Once my dear neighbors living on the rocks, now again an attraction that I want to make pictures of. I clearly have been away from the Caribbean for way too long. Even better seeing these rascals back in the flesh again. Hello little dragons!
I used to live next to a mountain while I was living on the island of Sint Martin. This was an inhabitant hill and the only things that were living on it were goats and iguanas. Both of them aren't really troublemakers. Usually I would have my front door opened and even so often I would hear rocks falling down the hill. And I don't mean pebbles with this, I mean decent boulders landing in front of my front door, caused by animal life living above me.
So what would happen in general is that these iguanas walk around and they take the sand with them. Every time it would rain some new sand would come free again for the iguanas to walk away again, leaving more boulders falling down. Erosion and Iguanas, they seem to go hand in hand.
Also every so often my dog would chase them down the road until they ran back into a tree or fast enough up the mountain again to be safe. The dog of one of my friend was faster and came back home every now and then with a gigantic iguana tail. I guess they are good as dog food ;)
The debate on if they are protected or a plague is always close and opinions seem to differ about this. But this also seems to depend on what kind of iguana we are talking about. To me they all should be protected for sure, these cool animals even if they are causing small avalanches.
Again earlier in the week in Curacao I saw Iguana soup on the menu a couple of times. Also iguana stew was able to be ordered. Apparently it tastes like chicken and honestly, I believe that even though I haven't had it myself.
Iguanas are bug fan of lettuce and veggies, so if you leave your garbage outside overnight, there is a good chance that they will have nibbeled on something of it. I saw a very brave iguana earlier in the week climbing on someones bed who was swimming in the ocean, and stealing some left over lunch. After this he refused to leave, leaving the woman quite hysterical by her bed, because she was so scared of it...
These animals wouldn't hurt a fly (figurely speaking that is)
I miss these guys as my neighbors, but it was really cool to see them again. I felt like a tourist again, and I also acted like one, taking snaps of these guys.
The official statement of someone who is back in cold Europe again, and considers iguanas special again. That is me!