PV Animals

Yes, there really are iguanas and other brilliantly colored lizards living here.  They are everywhere.  My first sighting was while walking across the bridge over the River Caule (yes, that is the name of the main river of Puerto Vallarta.  He was at the very top on one of the many trees that grow along the river banks.  He was at least 3 feet long and had bright orange spikes down his back.  He looked so big and heavy you wonder how he made it to the very top of the tree.  Then I spotted a lime green and yellow one in the stair well of my friend's apartment.

So, I was delighted when shortly after moving into my new apartment to discover a family of small iguana crawling across my patio wall.  I know they are babies for they are less than three inches long and still pink.  I can't be sure they are iguanas yet, but I do think it is a family for I have seen three at once on the wall.  There is a light over my washing machine (what looks like plain telephone cord mysteriously comes out of the stucco wall) and the bare bulb attacts insects.  Frankly I am amazed at how few flies or insects there are here (maybe the iguanas eat them all)  I am hoping that situation doesn't change too much my summer.  Anyway, the tiny lizards will slowly circle the light bulb and suddenly jump.  I assume they caught something for they appear to happily stroll away.  Every night I turn on that bulb (even though I have much prettier lanterns on the patio) and watch them circle or just patiently waiting for a meal.

Then one morning I found one of the baby lizards in my sink.  He appeared to pop right up out of the drain (but I don't want to think about that)  I was still on my first cup of coffee and my head had not yet cleared from last night's margaritas.  The easiest solution would be to flush him down the garbage disposal, but luckily for him it was too early in the morning and my stomach would not have handled it well.  After a few tries I managed to capture him in an old plastic container and take him up to the deck where I deposited him in a potted palm.  I hope he was of the same family or at least gets along with his brothers and sisters.  When they grow up I will let you know what color they turn out to be.

Of course there are lots of birds, but no parrots or macaws.  I am told that they have all been captured and sold.  There are some pretty yellow wrens, but most of the birds are your ordinary sea gulls or black birds.  There is a group of small dark birds that circle overhead, but I can't tell what they are.  One of the first things I did was to put up a humming bird feeder.  It took them a few days to find it, but now I must have about a dozen fighting over it.  I love to watch them buzz bomb each other.  Oddly enough (or maybe not) the tiny females seem to dominate.  Some are that iridescent blue and green, but some are orange and there is a larger variety that has black and white markings.

Dogs are everywhere.  It appears most people living here have a dog and the predominate one is the chiuaua.  Then there are the dogs that roam the streets and appear homeless.  They almost look as if they had the same father (a mutt).  For they are about the same size (medium) with short hair and shades of black and brown.  They also all have the same sad look.  They walk very slowly with their head down as if they are depressed.  I guess being born a dog in Mexico is not the same as being born a dog in, say Beverly Hills.