Day of the Iguana

There is an abundance of iguanas in Costa Rica. It takes a while to get use to that fact. Actually, it takes a while to get use to all the wild life in Costa Rica. At one time, I felt as if I was living in the pages of a National Geographic Magazine. However, some of that feeling has dissipated, due to the development in the Guanacaste area where I live. And some of it is due to becoming accustomed to life in Central America.

One day, returning from a trip to Santa Cruz, the municipal seat of our area, a monster, blue iguana fell out of a tree and landed on the hood of our 76 Land Rover. Just a few more seconds and it would have been in my lap. That was terrifying. What are the odds of that happening?

Iguanas are a formidable looking, prehistoric-like, scaly, big lizard.

I have so many of them around my house, because I live on the edge of a farm. To the right of me is old Costa Rica; to the left, the new. For that reason, I have a lot of animals here on my little postage stamp property. Also, they love my garden and home. When I first put my garden in, I had to stack up rocks in preparation of defending my plants. Around three, every afternoon they would wake up and come out of their fallen logs, to eat my flowers. I was not going to let that happen. It actually was kind of fun. I didn’t really having anything better to do. It worked. All of my plants can fend for themselves now.

When I first lived in this house and the beams of the roof were still exposed, I could look up and see the tail of a brown lizard wrapped around the wood. He was up there and I was in my bed, so I just let it be. I ended up naming him Lynard, for Lynard Skynard, as I’m from the westside of Jacksonville. His presence was kind of comforting.

Eventually, Lynard left and was replaced by a bigger lizard. Now, I know it was a bigger lizard, because I saw it rather than just heard it, rustling around in the rafters.

When I pulled up in to the yard today, the dog was barking and the children were squealing, IGUANA, IGUANA!…. Meet my longtime house guest, whom I have no name for. He looks harmless and I’m sure he is, but I had a hard time walking around him to get in my door. They just look so creepy. He looked as if he would spring and attack, but I guess that wasn’t the case.

This freeloader was lassoed and escorted to the street.

This guy, who also posed for the top picture, has been circling my house for the last few days. He appears to be aggressive.

I think I need to put out a no vacancy~then I’ll have just enough time to go see the sunset!

Have a good day and have a GREAT year.