Prior to coming to Utila I had heard that it did have an Iguana Sanctuary which was supposed to be pretty cool, so last night I recruited two of my friends, Hailey and Millie, to join me for a trek to see what the hub-bub was all about. Millie, a super nice girl from someplace south of London (Royal Tunbridge Wells I believe. Or maybe Downton Abbey? God knows, everywhere in the UK sounds goofy to me) has unfortunately come down with a pretty bad staph infection. In fact, she is likely going to have to go to the mainland tomorrow to get to a proper hospital. Zero fun sir. I guess staph is somewhat common down here because people get bit by mosquitoes, scratch the bites, and then are in the salt water so much that the bites become infected and things get worse and worse. Anyways, Millie hasn't been able to dive for a couple of days and so she has been essentially sitting around bored all day and I thought a little outing might be fun. I guess it is super painful though and sweating in the sun doesn't help, so my nice gesture and idea was a total bust. Oh well.
We had a general idea of where the Iguana Station was, although we couldn't find any specific directions when we looked online. The island has essentially two streets though, so how hard could it be, right? As always, wrong. We started off down main street in the direction of the hostel I used to stay at, already feeling like death because of the heat. There is truly no escape sometimes and I have given up on looking presentable. No matter what, it looks like I have just played basketball for ten straight hours and have sweated one of the Great Lakes into my shirt. Pretty freaking gross to be honest.
Small signs every couple of "blocks" helped us to navigate, but they were essentially useless and once we turned up the one other street on the island we essentially (Madeline, these are just for you!) found ourselves "lost", or as lost as you can be on an island the size of Ashland (maybe).
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| Vaguely helpful signs. |
We trudged our way along the roads, desperately looking for
the next “sign” that might point us in the right direction. At one point we had
to stop for Gatorade, afraid that we might not make it otherwise. The signs
became fewer and fewer as we progressed until finally we were faced with a sign
that did not contain arrows or directions of any sorts. Well, maybe it was just
down the road next to the sign we reasoned. This is what we found:
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| Welcome to Utila. I'd suggest the diving! |
Not exactly what we were looking for. Almost immediately we
hightailed it out of there due to mosquitoes pouncing on us with a ferocious appetite.
Millie was struggling at this point, not keen to continue.
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| Millie trying to be a trooper. |
Luckily Hailey and I prevailed and we continued “just a
little bit further”. It was like enticing a five year old to just press on a
touch more. But that touch is what did it! Finally we found “Iguana Road” and
the home of the “Swampers”.
The station was just down the road and on the left
and we were elated that we had, somehow, against all odds, made it. Until we
saw this sign:
Dumbfounded, we quite literally stood and stared at the sign
for thirty seconds, not comprehending that it could possibly be closed. In
fact, we stood there long enough that a guy came out to see what we were doing. We asked if they were closed and he said no, come on in. YES!
What we found was very surprising and not at all what I had expected. The Iguana Station turned out to be a series of cages holding Iguanas in various stages of their lives. It was anticlimactic enough that the guy who volunteered at the place asked us "Do you want, like, a tour, or maybe just walk around...?". He ended up giving us a bit of a tour, mostly because he was bored out of his socks (yes, he was actually wearing socks for some reason).
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| This is the extent of it. Really, it is. |
The place was fairly cool but pretty rundown and falling into disrepair. It was unclear exactly what the Iguana Station did, something to do with raising iguanas and then releasing them back into the wild. Maybe. I am not even sure they release them. The guy there was a German fellow who was "studying abroad" at the Iguana Station for four months. The poor guy had clearly not been expecting what he got. He thought he would be doing research but that wasn't happening by the looks of it. Instead, he is the only person "volunteering" at the station and he is basically taking care of the iguanas, responsible for everything. Whatever that means. While we were getting the grand tour a bucket of small crabs arrived and he went around and fed all of the iguanas. This was actually pretty neat to see as the crabs were still alive and the iguanas were plenty vicious about tracking them down and devouring them.
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| Dinner time! |
By far the best part of the Iguana Station was the parrot that they had there. He was very friendly and would greet you with a big old "hola" when you walked up. There are two similar parrots outside of my room and they are less awesome because they say hola over and over and over. And over. And over again. I might actually kill them one of these days. But not before I hear them sing Happy Birthday, which I just learned that they do daily around four or so.
We also saw a giant Boa Constrictor, although I saw part of it and then turned right back around. Snakes aren't my thing. On the path to the snake pen we saw this gigantic spider! It was huge, probably two inches or more across. Apparently it isn't poisonous but I have no interest in finding out. Notice the color of the web, however, a beautiful gold color!
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| Not a country my sister Madeline ever needs to come to. |
As we were leaving the station, the German guy seemed genuinely sad to see us go. We were the only people to have visited in a week or two and I think he really missed having company, since he is the only one there. I was definitely reminded of a scene from one of my favorite TV shows "Workaholics". Starting at about 1:30 is how I felt leaving the station. The man could use a good party, that is absolutely for sure (Fur, sure!).
Everyone seemed glad to have made the trip despite the fact that we were eaten alive by mosquitoes and nearly dead from heatstroke. A nice cold beer was exactly what the doctor ordered and upon arrival at the UDC I snagged myself one for the measly price of $1.50. And yes, that is in US dollars. That's what's up!
I also managed to sign up for some dives tomorrow morning and afternoon. My dive computer says it has been over 24 hours since I was last underwater, so we need to fix that ASAP. Tomorrow will mark my first time diving the north side of the island and I am super pumped! The north side is supposed to be amazing, with much healthier coral and more fish. There is also the chance of seeing a whale shark, so stay tuned and cross your fingers for me! I hope to take my camera with me so hopefully I will get some good photos to share. In the meantime, enjoy some photos I took tonight off the dock. It may be hot, there may be far too many mosquitoes, and there may not be a ton to do outside of diving (as if I need something more) but I think I will find a way to survive, looking at this each night.
It is a tough life but as I keep saying, someone has to do it! I hope everyone is well and for those of you watching, I hope the Ducks play well and crush those damn Cougs! My deep hatred for all things Cougar and Husky, combined with a grudging enjoyment of Oregon's style of play and a lack of basketball means that I will set aside my general dislike of football for tonight and see if I can't tune in and watch. I am pretty sure I get ESPN2 (wouldn't it be great if I could get the Pac12 Network down here while thousands of people back home couldn't?! HA!)
So enjoy the game everyone, enjoy the second half of the weekend, and enjoy the snot out of life. Easy for me to say but its a pretty good one and the only one we've got!
Until next time,
Mosquito Bitten, Potentially Malaria Infested (but Staph free), Sweaty Gringo signing out!
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