The Fallen Stones: Chasing Butterflies, Discovering Mayan Secrets and Looking for Hope Along the Way by Diana Marcum

 

"This climate anxiety, now, was a mirror of my personal grief on a global scale. But, why butterflies?

They are both ephemeral and eternal. Through time, across cultures, they have been symbols of hope, rebirth, resurrection, transitions, the human soul."

       -the author explaining her fascination with butterflies

While on vacation in Belize this Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist became infatuated with butterflies when she was able to visit the Fallen Stones Butterfly Farm, one of the largest butterfly breeders and exporters in the world. Later in England she met Clive Farrell, a wealthy Brit, sometimes called "Lord of the Butterflies," who developed several butterfly farms, including Stratford-upon-Avon, one the of largest in England, and the Fallen Stones in Belize, specializing in the startlingly beautiful blue morpho.

My curiosity was piqued by Marcum's attendance at the International Association of Butterfly Exhibitors, the IABE, conference in Orlando, Florida, the city where I live. She was there with @100 other "butterfly people" from around the globe. They took a field trip to Gainesville to visit the Florida Museum of Natural History which holds the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera, one of the largest exhibits in the world, with over 10 million species, many of them dead from a time when that was the accepted way to collect them. Sad to think! I have been there, and they also have a live enclosure---much, much more satisfying. The conferees also went to Butterfly Dan's in Kissimmee, right down the road from Orlando. I had never heard of Dan's but there's another idea for a field trip for a group I know!

After these three encounters, Marcum was convinced to relocate to Belize for a time, with partner Jack Moody, to learn more about the live butterfly trade and later, during COVID lockdowns, she would end up sharing her experiences in this book.

She and Jack had many exciting (some scary) adventures involving bats, scorpions, toucans, iguanas, howler monkeys, ants and snakes (Marcum's anathema). They had learning opportunities, as well---tons about butterflies but also Mayan culture since Fallen Stones was very near the ruins of Lubaantun in San Pedro Columbia, Belize.

I almost always like fiction over nonfiction. In reading this book, which one could call a travel memoir, I was disappointed until I met some of the very likeable and environmentally passionate characters like Sebastian Shol, the Fallen Stones farm manager and Manuel "Sammy" Cal, a dedicated and ambitious employee. Also, I started to enjoy the author's humor. I am a fan of butterflies and have always enjoyed visits to butterfly gardens, but this book may have taught me more than I wanted to know. The last part "How to Plant a Butterfly Garden" by Janet Sluis was interesting but does me no good since I live in a small condo.

In the end, I rated Fallen Stones... a 3 but in reviewing my highlights I appreciated it more and more. I think I'll go with 4 instead. If you're a nature lover, you'll like this one.

l.