Day 25 – Morning Metamorphosis

Owl Butterfly

The kids slept in yesterday morning until 10am. That is the first time since we have been here that anyone has slept in that late. We let them stay up the night before to watch a movie. We planned to go to a butterfly garden up the road, but it was raining. So therefore we let the kids sleep. Figured the butterflies weren’t going to be flapping around too much in the rain anyway.

Once the kids got up we slowly ready ourselves and called Marco to come pick us up. Marco is the hotel manager for Hotel Caleja, but he will also cab in the event he is not busy. It was still raining a little bit and we had planned to walk to the hotel, but a cab ride just sounded so much better. The butterfly garden, Marposario is just up the road almost in Montezuma. Marposario is the spanish word for butterfly garden. When we arrived at the gardens, Jen and Sam were actually coming out of the place. I guess great minds think alike.

Joseph was our guide today. He was a very informative young man. Anna said multiple times she had learned more about butterflies from Joseph than she ever did in the tour at the Smithsonian in DC. The whole thing was great all except for the rain. Most of the butterflies were not out due to the weather. They were either perched up in the trees under some protection of some leaves or so well blended we never saw them. We did however get to see a few different specimens. Some we caught on camera. Others were very difficult to get a proper shot of. 

The inside of this guys wings were a bright vibrant blue. Unfortnately, I could not get a shot off close enough  with its wings open. See the next picture.

I really wished I could have gotten a closer picture. They rarely opened their wings when they stayed still.

If you look closely, there is a clump of about 10-12 caterpillars well camouflaged in the middle. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see how many you count.

Hard to truly appreciate the beauty, but this guy was very colorful.

Thomas discovered this caterpillar in one of the trees. Incredible creature. It is about 3" long here.

Master of Disguise. Initially I thought this was a old leaf. 

Not sure what orchid this is, but it was different from any I have seen since I have been here.