While others preferred a hike on Bajo del Tigre, I preferred a pleasant stroll through the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens. Rose, Skye, Liz, and I paid for our entry (we got a student discount!) and waited for a few minutes for the tour to start. The view from the reception area was beautiful, with a green mountain stretching before us and then spilling down onto the western horizon. Even more interesting was the array of insect enclosures available to peek inside. Tarantulas, mantises, roaches, scorpions, grasshoppers, katydids, and beetles galore! Our tour started soon enough and our guide (who we affectionately termed “butterfly man” afterward) started with the scorpions.
Demonstrating their fluorescence with ultraviolet light, the scorpions glow, ranging from purple to blue to green. While scorpions native to Costa Rica are not particularly dangerous, some in the desert regions of the United States can pack a nasty sting.
Next were the tarantulas, one species of which our guide and those working at the butterfly garden could not identify. They believe it may be a new species entirely or a rare hybrid. Tarantulas are nocturnal, so they did not come out to say hi to us but were pretty cool, nonetheless. Next to these fuzzy arachnids was a praying mantis, who I had missed the first time due to her hanging from the roof of the screened enclosure. She looked a lot like the mantises we have in the U.S. Up next were the stick bugs, one of which we were able to hold! She was missing a front leg and wobbled a lot when she walked, but she was probably my favorite part of the tour.
Additionally, we were able to hold a cockroach, which was slightly more nerve-wracking than the stick bug, but still fun. Our guide informed us that roaches get a bad rep and are not “unclean” like many people believe them to be. Finally, some beetles chirped when the butterfly man picked them up! These insects truly are fantastic, and a great start to a great tour.
Our walk took us to three different butterfly enclosures, each highlighting a different type of habitat for butterflies: one, a hot lowland environment, another the shaded inner forest, and finally a habitat much like a garden in Monteverde. We released some blue morphos into the second forest habitat, where they were reluctant to leave our hands! The butterfly man also pointed out some purple flowers where glasswings prefer to land and feed.
After our walk, we made our way back to reception and the gift shop where we bought some things to support the gardens. It was overall a fantastic experience!
