Fodor's Expert Review Chaa Creek Natural History Centre & Blue Morpho Butterfly Farm

The Natural History Centre at The Lodge at Chaa Creek has a small library and lots of displays on everything from butterflies to snakes (pickled in jars). Outside is a screened-in blue morpho butterfly-breeding center. If you haven't encountered blue morphos in the wild, you can see them up close here and even peer at their slumbering pupae, which resemble jade earrings. Once you're inside the double doors, the electric blue beauties, which look boringly brown when their wings are closed, flit about or remain perfectly still, sometimes on your shoulder or head, and open and close their wings to a rhythm akin to inhaling and exhaling. Tours are led by a team of knowledgeable naturalists. You can combine a visit here with one to the Belize Medicinal Plants Trail.