Last Thursday I was invited to go on a butterfly excursion with three girls from the youth group, OSCA. The girls are in training to start tours of the Fundacion Segundo Montes mariposero (where butterflies live). They have taken several friends on 8 different tours in the past few months.

We started at the Fundation Segundo Montes, where OSCA holds their weekly meetings. We picked up Marvin who has been working with the FSM´s butterfly maintenance. Marvin has been in employed for 8 years and maintains the houses where the different types of butterflies live. He is an expert and explains the different types of butterflies, what living conditions they need, what their names are and other such information. He is training the three OSCA girls to take over his job because he plans on returning to Ahuachapan within the year to live with family.

The group headed to Villa El Rosario to the Rio Araute. We had two nets and caught 14 butterflies near the River. The girls were excited because there are three common butterflies called ¨Julia Verde¨, ¨Julia Cafe¨ and ¨Julia Retinto¨….at the end of the day they gave me a gift of a Julia Verde (which is still in my house!) We brought the butterflies to a safe home at the Posada Los Torogoces (a restaurante/hostal owned by the FSM). We ate lunch at Los Torogoces and ran into Catalina Montes who was lunching! Also eating was Mia and Juan Lucus (who was voted to be the FSM´s President on Saturday, September 5th at an Election of the FSM´s members).

After, we went to another butterfly sanctuary where there are three large spaces for butterflys, a fish pond and a beautiful view of the mountains. Artesans from the FSM use the butterflies to create art for their cooperative.

The day actually ended with the three OSCA girls and I at the ciber cafe. They have created a blog! It is still a work in progress but we uploaded two pictures from the day and they are in the process of writing an introductory blog entry. Here is the link!