Iguanas are treated like dogs or cats in Grand Cayman. Our bus came to an abrupt stop to let one leisurely cross the road. They are all over the place! Some are even longer than I am tall! They appear to be very mellow and slow, yet they have a very mischievous grin. They walk just a little bit faster than a snail and they are really ugly. They look like something from prehistoric times and I wouldn't want to do anything to make them want to scratch or bite me. I decided to check out the snorkel scene in a large man made salt water pool. It seemed like a great place to take my first "safe" snorkel for this trip. No stingrays! (Which, by the way, Stingray City is where Terry went in Grand Cayman!) It was amazing! I was literally part of a school of fish. They just swam all around me. One part of the pool was up against the predator tank, so I could see sharks swimming just inches away from me. I'm glad I knew there was glass there, because underwater you can't really SEE the glass. About 3/4 of the way through the pool, I spied a sea turtle. I was swimming right next to it and following it around when something above the surface caught my eye. I pulled off my mask and looked up at a huge iguana sitting on the wall. I was just a few feet away and it was just staring at me. Then, all of the sudden it jumped right in and swam toward me. Those claws and things poking out of it's spine suddenly were inches away from me! I was treading water and I didn't want to turn and let him attack my legs, so I back peddled as fast as I could while screaming hysterically. Those water polo skills finally came in handy in real life! :) For moving so slow on land, those suckers can really doggy paddle fast! After a few seconds, I realized he wasn't after me, he was trying to get out to the little island in the pool. He swam right by me and nonchalantly perched up on another wall, waiting to petrify another tourist. After I started breathing again, I hollered at the grinning life guard, "Do they bite?" His laid-back-island-man answer was, "Oh no, lay-dee, they do not bite." Well, I was done with the salt water pool and decided to go for a walk. As I passed a large cage that housed two iguanas, I read a large sign written in bold red letters: "Do not reach into cage! Iguanas will bite!"
Iguanas are treated like dogs or cats in Grand Cayman. Our bus came to an abrupt stop to let one leisurely cross the road. They are all over the place! Some are even longer than I am tall! They appear to be very mellow and slow, yet they have a very mischievous grin. They walk just a little bit faster than a snail and they are really ugly. They look like something from prehistoric times and I wouldn't want to do anything to make them want to scratch or bite me. I decided to check out the snorkel scene in a large man made salt water pool. It seemed like a great place to take my first "safe" snorkel for this trip. No stingrays! (Which, by the way, Stingray City is where Terry went in Grand Cayman!) It was amazing! I was literally part of a school of fish. They just swam all around me. One part of the pool was up against the predator tank, so I could see sharks swimming just inches away from me. I'm glad I knew there was glass there, because underwater you can't really SEE the glass. About 3/4 of the way through the pool, I spied a sea turtle. I was swimming right next to it and following it around when something above the surface caught my eye. I pulled off my mask and looked up at a huge iguana sitting on the wall. I was just a few feet away and it was just staring at me. Then, all of the sudden it jumped right in and swam toward me. Those claws and things poking out of it's spine suddenly were inches away from me! I was treading water and I didn't want to turn and let him attack my legs, so I back peddled as fast as I could while screaming hysterically. Those water polo skills finally came in handy in real life! :) For moving so slow on land, those suckers can really doggy paddle fast! After a few seconds, I realized he wasn't after me, he was trying to get out to the little island in the pool. He swam right by me and nonchalantly perched up on another wall, waiting to petrify another tourist. After I started breathing again, I hollered at the grinning life guard, "Do they bite?" His laid-back-island-man answer was, "Oh no, lay-dee, they do not bite." Well, I was done with the salt water pool and decided to go for a walk. As I passed a large cage that housed two iguanas, I read a large sign written in bold red letters: "Do not reach into cage! Iguanas will bite!"
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