Sara and the Iguana

There are big, medium and small iguanas here. The smaller ones move too fast to take a photo of them. The medium ones are pretty fast too but the big ones are slow and lazy.

Today, was our first day with Sara, our housekeeper, even though, Chris and I are pretty tidy people. We really appreciate the help we get in Mexico. Things are done differently here and it is great to give hard working and dependable people work. Sara is that type of person. She knows how to clean thoroughly and she does it with a smile.

Our house has 2 bedrooms at the front and 2 bedrooms at the back. Sara was cleaning one of the back bedrooms when she was surprised by a medium sized iguana. He quickly hid and the two of us armed with brooms tried to shoo him outside. But he kept running and hiding, under the beds and behind a bedside table. When Sara moved a table, the iguana got caught and his tail broke off! The tail was about 15” long and it started to wiggle like crazy for at least 15 minutes. Ugh.

Who knew where the lizard went. I called for Chris to come and help so he grabbed another broom while the tailless lizard scurried around frantically and we shouted, “There he is. There!”, in Spanish, English and sign language. At one point, Sara jumped up on the bed when it ran towards her. Chris followed! Haha. What a sight we were!

Finally he was swept out and went scurrying away.. And the wiggling wormlike tail? Sara bravely picked it up and threw it as far as she could, into the bush. Apparently, shedding a tail is a lizard’s defence mechanism that enables them to escape the clutches of a predator. The tail will grow back.

I didn’t get a photo of our encounter, but we certainly would have looked funny!

A little later in the day, I got a photo of a bigger iguana seen while we were eating lunch in Troncones. Still not the biggest one we have seen.Read more