Chaa Creek Butterfly Farm

Buttefly collage made from butterflies

Rhinoceros Beetle

Sunday afternoon Ruth & Monica accompanied us out to the Chaa Creek Resort to see their Blue Morpho Butterfly Farm. Sundays are quiet in San Ignacio, most stores and businesses are closed except the Chinese grocery stores. With Ruth directing, we found our way down a very bumpy road and climbed a gravel trail to the ticket counter for the Butterfly Farm. Along the path various trees were labelled and Ruth made sure we saw one tree in particular tree called the Black Poison wood Tree. Like it's name implies, this tree is trouble, and even just touching the bark can cause a horrible itchy rash much like our poison oak. Just a few trees down was a tree called GumboLimbo, the antidote for the poison wood tree. We also saw a coffee tree. I was shocked at how small the tree was, hard to believe coffee beans come off such a frail looking tree. The door to the History Exhibit next door was open, but otherwise the place seemed deserted. Monica went in search for any employee and we wandered through the history exhibit. There were many bones, bugs, and butterflies on display. Kris spent some time looking at the pictures of the 9 poisonous snakes that live in Belize. Monica came back alone and we decided just to explore and see what we could see.

Seeing the first butterfly of the day

Pupas

The Butterfly Farm resembled the Iguana Project in that it was a screened in greenhouse type of structure. There was a woman washing out some equipment and she gave us the go ahead to go in and look at the butterflies. We'd miss out on the formal talk that the guide would have given, but it also didn't cost us anything. We entered the are with the butterflies and the boys were desperate to hold one. We explained about how we can't touch their wings or they won't be able to fly anymore. There was a poor butterfly on the ground that was probably hours away from a certain death, so Aaron was able to hold that one. We called Monica the Butterfly Whisperer because she was able to coax many butterflies to step onto her hand! Bless her heart she'd try to transfer the butterflies from her hand to one of the boys' but more times than not, their noise or movements would scare the butterflies back into the air. We did have great luck at holding a set of butterflies that were mating, they moved much slower than the other ones and were content to stay on our hands longer. This exhibit was fantastic because we were able to see all parts of the life cycle: a bucket held the larvae and a separate screened in section had caterpillars. There were also pupas hanging with dates listed above them, and then of course the butterflies themselves. Around the room were containers with fruit like watermelon, papaya, and other melon that the butterflies were eating. Kris showed Jonathan how the butterfly's tongue came out and sucked the juice from the fruit.

Snack Time!

Butterfly Eggs! (small white balls on the leaves)

J with mating butterflies

AJ holding a butterfly

Daddy & J with butterflies

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Coffee Tree

My boys @ the Resort

Look how big this leaf is compared to J's head!!!

After our time in the Butterfly House we drove around to the Lodge and walked around the resort. This place is fancy! (and certainly expensive). Ruth & Monica knew a few of the people there and introduced us. We saw the pool and restaurant. We'd heard the many of the resorts will let you come in and let you swim in their pool, for a small fee. Ruth also let us know that we could (at this resort or any other in the area) come for lunch and then stay and swim. We're definitely adding that to our "To Do" list because I know the boys would love to go swimming!