Butterfly Farm and ethnic village on Palawan

Description and is it worth a visit

Butterfly Farm and ethnic Village (Palawan Butterfly Ecological Garden and Tribal Village) in our opinion, this is a rather controversial place to visit, and to be honest, it somehow reminded me of a typical "tourist trap". But maybe we are wrong, and it's better for you to visit the farm and the village yourself, especially since visiting it costs purely symbolic money.

The butterfly farm and the ethnic village are actually two attractions in one. Both places are visited by the same ticket, although they are located in different territories across the street. The main entrance and ticket payment is from the butterfly farm. After buying tickets, you will be taken to the territory of a small butterfly farm, where you will be met by the staff, quickly guided and demonstrated something from the theme of butterflies. To be honest, the demonstration was so fast that we didn't even have time to understand what it was about.

As it turned out, the whole point is that everyone is in a hurry to transfer visitors to the territory of the tribal village as soon as possible, where the performance should begin. How was the performance… In a couple of minutes, half-naked people representing local tribes demonstrated how they produce fire, hunt and play musical instruments. The demonstration was accompanied by a story about how hard it is for local tribes that they cannot hunt because of prohibitions, and therefore tourists should give them money, take pictures with them for 250 pesos, or at least buy something from souvenirs. It is precisely because of this presentation that we have a strong feeling that they are "breeding" here. Although, of course, we do not exclude at all that the tribes really need support, it's just that such a presentation in the form of a bit of "aggressive marketing" turned out to be not very.

As for the butterfly farm itself, there are very few butterflies here. We had to spend a lot of time to find and take photos of at least a few copies, but maybe we were just unlucky because of the season. Also in the aquariums there are centipede, stick insect, scorpion and some other insects and larvae, and they can even be picked up.

In general, summing up about the butterfly farm, we will say this: you can visit, but not necessarily. And you certainly shouldn't come here from the other end of the island, for example from El Nido, only if you pass along the way.

We also recommend to see the possible options for other excursions on Palawan, which can be booked online:

• Excursions around the island of Palawan on Tripster.ru