Mario's dream of a  butterfly garden came true in El Tigre. 

A Family Dream

With his son, Jose Mario, he leads tours in the Butterfly Garden and produces pupe for distribution beyond El Tigre. 

The Butterfly garden is beautifully landscaped, inside and out, with plants to attract butterflys and hummingbirds.  Inside the Garden proper, there are 12 species of native butterflies and dozens of flowering plants which are their favorite food. 

Lunch With A View

On the hill above the Butterfly Garden, more of the family prepares lunch for visitors.  The food is fresh cooked, tastey and nutiricious, served by Mario's Aunt and Sister.  

Sitting at picnic tables in a covered pavilion, visitors look down on the Butterfly Garden and across the valley at jungle covered mountains.  Mist rises along the road and Crested Oropendola -- brilliant yellow-tailed blackbirds that built stunning nests in the highest trees -- flit back and forth across the landscape.  Time with  spent  Las Mariposas del Pacuare is time well spent.

A Few Words From Mario

"My name is Mario Vega Achoy, I live in Turrialba, as I have seventeen years of working in this area of Bajos del Tigre. I have three children, a wife and had always wanted to establish some project in this place.  Today we can say that we finished part of a dream — that we own Pacuare Butterflies and we are very proud of the work we have done.

This project has changed us, made us change, before I started this project I was a driver I work for a rafting company.  We have put all of our heart, hoping that the expectations are great, because we've worked hard, I hope that people like it and we can definitely develop and be able to finish raising my children with this place.

Why butterflies? For me the butterflies, this is a magical place ... and it's magic, what they do is magic ... and that's what I want to show people, that people can come and see all its metamorphosis ... all four seasons in order to become something as beautiful as a butterfly.

It’s very important, the sustainability, and to create a good environment, we have worked one hundred percent. I say one hundred percent, because it’s a  hundred percent entirely sustainable development, one hundred percent friendly with nature where the fertilizer for our plants is organic, where we care about making the perfect compost for our plants and that these plants can grow green for the butterflies."