Butterfly Garden
After we got recharged at Stella’s, we stopped at the Monteverde Butterfly Garden. The view from the entrance was incredible–an overlook of the valley. It was breathtaking. We got set up with our guide, Alex, and off we went. Alex is a student from Canada and working for the Butterfly Gardens over summer break. She was a fantastic guide! We started out in the insect house. There were plenty of creepy crawlies to go around. Billy just so happened to be wearing his bug t-shirt, and surprised us all of his insect knowledge. You can check out their website here!
I grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee, and have little fear of stuff like this. Just the other day we found a small snake in our house. I thought my wife was going to have a heart attack. I picked it up and set it outside in the flower bed. There were plenty of bugs to hold at the Butterfly Garden. Alex informed us that cockroaches clean themselves after coming into contact with humans. They think WE are nasty!!
It was so hands on in the bug house, I did not get very many pictures. I did happen to get this mama scorpion with all of her babies on her back! Scorpions are venomous, however, the more abundance of prey in their habitat, the less the potency of their venom. In places with desert climates, where food is scarce, their venom is highly potent.
Mama scorpion with babies.
Headlight beetle. Alex taught us all about these guys. They have two “headlights” that light up when feeling threatened. This picture was not taken at the Butterfly Garden, but on the porch of our cabin. Thankfully, I knew what it was when it landed on my finger thanks to our visit to the Butterfly Garden.
The bug house was very cool, but we were ready to see some “las mariposas” butterflies!
Due to all the pictures and videos, this is my shortest post yet. The media does the talking in this one. We loved our visit to the Butterfly Gardens and highly recommend going if you are in this neck of the woods. Alex was a great host. We really enjoyed our time here.
I want to leave you with a short story Alex told us of the owner. When the owner was about ten years old, her mom was taking her away on vacation for about ten days or so. She had a pet cockroach and could not get anyone to “babysit” while she was away. I’m talking about one of those huge rain forest roaches. Her genius plan? Put it in the freezer! After ten or so days, she got home, and took the roach out of the freezer, popped it in the microwave on de-frost, and brought it back to life!
We were sad to leave, but we needed to relax and get some food! After relaxing at home for a little while, we made our way to a local pizza place about five minutes from our cabin. The host did not speak English at all. We used our trusty google translator to fumble our way through ordering. The views were amazing.
Once we filled our bellies, we were all ready for a nap! We got our leftovers ‘para llevar’ to go, and headed home for some R&R. We needed to get some sleep for tomorrows hiking adventure: Selvatura Park!
