The King of Iguanas

The ad says …

“Come and visit Chalio the king of iguanas !!!! Access to the iguanary is totally free !!! If you like, you can bring vegetables and fruits to feed them and cooperate voluntarily for the feeding, maintenance and protection of the iguanary 🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎🦎 We are waiting for you”.

How could we resist visiting the sanctuary after reading an ad like this? And it is conveniently close, a mere 5 km away, in the little village of Boca de Lagunillas.

The area that we live in is full of little lizards and big iguanas. Believe it or not, iguanas are a traditional food source for the indigenous people in this part of Mexico as they are full of protein and they taste like chicken. We saw a man with a slingshot trying to down an iguana high in a tree. Free food…

Anyways, there are laws in Mexico that prohibit this practice. Hunting, trapping, and killing of these iguanas is illegal throughout Mexico even though this law is not enforced.

So off we went to visit the iguanary ( is there such a word?). We loaded up a bag with fruit and vegetable scraps and drove to the sanctuary before lunch. The iguanas are fed every day at 11 and 4 by Chalio, a colourful character who wears a beat up old hat and not so clean clothes. Haha. He lives on a lovely parcel of land beside the river that was once part of a coconut palm plantation owned by his father.

We actually met Chalio on the road in front of a big gate and he invited us into his beautiful and shaded property. We met a young man who helps him out, Juan, who was cutting up coconuts and placing them on big sheets of plastic to dry. Later, these coconuts would go into bags and sold to make various coconut products. i.e. oil.

Chalio in his enthusiastic and energetic manner explained in Spanish all the benefits that coconuts offer. It was quite a list. For many natives it is a cheap and healthy food source.

We asked Juan how he gets the coconuts out of the 30+’ trees. He happily showed us how easy it was to climb up a palm. He said that he uses the bark ridges as steps/stairs. Then, with Juan’s coaching and encouragement, Chris took off his shoes and tried. Hmmmn, not so easy. I think that he was able to go up two ‘stairs’…

Chalio took the food scraps out of the bag that we had brought and chopped them all up with his machete while telling us all about the wildlife in the area. He offered each of us a drink - a coconut with the top cut off with a straw. We shared a coconut as there is a lot of liquid in one coconut.

Close to his lean-to, there was a cut tree trunk placed horizontally with a huge termite nest on it. Chalio put water into an empty coconut shell and placed it on the nest. While we were there lots of birds came and enjoyed a feast of termites from his giant homemade bird feeder, as well as a drink on the side.

On a nearby tree, several hanging nests built by cardinals (?) and caciques were hung at a good level for us to check them out. They are amazing works of art and very sturdy. We had a good giggle because he was using one of them to store his cookies in.

Then, the moment we were waiting for started. Chalio started to call the iguanas by name, ‘Dolores, Carlos, Roberto, Maria. Come to eat!’ From everywhere, iguanas started to appear! He kept calling them until there were about 40 big and small iguanas all around us eating the scraps we had brought. It was quite a sight.

The iguanas that live in this area are called Spiny Tailed Iguanas. Adults are brown and have grey and brown rings on their tails. Their backs have soft comb-like spikes on it. Some of the adults were really very large. Young iguanas are green and as they get older their colour changes. Chalio told us that they can live to be 45 years old.

The iguanas there were very comfortable with Chalio but a little skittish around us. Some were quite curious and would walk up to our shoes. Apparently anything pink looks like a papaya which they like and the iguanas often head straight towards pink shoes or nail polish. To a person unfamiliar with iguanas, that could be a little daunting.

We thoroughly enjoyed the iguana tea party, but Chalio had more for us to see. He showed us where a crocodile often comes up on the bank of the river. He probably has a name for her too. Where there are iguanas, there are crocodiles hoping for a free lunch. While we were checking out the crocodile nest, an heavy iguana fell from the tree over the river and splashed into the water. Luckily for the iguana, the crocodile was out hunting elsewhere.

We must say that we were a little concerned when walking under the coconut palm trees. Coconuts are heavy and we didn’t want one falling on our head! According to a study by the University of Florida, around 150 people die every year after being hit by falling coconuts. That’s 15 times as many deaths as by shark attacks!

Chalio was an entertaining, fun and enthusiastic guide. A lot of tourists would probably not visit this cool place as he only speaks Spanish. He is also missing a few teeth which may be the reason that we didn’t understand him 100%. We got the gist of what he was saying though and were able to ask lots of questions so we were okay.

We loved every minute of being with this kind and gentle man and will return another day with more compostable food scraps for his iguana family.Read more