Jeepers! Creepers!

So, the other day I was sitting in the living room of the house, on my computer, trying to find second leg of the Real Madrid Champions League game on the Internet (as they weren’t showing it on TV) to watch with my host brother and his friend (who were at home due to exams/free periods/not having a teacher yet (not sure which one)). I hear the family dog, Chester, barking loudly so I looked up to the porch and saw Chester chase a lizard into my room. I only got a quick glimpse-but the thing he was chasing looked lizard-ish. So, I amble over to my room, look in, and in the corner by the bathroom door, I see what you see below. Yes! I good-sized iguana is just chilling in my room. Now, iguanas aren’t anything special down here in Costa Rica-but this was my first full viewing-I’d seen partial views in trees-from a distance.

So, I went back inside and tell my host brother, ‘Bryan, there’s an iguana in my room.’ He grabs the broom and he and his friend come in to take a look. He gets on the bed and tries to shoo it away, but it just mad leans away from the broom and snaps his tail like he means big boss business. So, after the whipping tail gets close to Bryan, he comes back to the doorway. So, I tried throwing a tennis ball at it, and all I hit was the tail, which it snapped and the ball rolled away. Now, apparently brave, manly Costa Rican men hunt iguanas with their bare hands, and lots of people have them as pets, but I guess we’re all a bunch of weaklings. We then tried sicking Chester on the iguana, but all he did was maintain a meter and bark, and bark, and bark. His back legs were actually trembling as he barked crazily at it. So Bryan took Chester away and I mustered up the courage to grab the broom and try to coax it out. Eventually I was successful, and it strut out of the room incredibly slowly, so that I had to nudge it twice to get it going.

The best part came when, instead of going through the wide open door right in front of it, it jumped up on the windowsill. My host mom was standing outside the window, watching this all transpire, and she gave out a scream and hustled back into the yard. It looked like the iguana was going to climb up and around the window, so I had to push it three different times with the broom to get it to fall (those claws have some kung-fu grip fo-sho). After it fell to the ground it was off like a bullet to hide in the plants in the corner of the yard by the road.

So, the iguana was by far the biggest animal I've had to get out of my room, but I have also had to chase out two geckos, a small green tree frog, and a toad. It's not like I invite them in, but the geckos and toads are all over the yard and porches during the night, the frog was much less common. After the first week or so, my host dad gave me the good advice to close all my windows and doors as soon as the sun starts to go down, not only to keep the mosquitos and moths out-but also the toads. My room is well sealed and the house isn't anywhere near as rustic as many in town-but with so many creatures-this creep was bound to happen.