Butterfly Destination: Massive Mariposario Yeé Lo Beé Aims to Put Huatulco on the Map BY MMAECKLE : Thursday, September 19, 2013

Butterfly Beat

Monika Maeckle is a butterfly evangelist, caterpillar wrangler, Master Gardener, Monarch tagger and curious student of nature who loves the whole life cycle. You can reach her at butterflybeat@gmail.com.

Butterfly Destination: Massive Mariposario Yeé Lo Beé Aims to Put Huatulco on the Map

BY MMAECKLE : Thursday, September 19, 2013

I’m no life lister–not for birds, nor for butterflies.  Checking species off a list doesn’t do it for me.

My interest lies in tromping through nature, observing, enjoying–and occasionally touching and photographing–the life cycle.  The closer-up and more tactile the experience, the better.  That’s just one reason I enjoy raising butterflies at home.   You can witness the whole process, up close and in person.

Dainty Sulphur egg spotted along a beach trail in Huatulco, Oaxaca Mexico. Photo by Monika Maeckle

That said, it’s always special to see new creatures in all their iterations–a new stage of caterpillar whose butterfly form you’ve experienced in the garden or eggs discovered on the underside of a host plant. You have to look to find them.  Once you do, there’s no turning back.

You have to look to find them: caterpillar stage of the One-spotted prepona spotted in the archaelogic park in Huatulco, Mexico.   Photo by Monika Maeckle

One of the best ways to do that is to travel to new places and venture into the wilds. Another is to visit a flyhouse, or butterfly exhibit, at a natural history museum, zoo, nature park or freestanding.   I had the opportunity to partake in both types of butterflying recently on a trip to Huatulco, Mexico, which seems to be angling to position itself as a butterflying and birding destination.

Yeé Lo Beé, under construction in La Jabalina just minutes from ecotourism resort in Huatulco, Mexico, aims to be the largest mariposario or butterfly house in Mexico. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Huatulco is a great place for butterflies.  Oaxaca probably has the highest number of butterfly species in Mexico, according to butterfly expert and guide book author Kim Garwood, who has written two volumes on Central American and Mexican butterflies.  With beach, jungle, lowland selva and mountains, every kind of habitat is available, said Kim.  ”When you have lots of different habitats and microhabitats, you have lots of plant diversity, which means lots of different butterfly species as well.”

Apart from the low jungle and high mountains of the Sierra Madre, Huatulco will soon offer one of the largest mariposarios, or butterfly houses, in Mexico.  Yeé Lo Beé, which translates to “flower of heaven” in the Zapotec language of the native people of La Jabalina where the massive flyhouse is under construction, has been in development for two years and is scheduled to open in October.

Yeé Lo Beé biologist Ivonne Flores recently gave me, Kim Garwood and our Huatulco nature guide Cornelio Ramos Gabariel a tour of the the 75-acre site, almost a third of which will be devoted to a flyhouse, supporting plant nurseries, an “iguanario” or iguana exhibit, and other features.   The ecopark will also feature a “butterfly liberation” area where visitors can release butterflies raised on the premises.   Cost will likely run about $25 and the park will be geared to tourists and cruise ships who visit Huatulco for day trips.

Flores showed us the laboratory where the Yeé Lo Beé staff will produce all of the 1,000 butterflies that will occupy the 3000-square foot flyhouse each day with some 25 species of butterflies native to the Huatulco area.  Flores oversees the lab as well as the three greenhouses where hundreds of host plants are tended by local people.

Yvonne Flores, staff biologist at Yeé Lo Beé in the lab with her favorite butterfly, the Kite-Swallowtail. Flores has been training locals to identify and help cultivate butterfly livestock for the mariposario. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Park developers have not enlisted outside expertise in planning or execution of the mariposarionor for securing its livestock, said Flores, choosing instead to grow their own.    It’s relatively uncommon and extremely ambitious for such a large-scale project to produce its own livestock, especially with such a wide variety of species.

What a beauty! Flores shows off her favorite butterfly at Yeé lo Bée in Huatulco, Mexico. Photo by Monika Maeckle

“It’s not common,” said Nigel Venters, a longtime butterfly breeder and consultant to the butterfly breeding business based in Argentina.    Venters has worked with flyhouses all over the world–from Saudi Arabia and England to Costa Rica and New York.   “There are very few flyhouses that raise a big percentage of what they display.  This is not easy and takes many years of experience.”

We applaud the effort and look forward to visiting again once it’s open.

According to the institutional video, Yeé Lo Beé is founded “by a group of people passionate about the responsible use of nature.”   Founder and Mexican impresario Genaro Gomez categorized the massive project as “Not a personal project.  It’s a project of Huatulqueños, and all the people that work in Huatulco.”

A Julia butterfly at Llano Grande Mariposario or “Butterfly Camp” near Huatulco, Mexico. Photo by Susan Ford-Hoffert

Another mariposario, less ambitious and further from the main tourist center, lies about an hour away.  Llano Grande, a project of the Zapotec community, offers a modest butterfly house with a handful of species in their various stages.  School groups, locals and adventurous tourists mingle along the circular path inside, as a local cook whips up fajitas and elotes (grilled corn) in a large palapa.

The destination sits on the banks of the LLano Grande river (no relation to our own Llano River in the Texas Hill Country) and offers a lovely waterfall for bathing as well as an enormous food palapa and event area.   A souvenir stand and swimming area beckon and a plant nursery operates seasonally, offering plants used in traditional medicine.  Llano Grande offers a different, more local experience than you’ll expect at the grand Yeé lo Beé. Cost to enter is about $3.

Each of these adventures presents different charms.  Add a butterflying trip to the jungle and mountains and your Mexican butterfly adventure will be complete.

More stories like this:

• Blue Morphos and a Butterfly Bonanza in Huatulco, Mexico
• Alamo, Texas:  A great base for birds, bugs and butterflies
• Black Witch Moth:  Large, Batlike and Harmless
• Loathed by Gardeners:  the Tomato Hornworm Morphs into the Magnificent Sphinx Moth
• Jimsonweed Hosts the Magnificent Sphinx Moth
• Tropical Milkweed:   To Plant it or Not, It’s not a Simple Question

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Categories: Mexico

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Monika Maeckle

A Butterfly Bonanza and Blue Morphos to be found in Huatulco, Mexico BY MMAECKLE : Thursday, September 19, 2013

A Butterfly Bonanza and Blue Morphos to be found in Huatulco, Mexico

BY MMAECKLE : Thursday, September 19, 2013

I made myself a rule several years ago to stop running blindly after butterflies with my net.   Too often I had done so, often in the Llano River, chasing Monarchs in the fall when they return to Mexico.   Sometimes I would trip on a rock, slip on wet limestone and narrowly avert catastrophe in the middle of nowhere with the closest hospital hours away.

Blue Morpho netted on the trail near Huatulco in Oaxaca, Mexico.     Photo by Monika Maeckle

But the sight of a Blue Morpho, one of the most beautiful butterflies on the planet, languidly tracing a dirt road from the tropical canopy of the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico this summer caused me to break my own rule.  Running full speed while looking up, I chased the butterfly for about 500 feet before tripping on a fallen branch.  Luckily I caught myself.  We were many miles from medical assistance.

I gave my net to Cornelio Ramos Gabriel, our able nature guide.   Within a half hour, Cornelio had nabbed a Morpho peleides, whose wingspan can reach eight inches and whose blue wing flashes have made the species a target of collectors in addition to its natural predators. We photographed the beauty and released her.  Cornelio told me that the dreamy flyer is relatively common in these parts, along with its dramatic sister, the White Morpho.  We saw several examples of both on our day trip to Finca Monte Carlo, a lovely coffee plantation in the Sierra Madre.

Welcome to CasaTulco! Not a bad place to compare trail notes after a day of butterflying in Huatulco. Photo by Veronica Prida

My five-day butterfly trip was the scheme of dear friend and fellow San Antonians Veronica Prida and Omar Rodriguez, the hosts of CasaTulco, a fabulous nature retreat set in the ecofriendly tourist destination of Huatulco, Mexico.  The resort lies in Oaxaca, about 300 miles south of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.

Veronica and I have been butterfly buddies for years and she was kind enough to assemble a butterfly trip that included me, butterfly guide book author Kim Garwood, and birder/photographer Susan Hoffert.  Cornelio and Mateo Merlin Sanchez worked hard as our guides, catering to our every whim as we made CasaTulco our base.  In the evenings, we lolled by the pool, recounted our adventures, and researched unknown finds as the entire CasaTulco staff attended our need for margaritas, chilaquiles and wi-fi.  It was a magnificent trip.

Superb Cycadian chrysalises nestled on the leaf of a cycad palm at Finca Monte Carlo near Huatulco. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Our Blue Morpho outing took us on a two-hour spine-jangling, four-wheel drive jaunt up a dirt road that wound through tropical mountain forests and tracked a vibrant stream.   We saw 117 species of butterflies in just 48 hours.  Kim seemed nonplussed each time Susan or I pointed out a new find, patiently identifying its common and Latin names, her capacity for recall a stunning reminder of my own frequent forgetfulness.

“That’s a Fine Line Hairstreak,” said Kim upon one of my inquiries. “He likes roadside edges.”  Is that unusual?   ”No.”

After a fruitful stop at a small cascada, or waterfall, where various Swallowtails and Sulphurs puddled and danced above the rushing water and an Owl butterfly hid in the thick underbrush, we arrived at Finca Monte Carlo.  Our gracious host, Efren Ricardez Scherenberg, escorted us directly to a mature cycad palm where a cluster of Superb Cycadian butterflies had just pupated.  The brown and black chrysalises, called capullos in Spanish, looked like designer chocolates from a high-end confectionary.

Superb Cycadian butterflies hatched from their distinctive chrysalises at Finca Monte Carlo in Oaxaca, Mexico just days after our departure.  Photo by Efrem Ricardez Scherenberg

Efren explained that every year about this time the caterpillars and later chrysalises appeared, just for a short while.  He believed they would hatch the following morning, but  they did not.  He graciously shared the photo above just two days after our departure.

Balcony porch of Finca Monte Carlo–perfect for bird and butterfly watching. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Our sojourn into the surrounding tropical forest lead us down a lovely mountain trail where a roaring spring-fed creek spilled over rocks under a thick canopy.   Birds were ubiquitous and insects in every stage of development invited photos and inspection.  That evening, a storm sparked a power outage and the full moon provided our light as a freshly hatched Black Witch Mothsettled into the kitchen allowing for close inspection with a flashlight.

Black Witch Moth settles into the kitchen at Finca Monte Carlo.  Photo by Monika Maeckle

The surrounding grounds, lush with tropical vegetation and shade grown coffee, offered its own extravaganza of bird and insect life.   Mateo carried a spotting scope for close-ups, as Ulises, the sweet, very spoiled and friendly house cat, accompanied us on meanders through nearby Anthurium beds where dozens of enormous and varied bumblebees harvested pollen from the showy flowers’ spikes.

Mateo and Ulises come up the rear in our tropical hike of the coffee finca’s lush grounds. Photo by Monika Maeckle

A variety of bumblebees feast on the Anthurium’s pollen spike. Photo by Monika Maeckle

Interestingly, we also found some Tropical milkweed growing along the driveway’s edge.  On it, several eggs–either Monarchs or Queens.  Efren will let us know.

Tropical milkweed grows wild along the road in Oaxaca during the rainy season. Photo by Monika Maeckle

The next morning, we packed to head back to CasaTulco.

NEXT:  Mariposarios (butterfly houses) of Huatulco, from Llano Grande to Yeélo beé Parque y Mariposario.

hurricane manuel

The Path of Hurricane Manuel

Hurricane Manuel hammers Mexico (+video) Hurricane Manuel is hammering the western Mexico state of Sinaloa, dumping up to 20 inches of rain. Hurricane Manuel is expected to weaken to a tropical storm over the next 24 hours. By Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press / September 19, 2013

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0919/Hurricane-Manuel-hammers-Mexico-video

The projected storm track for Hurricane Manuel over the western Mexico state of Sinaloa as of Thursday morning.

National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Central Hurricane Manuel: 97 Dead as Victims Recount Horror Michael Weissenstein Published: Sep 19, 2013, 7:13 PM EDT Associated Press

Hurricane Central

Hurricane Manuel: 97 Dead as Victims 

Recount Horror

Michael Weissenstein Published: Sep 19, 2013, 7:13 PM EDT Associated Press

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ACAPULCO, Mexico -- With a low, rumbling roar, an arc of dirt, rock and mud swept down the hillside in the remote mountain village of La Pintada, sweeping houses in its path, burying half the hamlet and leaving 68 people missing in its mad race to the river bed below.

It was the biggest known tragedy caused by twin weekend storms that struck Mexico, creating floods and landslides across the nation and killing at least 97 people as of Thursday - not counting those buried in La Pintada.

Every one of the nearly 400 surviving members of the village remember where they were at the moment the deadly wave struck on Monday afternoon, Mexico's Independence Day.

(MORE: Is Another Gulf of Mexico Storm on the Way?)

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Nancy Gomez, 21, said Thursday that she heard a strange sound and went to look out the doorway of her family's house, her 1-year-old baby clutched in her arms. She saw the ground move, then felt a jolt from behind as her father tried to push her to safety.

She never saw him again. He's among 68 missing in the slide or a second one that fell and buried victims and would-be rescuers alike.

When the rain-soaked hillside, drenched by days of rain during Tropical Storm Manuel, gave way, it swept Gomez in a wave of dirt that covered her entirely, leaving only a small air pocket between her and her baby.

"I screamed a lot, for them to come rescue me, but I never heard anything from my mother or father or my cousin," she said as she lay on a foam mattress in a temporary shelter in Acapulco, her legs covered with deep welts. Eventually, relatives came from a nearby house and dug her out.

The missing from La Pintada were not yet included in the official national death toll of 97, according to Mexico's federal Civil Protection coordinator, Luis Felipe Puente. Some 35,000 homes across the country were damaged or destroyed. Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said he now had a list of names of 68 missing La Pintada residents, but suggested that some may be alive and may have taken refuge in neighboring ranches or hamlets.

Government photos show major mudslides and collapsed bridges on key highways, including the Highway of the Sun, a major four-lane expressway that links Acapulco to Mexico City. All the main arteries to the Pacific Coast resort town remained closed Thursday.

(MORE: Most Intense U.S. Hurricanes | Hurricane Safety and Prep)

Federal officials set up donation centers for storm aid Thursday, but they faced stiff questioning about why, instead of warning people more energetically about the oncoming storms, they focused on Independence celebrations and a military parade that kept dozens of aircraft and emergency vehicles in Mexico City, instead of the states where they were most needed. Congressman Manuel Huerta of the leftist Labor Party said "the underlying issue is that the federal government bears a large part of the responsibility for this tragedy."

Manuel, the same storm that devastated Acapulco, gained hurricane force and rolled into the northern state of Sinaloa on Thursday before starting to weaken, falling again to tropical storm strength.

Sinaloa Gov. Mario Lopez Valdez says 100,000 thousand people have been affected by the storm and that one fisherman drowned in the village of Yameto. He didn't say if that death is included in the national toll.

Sinaloa civil protection authorities said some areas were already flooding and more than 2,000 people were evacuated, many from small fishing villages on the coast.

Manuel weakened to a tropical storm by Thursday afternoon after hitting Sinaloa as a Category 1 hurricane earlier in the day, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The center said it would continue to spread heavy rains inland.

And a tropical disturbance was moving toward Mexico's soggy Gulf coast even as the countries struggles to restore services and evacuate those stranded by flooding from Manuel and Ingrid, which hit the Gulf coast.

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told local media that conditions were still so unstable in La Pintada on Thursday, three days after the slide, that rescuers hadn't been able to recover any bodies yet. He said villagers told him they had buried at least five of their neighbors themselves before help finally started arriving.

So isolated is Acapulco that cargo ships have been contracted to supply food to the city by sea. 

Hundreds of stranded tourists remained lined up for a second day Thursday at an air base on the outskirts of Acapulco, where military aircraft were slowly ferrying people out of the resort.

(PHOTOS: The World's Fastest-Sinking Cities)

Increasingly angry and frustrated by the long wait overnight and in the rain, they began to block army trucks heading into the base with what stranded travelers believed were wealthy, well-connected people or foreigners cutting line to get a flight out. The angry crowds forced the trucks to detour a few blocks along the beach to get to the base.

Mexican officials said that more than 10,000 people had been flown out of the city on about 100 flights by Wednesday evening, just part of the 40,000 to 60,000 tourists estimated to be stranded in the city.

But their pain was nothing compared to that of Amelia Saldana, 43, a single mother who lost her four boys - twins aged 5, another aged 7 and the eldest, 17 - in the landslide in La Pintada.

Saldana had gone down to town's main square for an Independence Day celebration, a rare time off for villagers who spent most of their days working in their coffee plantations. Because it was raining, Saldana told her sons to stay home while she went down to the square to get some of the free hominy stew being given away.

Then she heard the landslide, a low rumbling that villagers described as sounding like an earthquake. When she ran back to where her house once stood, it no longer existed.

"I tried to get back to my kids, but I couldn't" Saldana said between sobs. "I feel bad, because I lost everything."

Hurricane Manuel barrels northward

Hurricane Manual makes landfall in north-west Mexico

3 hours ago

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24169872?post_id=100003569899526_383323915129935#_=_

Hurricane Manuel, which has already caused devastation in south-western Mexico, has made landfall again in the north-west threatening more destruction.

Authorities in the northern state of Sinaloa have set up dozens of temporary refugee centres.

Meanwhile, those in the South are assessing the damage left by the hurricane.

At least 80 people have died so far and dozens are still missing.

Floodwaters also destroyed roads and bridges leaving communities cut-off.

Will Grant reports.

15 de septiembre pochutla 2013 LA RIATA COSTEÑA

PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/EDUARDO VERDUGO A young boy sits on the tarmac of a military airbase in hopes of getting a seat on a Mexican Air Force jet flight, in Pie de la Cuesta, near Acapulco, Mexico, on Tuesday. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport after Tropical Storm Manuel made landfall on Sunday. The airport as well, was flooded. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city.

PHOTO BY AP PHOTO/EDUARDO VERDUGO

A young boy sits on the tarmac of a military airbase in hopes of getting a seat on a Mexican Air Force jet flight, in Pie de la Cuesta, near Acapulco, Mexico, on Tuesday. With roads blocked by landslides, rockslides, floods and collapsed bridges, Acapulco was cut off from road transport after Tropical Storm Manuel made landfall on Sunday. The airport as well, was flooded. Emergency flights began arriving in Acapulco to evacuate at least 40,000 mainly Mexican tourists stranded in the resort city.