Madre Verde

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For the next five months (until July 25) I will be working at a butterfly garden named Madre Verde outside of San Ramon, Costa Rica. It's pretty simple work consisting of little more than making sure the butterflies have food (bananas) everyday, moving the caterpillars to different trees with better leaves (hojas en español), watering the plants, and moving new butterflies from the "nursery" to the garden (mariposario en español). In addition to the beautiful butterflies, I've seen a handful of anoles and geckos and a surprising number of gorgeous birds. I'm working slowly but surely to make it seem like you're down here with me!

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Photos

Bienvenidos
"Welcome to Green Mother" (probably referring to Mother Nature)

This way
This is as far as the bus takes me... gotta walk the rest (about a 5 minute walk)

On my way to work
About half-way between the bus stop and the entrance to Madre Verde

Turn
I take a right and keep on chuggin'

Not yet
Still have a bit to go before I get to the butterfly garden

Mariposario
Inside is where all the action is!

Butterfly paradise
Here's a panorama of the inside of the butterfly garden

Some people just don't seem to care about Earth
"Our only home is planet Earth. Take care of it!" I'm pretty sure that "puto" is something profane.

Lucky shot!
Heliconius charitonius (flying) & Heliconius hecale (on flower)

Let's be mature here people
In case you were curious, yes, this is how butterflies have sex... quit laughing back there!

Tijo (Groove-billed Ani)
Similar to crows but not as ugly or annoying

Mating show
After bobbing his head back and forth, this anole shows off his color to the ladies!

Unknown Mariposa
Don't know its name, but it sure is beautiful!

Elanio Tijereta (Swallow-tailed Kite)
I think that's trash attached to its foot... tisk tisk, Costa Rica

Largartija espinosa (Green Spiny Lizard)
Cute, huh?

Beware of Bark
I had to be careful where I sat as I tried to get closer to the hummingbirds!

Oropéndola de Montezuma (Montezuma Oropendola)
This is my favorite bird here in Costa Rica. It has a really melodic call that is accompanied by a forward swoop (sits on a branch, leans forward until completely upside-down, then shows off its yellow tail as it comes back up).

Largartija de suelo (Ground Anole)
Am I in Jurassic Park or Costa Rica?

Tucancilo Verde (Emerald Toucanet)
My first toucan!

Xiomara (18) and Angel (15)
Two of the three daughters of the local family

Morpho peleidas limpida
The morpho makes up the majority of the butterflies at Madre Verde.

Comments

[From Mom]

More!
Just when I thought I'd seen them all, you keep adding more (or so it seems) ...love your shots...I guana closeup is awesome!! Keep 'em comin'