The Guadalajara Reporter

Getting to know the jungle; A visit to Vallarta Botanical Gardens

Every outing we have ever gone on with botanist Miguel Cházaro has been an adventure. One day our friend took us to visit a cloud forest of maple trees and giant ferns, not far from Talpa, Jalisco. The next morning we had planned to return to Guadalajara, but Cházaro said, “There’s a botanical garden near here you really must see. It was started by an American and it’s unique.”

Well, “near here” took six hours to get to plus six hours back and we ended up reaching home at midnight. But I must admit the eminent botanist was right: the Vallarta Botanical Gardens are a must-see, no matter where you find yourself in Mexico. The place is located 24 kilometers south of Puerto Vallarta, right on Palms-to-Pines coastal highway 200.

Step out of your car and you’re in the jungle. We were visiting in July and everywhere we went, hundreds of “skippers” fluttered all around us. These, explained a sign in English and Spanish, are Hisperiidae butterflies, smaller than most and given to skipping, flitting, darting and zig-zagging, from which they get their popular name. Clouds of them danced all around us as we began our tour of the Botanical Gardens, which cover an area of eight hectares, criss-crossed by pathways with exotic names like The Vanilla Trail, Jaguar Trail and Guacamaya Trail, leading to even more exotic-sounding places like The Jungle Overlook, The Swinging Bridge, Tree Fern Grotto, The Garden of Memories and The Giant Strangler Fig Tree.

Please login or subscribe to view the complete article.