On the Wings of Peace

Feb 16

Well today we were finally motivated to do a bit of exploring.  The weather continues to be overcast but temperatures are moderate at about 16 again.

We made our way to Mariposario de Benalmadena, a butterfly park about half an hours drive away.  It is said to be the best butterfly park in Europe.  It is located adjacent to and on the grounds of a Thai Buddhist temple or Stupa.

We have been to a few Butterfly Sanctuaries/Parks in the past, but this is by far the best one we have seen.  Lots and lots of butterflies in many varieties.  Here is just a sampling of what we saw:

Almost immediately on entering, we just about stepped on this fine example, sitting on the walkway - he had a wing span of about 3 1/2""

This fellow had just flown into a spider's web and was trapped

There were lots and lots of these electric blue coloured ones, but they were very difficult to capture, because they were constantly moving and the minute they settled they closed their wings and revealed a dark underside only

This was a whole tree covered with this particular butterfly, and they never oved from here

Closeup of the above butterflies - they looked more like moths to me

At the buffet

Nursery, where cocoons where opening

Nursery where Monarch butterflies had just hatched and were being released

This was a rather large moth called an Attacus Atlas, one of the largest in the world.  The wing tips look like the heads of snakes - it has a wingspan of between 8" and 10"

This pretty little (well not so little) moth I called the Art Deco Moth, because it has that kind of look about it.  It is actually called an Elizabethan butterfly and is only found in the Iberian peninsula (picture taken thru glass so a little shaded)

Another moth, this one with rippled colouration 

This is a rather fierce looking moth, marking make it look like a large predator to animals that would like to eat it

These guys are camouflaged to look like leaves.

There were not only butterflies present but also birds 

an Iquana

 a wombat

 fish

I called this one a blue pajama fish because it looked like he had little blue striped pajamas on

and a tortoise

Next we went over to the Tibetan Temple/Stupa

The view beyond

A little grotto

Interesting looking flowering tree

Bud forming

Taking the road less travelled, we came upon this rather fantastical structure - it was closed for the lunch hour(s) so we could not go in and explore it, but I later looked it up and found it was constructed in homage to Christopher Columbus and all his travels and discoveries