Fotos

Butterflies are prominently featured as part of the Costa Rica tourist experience.

While it is quite possible to see butterflies there in the "wild" (and we did), there are also many butterfly gardens set up for seeing and learning in a controlled setting.

This photo was taken during our visit of the butterfly garden in Cahuita, a small coastal town in southeast Costa Rica. On this morning, the sun was shining for the first time after a heavy storm, so heavy that the butterfly garden had to be closed for a time to clean up the grounds. The garden is outdoors, filled with native plants, with netting surrounding the entire space.

As a species, butterflies are quite diverse. Some, as this one, feed on nectar, others feed on decaying fruit.

Butterflies can also have astounding migration patterns, perhaps the most famous of which is the monarch, which travel a distance approaching 5000 km between the US and Mexico.