The resort town of Los Caracas is located between the coast and the mountains and it was on one occasion when I was on vacation with my family that we had a very close encounter with a butterfly, the largest we had ever seen in our lives.
My father, my sisters and I were walking along the river that flows down the mountain to the sea. The water was cold and surrounded by vegetation and the bottom was very rocky. Flat stones of white, black and yellow colors gave tones to the transparent water.
We were splashing around and observing the natural landscape around us. Trees, bushes and many bamboos with yellow stalks on the banks. Suddenly my father stopped and waved us to stop as well. He pointed with his arm to a tree about three feet away from us.
"Look at that butterfly", his voice was one of awe and admiration.
I tried to look closely but I didn't have my glasses. I could not distinguish it because it was confused among the colors of the vegetation
"There on the trunk of the tree", she pointed at us again.
We looked like statues that some forest wizard had paralyzed. No one was moving.
"I saw it!" said my older sister, almost in a whisper. "It's there on the trunk, it's brown like the tree. It's very big", and it made a calculation that I don't know if it was exaggerated. "With its wings outstretched it can measure about 50 cm".
We approached it very carefully, my dad in front and his four daughters behind him. But a short distance before we reached the tree, she sensed our presence and flapping her dark wings, she flew through the vegetation.
We didn't want to let her go without knowing which butterfly it was. My dad's intention was to catch it and for me to take it to the University to study it. We thought we had found a new species, not yet discovered, and possessed by the spirit of Darwin and Humboldt, we did not give up and followed it through the forest.
But it was not easy to reach it, suddenly she would stop in another tree and when we were about to catch it, we thought to cover with a towel, she would fly away, it seemed to mock us.
And so she took us deeper and deeper, leading us away from the known area. But in our eagerness we did not realize it.
"We imagined that we would find the chrysalis, so it would be easier to carry it". That was a very exciting adventure and I did not care about the scratches of the vegetation, my feet sore from the stones, nor that it was wet and already starting to get cold, I just imagined arriving with my specimen to the University and show it to the specialists and they would tell me.
"What a great contribution to the study of butterflies!. I congratulate you bachelor".
It began to get dark and the sounds of the forest were a concert of high and low notes. Crickets, toads, cicadas, paraulatas, the howling of monkeys and even the roar of a feline were a warning that my father, as a responsible man, knew how to listen to. The whole forest seemed to claim the presence of intruders.
And we stopped, we saw it continue its flight and get lost in the thicket.
"We must go back, it's too late and we could get lost".
"But Dad!, we are very close to catching up with her, we are not going to let ourselves be defeated". My sister wanted to continue the chase.
"We haven't been close, and I think it's better this way, to let her go free. If we catch it will most likely die and I don't want that to happen and you do?" And she looked at us with her eyebrows raised.
"Neither do I".
I agreed with him and in the end we all agreed to go back.
My father came up to me and said "When you go back to the University you are going to talk to your professors and tell them what you saw. They will be able to tell you if they have met one like it".
I returned the following Monday to the city of Maracay and the first thing I did when I arrived at the Faculty was to go to the insect museum. There were framed in glass and their bodies pinned with pins the different species of the collection.
I looked for a butterfly similar to the one we saw. Its lifeless body still retained the brown colors on its outstretched wings.
It would be Thysania zenobia or another similar to this one. I was not sure. But I was sure of the decision we made. There is no better place to observe the species that share this planet with us than in the wild, and may my entomology professors forgive me.
Thank you very much for reading my participation in The inkwell Creative Nonfiction Prompt #32.
The photographs are my own and the cover design was made in Canva.
English translation at www.deepl.com
