Saw 3 butterflies. More outside the garden. The guide smelled like staly beer. The enclosure was small and seemed like someone just hung up screen around the forest and called it a butterfly garden.
The garden tour was informative. The guide did a fantastic job of walking us through the different plants, seeds, and insects and how they mingle together in their own Eco system.
Once we made it up those crazy hills, soaked to the bone in perspiration, Ryan- one of the owners- took us on an easy walk on a trail through the jungle educating us about various plants and creatures of the area. He then took us into the butterfly enclosure where there were plenty of Morpho palides and other beautiful butterflies. It was a very relaxed and personalized tour which we thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from. Would definitely recommend. Two cokes and the tour ran us about $20.00
I've been there a dozen times, but just to get a soda and relax on the balcony after hiking a lot. And to pay to use their WiFi occasionally.
Everyone there is super nice and friendly. They've got hotel rooms which look really nice, I had them give me the tour once.
And the butterfly gardens are supposed to be very nice.
Only an idiot would walk up to the butterfly garden in the hottest part of the day - you go up a steep hill, up another steep hill, round the corner, and just when you think it can't be any further - guess what - up another steep hill. The signpost says it's only 800m from the town. However, the steep climb was worth it. (Of course you could always get a taxi there). We received a friendly welcome, reasonably priced cold drinks, and a 40 minute tour of the local wildlife for $6 -this must be the only place in the area where they're not out to squeeze every last penny out of you.
The tour was conducted by a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide. We walked along a short path through the woods, stopping every few feet to look at a tree, insect or other wildlife and learn an interesting fact or two about each. Then into the butterfly enclosure, where we learned more fascinating facts about the life cycle of the butterfly and had a look at some chrysalids and a couple of tame scorpions, before being left to wander around at our leisure.
We are not great wildlife lovers but we found the visit really interesting and fun, we weren't bored by too much detailed information but just told the best bits, and came away more knowledgeable about butterflies and the local ecology.
There is also a private path to the waterfall from here, which we didn't get chance to explore.
It's open daily from 8-4, I don't think they had scheduled tour times, just turn up and hope there is someone available to show you round. When we were there there were 10 species of butterfly there including the big blue ones, at other times of the year there could be more.
I imagine a lot of work goes into maintaining the butterfly garden and the environment, it's well worth supporting.
Take your SLR if you have it, don't expect to get good butterfly photos with a compact camera.
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