Blue Morph Butterflies

Blue Morph Butterflies The Blue Morph Butterfly is local to this area, Central and South America as well as Mexico. the Butterfly Farm here at Chaa Creek was established in 1993, and they specialize in the captive breeding of the Blue Morpho Butterfly, .... much as i do with the Monarch Butterflies. the development cycle is the same; except their caterpillar stage lasts for 10 WEEKS... not 10 days as is the case with the Monarchs, and they hang for 4 days before transforming into the pupa, instead of 1 day. the caterpiller only eats the leaves of the Ant Tree. the caterpillers also undergo changes in their colors as they go from one instar to another ... in the beginning when they are tiny, they are bright red and black and yellow. these colors signify that they are toxic to birds, geckos, snakes, etc. as they grow they become more orange and red .... in their final stages they become very dull in color and move to the bark of trees where they are better camouflaged. before they transform into the pupa, they become greener, and seek out green leaves and trees to which they will spin their silk web and will, like the Monarchs, hang by their feet, head down, to prepare for their transformation. another difference is that the Blue Morph Butterfly only eats rotting or fermenting fruit ... not flowers ... interesting. also interesting is that it is only the INSIDE of their wings that are the beautiful blue color ... the outside of the wings are browns with subtle outlines of blue. Here you can see the outside of their wings while they are eating pineapple and melon. i'm thinking that these colors provide more camouflage while they are more vulnerable and eating. they are beautiful iridescent turquoise to blue butterflies .... depending upon how the light hits them the Butterfly House here is a 'collection' of pupa waiting to emerge .... there are rows and rows of them ! they sterilize all their equipment and leaves much as i do. i know from experience, this takes a lot of time. they have hundreds of eggs at one time. i visited with one of the guys at the butterfly house and told him about my experience with the Monarchs. i had the video on my computer and showed it to him. he was intrigued by the 'cremaster' that the Monarch uses to attached itself when it transforms into it's pupa stage. it's so fun to share information on nature! i'll also mention here another conservatory effort that was undertaken by Chaa Creek. In the mid 1950's the Howler Monkeys in Belize were totally wiped out by an epidemic of yellow fever. In the early 1990's, Chaa Creek, in conjuction with The Belize Zoo, The Audobon Society, and the Baboon Sanctuary in Belize City .... reintroduced the Howler Monkey in this area. They placed 5 monkeys on each side of the river. ....one male and 4 females. current numbers are not available but they are seeing mothers with infants, and believe the number to be around 16. the people staying at the River Camp usually hear them howling nightly ... and they say it is the loudest noise they have ever heard, ...and even if they've never heard it before ... they say it is unmistakable. sometimes they see them as well. i've been down to the camp twice, but with no luck. this is the best i can do for now ....

1 Mar--Cahal Pech

Mon, 1 Mar ...sorry for the long delay again ... i've been travelling to Guatemala ... more on that journey later ... for now ... i'll continue ... March ...already ...???????? ...and i'm still here .... anyone seen any crocus yet ? i hate to miss those sweet bright cheery flowers, ....but ... life is about choices, ..and right now, this is the right one for me. after breakfast Eddi and i caught a ride into San Ignacio to see Cahal Pech Maya Ruins; it's right on the outskirts of town and their interpretive center is very well done. gives you a lot of background on the history of this settlement of the Maya culture. Cahal Pech stands for "Land of Ticks" because there were so many dogs ... not too inviting, but today there are no ticks, thankfully :) Cahal Pech is one of the first major settlements of the Maya civilization in central Belize. it began in 1200BC and grew to be one of the most important sites of Maya history over a 1000 year period. it reached it's peak between 600-800AD with major achievements in astronomy, mathemetics, religion, science, medicine, and cultural evolution. it declined around 800AD, along with the rest of the maya settlements and was abandon in 900AD. there is debate on the reason for the collapse of the civilization. but it is agreed it was not due to earthquake, disease, etc, ... most agree that it was likely social, political, and economic deterioration. their museum is a very nice one with artifacts covering such objects as incense burners chocolate pots, my personal favorite :) and other pottery which was used for ritual purposes ... burial was also a highly developed ritual whereby the body was placed under the house of the residence with some of their belongings and and ancestory were respected and revered by the family as shown in this picture. We then headed for the site. it was quite comfortable, walking around under trees, not out in the open field (which for some reason was what i had expected). photo of the mural inside the interpretive center, of the main entrance, with temple, tall, in the background this is what the entrance looks like today this is what remains of the original temple ... from the top of this, the Maya sent smoke signals off to Xunantunich (zoo-nan-tunich), another Maya settlement, which you can see in the distance those of you who have traveled with me know how i love to photograph doors, doorways, arches, entries, etc .... so not surprisingly, i took advantage of this opportunity more archways after touring Cahal Pech, we walked into town, had some ice cream, and booked ourselves on a cave tour for Wed. as i mentioned, we are dependent upon the 'charity' of the drivers to get to and from Chaa Creek to San Ignacio. the plan was to meet Lucino at 2:30 for our ride back home .... at 3:30 we were still waiting. i had bought a bottle of rum and and some coke in town to take back ... trying to keep our 'spirits up', i suggested we make use of it while we waited. a half our later, we decided we should get a cab to take us to the dirt road back to Chaa Creek and then walk the 3 miles to the lodge .... once we got out of the cab, we needed a refill ..... along our long walk home we passed this beautiful Brahma Bull ... and continued walking the long, hot, dusty road ... no one offered us a ride ... wonder why ? the day ended with a dinner of shrimp pasta and a chocolate brownie. the internet was down again, so early to bed.

27 Feb--First Day at Chaa Creek

Sat, 27 Feb My first full day at Chaa Creek ... a few more photos of 'our house' this the living area .... my bed is just around the corner to the right this is the front of the house ... funny, ... we were standing in the front yard, and 3 horses from the stables come up the road, and they walk right onto our yard and start feeding. Eddi took me for a walk along The Medicine Trail through the RainForest. She has been developing the Interpretive Center for the Medicine Trail during the 3 weeks that she's been here. Don Elijio Panti is regarded as the last Maya Shaman master-healer of Belize. he died at 103, having passed his knowledge to Dr Rosita Arvigo, an American, who has been here for 20+ years. i like this quote from him: ..."the soil is like a bank account, you must put in and put in and wait for the interest to grow before you start making withdrawls ... the rain forest is a depository of our future ... our planetary bank account". This Medicine Trail is an educational tour showing some of the plants he was so knowledgeable about. Ceiba (say-ba) or Cotton Tree, is a giant of a tree, reaching 90ft. Ancient Mayas revered it as The Sacred Tree of Life, connecting the gods of the underworld with gods above. the seed pods have a fluffy cotton used to make pillows and stuffing vests for airforce pilots during WWI young trees have nobs/spines on their trunks which serve as structural defense against browing animals, because the wood is rather soft, .....the spines fall off as the tree matures, leaving a very smooth bark. these are the spines/nobs on a young tree ... The Cohune Palm tree is largest palm in Central Am, up to 30ft. it is one source of the "Heart of Palm'. The tree must be destroyed to harvest the 'heart' in the centre, ...makes me not want to eat Heart of Palm any longer :( that's 'little' me down there on the bottom left .. ....each of the small nuts contain a tiny coconut used locally to produce cooking oi. the outer shell of the nuts makes a charcoal used in WWII in filtration masks. NASA also uses the activated charcoal in the space program. These things would kill you if they ever fell on you; ... they are so heavy ! Bay Leaf Palm is the preferred palm for roof thatching, it's waterproof and can last for 25-30 yrs if well maintained. it is becoming scare due to habitat loss and over-harvesting. Chaa Creek has established a regeneration program. it has extremely dense wood that does NOT float, for that reason it is used to build piers, docks, sea walls this is the All Spice tree, which obviously produces the All Spice berry, it has a beautiful creamy smooth bark that peels away much like our birch bark me, with a very cool, large leaf ... at this point ..unknown to me :)

28 Feb--Birding

Sun, 28 Feb great night's sleep !!!!! got up early to join the 6:30am watching group. there were 5 of us, and we all got binoculars, and our guide, Allen, had a telescope. we stayed close to the 'lodge' and saw some birds right away. most of them similar to 'our' birds, but different of course. this is a list of the birds we saw that i did not get photos of: Baltimore Oriole, Black Cowled Oriole, Yellow Billed Cacique, Yellow Throated Euphonia, Masked Tityra, Yellow Winged Tanager, Red Throated Ant-Tanager, Summer Tanager, Collared Aracari, Rufus-Tailed Hummingbird, Magnolia Warbler, Social Flycatcher, Melodious Blackbird, Red Billed Pigeon i did get some photos .... this is a Grey-Necked Wood Rail ... found mostly along the river banks this is a Clay-Colored Robin this is a Black-Headed Trogon and the Great Kiskadee and ... the highlight of the morning had to be the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl. our guide, Allen, heard it calling. he called and called until he finally located it. it is so tiny ... about 6in. i tried to get a few shots on my own .... then he suggested i put my camera up to his telescope lense and try it that way .. what a cool idea, and it worked after breakfast we hiked one of the trails that took us through an open field .... beautiful countryside out here, with the mountains in the background ... purple ageratums, and bright yellow sunflowers then we were on our way down the road to visit with Marta, who had invited us to come for lunch. we were early, and wandered over to the house next door to look at their flowers. Eddi started a conversation with Cesario ... starting conversations are easy for Eddi ... stopping them are not :) they were speaking Spanish, Eddi said he is also a 'healer' .... this is Cesario and his poor little dog that had something wrong with his eyes, but it didn't seem to bother him ... and he LOVED his master, Cesar .... Cesario's wife and grandson .. aren't they all beautiful people .... Marta has worked at Chaa Creek for 20 years. she is now a 'hostess' in the dining room in the evenings. photo of Marta, i call her the Maya Princess for those of you who need a 'cat fix' .... Marta has a beautiful young cat named Milo ... he was so sweet ... Eddi and i both gushed over to him when we saw him on the chair! her home is a bright turquoise ... for those of you who need a 'kid fix' ... her grandson had HUGE brown eyes and was quite entertaining ... we had Salbutes for lunch. it's a Mexican dish that i had while in Caye Caulker. they are corn tortillas fried crispy and airy, then topped with chicken, chopped cabbage, and salsa. they were very good. i like the fact that they use cabbage here instead of lettuce, ... it's much crunchier and stays nicer than lettuce ... something for you to try in your Mexican dishes. after leaving her, we went to the Butterfly House back at Chaa Creek. most of you know about my Monarch Butterfly rearing activities during the summer ... so i will tell you more on the Morph Butterflies with photos in a separate blog. after leaving there, we rushed down to the river to go on a sunset canoe trip up the Macal River. the walk down the River Trail was beautiful with HUGE stands of bamboo ... did not see any Panda Bears though :) the canoe trip itself was rather uneventful, but peaceful. we saw some iguanas, egrets, and bats. awesome bamboo dinner tonight .... was a burger and french fries !!!!!!!!! WOW ! ...the first since i've been here. ...and ... Death by Chocolate for dessert. not near as good as what Terri or Deb makes ... but it was chocolate !!!!!!!!!!!! i'm helping Eddi set up her blog and add photos, etc. .... we worked in the conference center until 11:30 ... another full day came to an end !