Iguana Games

Occasionally, I spend my three hour lunch break at UMAR on campus. Not too many people around. It gets very quiet at these hours. That´s when the wildlife comes out to frolic. Huge iguanas start stamping around the Idiomas office building.

There were two iguanas separated by the divide of trees on the concrete walk between Idiomas and Auto Accesso, one female; the other male. I came up pretty close with my camera and backed right off when the male started stomping toward me.

Later, in my very best Spanish, I asked a lady if these beasts can attack and she assured me they never do. Of course, there might have been a translation problem. According to an English teaching colleague, I might have asked "Can I attack the iguanas?" and was forbidden from doing so.



The male iguana, Iggy, was looking for some tangible affection from his lady, Isabella, but she felt entitled to more wooing than a few demanding summonses. Isabella climbed a tree and disappeared over the roof of Idiomas. Iggy kept calling out for five minutes before he surrendered to her feminine rules and started the slow chase, stopping for breath halfway up the tree and trying his luck with more love calls. Isabella could have been in downtown Crucecita by the time he caught up with her at that rate. I´m still betting he got what he was after before the sun went down, in his slow persistent way.