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Finding well-being through travel and books. |
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Hello and welcome! I have two great passions in life. The first one is travel. After a series of life-changing events, my husband and I decided to spend the kids’ inheritance and see as much of the world as possible (I’m still bitter about Damascus). Our bible? A Thousand Places to See Before You Die. Please join us on our adventures seeing new places, meeting fascinating people and trying new, exciting, and sometimes just plain weird, food. My second great passion is books. Reading expands my interior world in the same way travel expands my external one. And, books are a great way to armchair travel - not only through distance but through time as well. My tastes are eclectic, so we’ll be looking at a wide range of writing in a possibly haphazard fashion. Come along for the ride! My best, Kirsten ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| One of the best parts of my trip to Ecuador was a visit to Mindo. The town is located about 79 km northwest of Quito in one of the richest areas of the planet in terms of biodiversity with over 350 species of birds and over two dozen species of butterflies. And it was the butterflies that really entranced me when we visited the Mariposas de Mindo, the Butterfly Garden. This is the largest butterfly farm in Ecuador and you can get up close and personal with hundreds of butterflies. Twenty-five species, all local ones occurring in the surrounding cloud forest, are bred here including the Morpho granadensis, the Brown owl eye and the Heleconius sara. A guide took us through a room where we could see the butterflies in all four stages of their lifecycle: egg, caterpillar, pupa and finally the adult butterfly. Pupae of all the species are hung up in rows outside the display room. The adult butterflies emerge from here and are then transferred to the flying area. The cocoons mimic many forms such as leaves and twigs to camouflage themselves. We were let loose to wander around the flying area, an enclosure filled with hundreds of the beautiful creatures. There were a number of plates filled with overripe bananas scattered around the garden. A little dab of banana on a finger, would lure a butterfly to come and hand-feed. The Butterfly Garden raises thousands of butterflies every year and, as many of these species are endangered, most are put back into the wild as part of the centre’s conservation program. After wandering around the garden for a while, I was drawn back to the rows and rows of cocoons waiting to hatch. This is a superficial pause in the life cycle of the butterfly. On the surface, the insect has withdrawn from the world, apart and yet still vulnerable. But underneath, profound metabolic change is taking place. It occurred to me, as I stood before them, that we need the same stage as humans in order to effect any significant changes in our lives. Read the rest and see the photos here  |
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