Iguana Farm 10/31/11

JJ , AJ & Monica

On Monday morning Abel and Ruth came up and asked if they could take us to the Iguana Farm today when Monica got out of school. The boys were so excited and looked forward to it all day long. Kris had to take the car to Spanish Lookout to see a mechanic (nothing major was wrong, I’ll fill you in shortly), so we agreed that if he wasn’t back in time the boys and I would ride with Abel, Ruth & Monica. The Iguana Project as it is known was created and is maintained by the San Ignacio Hotel. The San Ignacio Hotel is easily the fanciest, most expensive hotel in the entire town. Rooms start at $150US per night. It is said that the Queen of England stays there when she comes to visit. The tour which lasted about 45min. was $6US per adult and the boys were $3US.

Ginger Plant

The hotel also has a medicinal trail that is offered as a different tour but we walked a bit of that trail to get to the iguana area. Our tour guide was a nice young man who referred to the boys as “Big Guys”, although Aaron was giving me some trouble so by the end of the tour the guide knew him by name! The guide stopped and told us about a couple medicinal plants one of which had a beautiful dark pink flower and was called ginger- but it’s not the same ginger that we have in the states... Here it’s called ginger because its roots resemble the gingerroot that we’d cook with in the states.

Petting Gomez

Gomez- up close

Onto the iguanas! Before entering the screened –in rooms, the guide gave us a short talk on the iguanas. Here’s some information you may find useful or interesting! Male iguanas can get up to 6ft long, from the tip of their mouth to the tip of their tail. The males aren’t even called iguanas here, they are called Garobos (guh-row-bows). Gomez, their main garobo is 11 years old and can weigh up to 9lbs during mating season and drops to 7lbs after mating season. During mating season he can mate up to 48 times a day! In captivity Gomez and others like him can expect to live 25-30 years, in the wild they are lucky to live for 8-9 years before turning into a meal for one of their predators such as snakes, opossums, and hawks. Iguanas can also be killed by stress and noise. The females are called iguanas and can measure up to 4 1/3-5ft long and will lay 10-30 eggs during their first mating season and 50-90 eggs each mating season thereafter. In the Iguana Project, 85-90% of the eggs survive. It’s very important that the eggs are not moved because if the eggs are rotated, the embryo can get crushed by the yolk. They do release iguanas into the wild periodically, but they have 5 iguanas that are too habituated to release. We got up close and personal with Gomez the garobo and Roxie the iguana. He was orange in color and she was green.  There were probably around 60 other adult iguanas in this room, but he only brought down Gomez and Roxie because they are so old and gentle.

Roxie up close

Aaron & Ruth findng more iguanas

To say the boys were fascinated by the iguanas would be a HUGE understatement! They were allowed to touch and bet the iguanas too! The guide showed them how to feed Gomez and Roxie- holding out leaves which they ate right out of your hand.  Next we were allowed to hold the enormous creatures! Jonathan was all for it until Roxie got close to his shoulder where the guide was going to perch her and as soon as her claws settled on his shoulder he pulled away saying, “Nevermind . I really don’t want to.” Likewise Aaron wanted to hold her too and the guide showed him how to hold his hands so he could put Roxie in them, but he chickened out too. 

Roxie eating

Feeding Roxie

Next we went into the baby room. They had about 155 baby iguanas in a separate enclosure. Everyone was given one baby to hold. They were still about 1 ft long, but easy to hold because they didn’t move very much.  Then the guide started pulling more of the babies out of the trees and putting them on us. At one point Jonathan had one on his head, one in each hand and a few on his stomach! Aaron was content with his one and the guide set a second one on his head. This baby went unnoticed until it moved, and Aaron promptly reached up and brushed it right off his head onto the gravel. It wasn’t hurt but I told the guide that he didn’t need any more babies. Ruth helped Aaron put the baby on his stomach and he giggled with delight as it perched there and looked at him. 

Feeding Gomez

Baby Iguanas!

I have an iguana on my head!

 It was a fun hour and made even better by its close proximity to our house (less than 10min away). We’ll probably go back close to the end of our trip to Kris can go too. I’m sure he’ll let Gomez and/or Roxie sit on his shoulder and the boys will love to see that!