Beautiful Butterflies in Copan Ruinas, Honduras – Mayan Hills Resort
There are few animals in this world as well known as the butterfly. Part of that comes from their wide range since butterflies can be found on every continent except Antarctica. But, a large part of it comes from the fact that they’re so beautiful.
Which is why my family recently found ourselves admiring around 20 species of butterflies living in Mayan Hills Butterfly Garden in Copan Ruinas, Honduras.
Mayan Hills Mariposario (Butterfly Garden)
While our main purpose for going there was to see the butterflies, Mayan Hills Mariposario actually has a lot more than that on-site. They are technically a hotel, and the butterfly garden is just one of a number of different attractions that they are using to try to stand out from the crowd. Honestly, I think it does a pretty good job, but before I get into that, let’s take a quick look at what else they have.
Lodgings
Mayan Hills has a variety of options for places to stay, including single and double hotel rooms and some larger “Family” cabins sitting on the hilltop. We already had lodgings in town, so I didn’t check out the rooms, but I did make the trek up the hill to check out the area around the cabins.
Mayan Hills has 4 or 5 cabins on the hilltop, each named after a Biblical mountain. The cabins themselves look nice, and each one has its own garden of native plants lining the pathway to its door. But the path up the hill to where the cabins sit is a bit steep.
Restaurant and Bar
They also have a restaurant and bar on-premises, which is nice if you’re staying there. My family visited around mid-morning, so we decided to have a quick brunch after visiting the butterflies.
The restaurant itself is pretty small but beautiful, with lots of greenery to admire while you wait. The eggs were tasty, and the service was quick. I’d definitely visit again.
Pool and Playground
Off to the right of the restaurant, Mayan Hills has a pool and playground area for its guests with children. The playground isn’t huge, but really we didn’t find too many playgrounds at all in town, so it’s a great option if you’re looking for a safe space for your kids to get their energy out.
The Butterfly Garden
But the main event, at least for us, was the butterfly garden.
Butterfly gardens have a special place in my heart. Really, any place that has that many plants and flowers spilling over each other has a special place in my heart, but butterfly gardens are extra special because of the butterflies.
Did you know that caterpillars have the second largest number of different species of any type of insect? First place is the beetles, and it’s pretty hard to compete with them.
Mayan Hills raises their own caterpillars, and they had a handful of species in cages for us to admire. My kids loved getting the chance to hold some of the different species there, and I loved that we got to compare and contrast them.
Some were super large, and some were tiny, and some literally looked just like bird poop. The woman who was working there let us hold them all, and encouraged us to take all the time we wanted to examine them.
Along one wall was a display of chrysalises, all hanging in a box. At first, I thought it was just that. A display, but then I spotted one of them moving, and I realized that they were all alive. There was even a recently emerged butterfly hanging out on one of them!
After we finished checking out the chrysalises, it was into the garden itself.
Mayan Hills has a large meshed-in garden with a huge variety of flowering plants, and it plays host to a ton of butterflies. The air was rich with the scents of flowers and fruit, and the sound of flowing water. Spread throughout were flashes of color as the butterflies flitted around us.
Different kinds of plants attract different butterflies, so we ended up seeing different species as we moved through the garden.
We had the place to ourselves that particular morning, and my kids loved sitting on the stone benches spread throughout the garden and sketching the butterflies that they saw. Overall, it was a very enjoyable morning.
How do you get there?
If you find yourself in Copan Ruinas and decide that you want to experience the butterflies for yourself, it’s actually really easy to get there. Wave down a moto-taxi, and tell the driver that you want to go to Mayan Hills Mariposario, and they’ll be able to get you there in just a few minutes.
Enjoy!
