then she walks to stand under the sign. As I drive closer, she points to where she wants me to park.

She waits patiently as I load my daypack and when I am ready and begin walking towards her, she begins to speak in Spanish and waves at me to follow her. She then leads me directly to the first hut from which a young woman, apparently, the girl′s mother, walks out and asks me, You want food? I cook for you. I tell her, No gracias, pero sí después de ver las mariposas. which I believe means No thank you, maybe later after I see the mariposas.

I walk towards the back of the compound and see what appears to be an entrance gate; the young girl follows a few paces behind me, apparently because her mother told her to follow me and bring me back to eat in her kitchen.

At another sign near the gate, an older woman meets me and asks if I want to see the mariposa to which I answer her, Sí, mariposa!

She calls out to someone in one of the other hutas and soon, an older man walks up and says to me, Mi nombre es Pedro, soy una mariposa guia, which I understand as I am Peter a mariposa guide. I ask him, Habla Ingles?, if he speaks English, but he replies, No. I am just glad that I have brought in my pack a Spanish-Enlish translation book.

At this time I remain totally unaware of the ongoing drama that continues even now; The woman is married to the guide and has secured work for him. I don′t even pay attention to the sneer she gives the young girl and neither do I know that the woman has told her husband to ditch the kid and bring me back as a customer for her kitchen. However, it does not take long for me to understand what is happening here at this Seirra Chincoa mountain compound, all of the cooks and guides are frantically competing for the tourist money.

Meanwhile, the young girl has been dogging me each step I take all the way through the compound right through the entrance to the sanctuary.

Then the older woman calls out again and another person answers from somewhere in the forest. I surmise that this must be to tell her son to get horses ready for us. We walk together to the entrance gate, and begin walking up a wide dirt path.

Next, Pedro motions to me to follow him and soon afterwards, says something in Spanish to the young girl following us. I turn to see her with a large frown on her face, which indicates to me that he has told her to return to the compound.

I then turn to her and tell her, especially so that Pedro may also hear me, No, you may come with us and at the same time make gestures with my hands for her to come. This causes the girl to smiles wide and she runs to catch up with us.

After only a short walk, we come to a side trail where another man, a caballista, is waiting with two horses. Previously, I had decided that I needed some exercise and would choose to walk if given the opportunity to ride a horse.

So, I thank the caballista and let him know that I prefer to walk up this mountain after which, all three of us continue afoot on the Path to See the Mariposa.

We continue up on the wide path and soon, Pedro turns left on a much narrower side trail where we begin to skirt around the side of the mountain and immediately we come to several outlooks to the valleys below.