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Random Musings Blog archives

Key West - Day Four: Butterflies

February 17, 2006 by Joanne Brokaw

Key West – Day Four

At least, I think it’s day four. I’m pretty sure it’s Friday, but don’t quote me on that.

Today we did the coolest thing: we went to the Key West Butterfly Conservatory. It’s a large glass hot greenhouse filled with tropical plants and hundreds of butterflies of every size, shape and color.

When you go in, the girl at the desk tells you not to touch the butterflies, birds, plants or turtles; to watch where you step; and to check yourself in the wall mirrors when you leave lest you carry out some butterflies with you. I doubted that I’d even see a butterfly let alone take one out but it was a quaint greeting none the less.

We entered through a set of double doors (close one set before you open the others) and walked into a swarm of butterflies. One flew right into my ear, buzzing, and I swatted it away out of habit. Not to fear, before long they’re all over – in your face, on your back, on the pathways, overhead. Some of the butterflies where as big as a lunch plate, others as tiny as a silver dollar.

What was amazing was the color – some blended into the tree trunks, brown with brown spots, but when they spread their wings they were the most beautiful royal blue. Tiny orange butterflies looked like petals on the impatients that lined the pathway. Black with bright red spots, blues and purples, blue and silver.

My favorite were the birds, tiny little finch-like creations in colors so bright it almost hurt the eyes and patterns that looked like something an artist rendered. God was in top form when he created the birds.

In a separate room they hatch cocoons, and while you can’t go in you can watch butterflies in various stages of their life cycles in window boxes. Cocoons hang in rows, and in some you can even see the butterflies emerging. David read on the wall charts that a butterfly only lives for about 10 – 14 days, but it takes a month to go from larvae to death. Short life cycle for something so beautiful.

Got our picture taken at the southernmost part of the US. At that point, you’re only 90 miles from Cuba, and about 160 miles from Miami. The ocean is gorgeous, and the resort and guest houses in this area are big and inviting.

Headed over to the Turtle Kraals to feed the fish and look at the fishing boats, and then stopped in the Mote Laboratory Baby Conch Farm, which was a small room with some fish tanks with snook and conch. The man who gave us the nickel tour told us they replace what we fish out of the ocean. There were four or five tanks of conch – which are very ugly little things considering how pretty their shells are. They’re snail-like creatures with tentacles with eyeballs and weird little mouths. I don’t think I’ll be having any more conch fritters or chowder. Things I learned: a conch doesn’t shed its shell as it grows. Instead, it adds new shell onto its existing shell. The little slit you see at the top of a big conch shell is how they harvested out the conch (probably to eat).

Dinner at Hogfish Grill, a local place on Stock Island. It has the local character I remember from Key West – a man rode in on his old bicycle, with a small dog in the wire basket. A cat walked along the dock, prompting David to comment that if you were going to be a cat, being a cat that lived on a fishing dock was the way to go. I agree.