A trip a day...

I will never forget the day that an iguana climbed to my lap in the middle of the busiest urban park of the busiest city in Ecuador. When I relive it in my mind, I can still feel the clutch of her claws through the light summer trousers I was wearing, her scratchy, heavy weight against my lap, and her large scaly eyes fixed on the banana I was ‘selfishly’ attempting to eat without sharing with her—shame on me!
We had arrived at Guayaquil that very morning, and headed straight to the Iguana Park for our jungle trip to have a decent beginning. Once we recovered the use of our jaws after so much dropping at the wonders of the park, we sat on a bench and I produced a banana from my bag. While doing it, I saw a particularly large and green iguana fix her stare on me, and the next thing I was startled to notice were her claws clinging tightly to my skin as she climbed up my leg and onto my lap, in her cold-blood version of a cute begging dog. We stared eye to eye for a second —hers, greenish yellow, mine, astonished brown— before her gaze turned to the half-peeled banana in my hand. I realized that, most heartbreakingly for me, she wanted food, not my love; and that I was suddenly besieged by a wall of flashing cameras. My two friends, who had been sitting next to me just before the iguana (Juana, we named her) landed on my lap, were now at a ‘safe’ distance. Still dazzled by the wonder at my knees, and perhaps by all the flashing cameras as well, I puzzled at the Park Guardian’s instruction to give Juana the ‘guineo’ skin. ¬By the time I figured she was referring to the banana, Juana had almost climbed to my shoulder in an effort to reach it —so I guess I should credit her for having sorted the language barrier. I took a bit of banana skin and started feeding my dragon-like dog by the light of the cameras’ frenzy. Once she had finished and went back to the ground, I sat back and closed my eyes, smiling to myself and still in awe. A few moments later I felt a gentle tap on my leg, and there she was again, checking with her tongue if by any chance I had left some banana on my trousers for her delight. I felt the overwhelming joy of a requited love. We left Guayaquil feeling that our adventures would stretch far beyond our dreams —and right we were, since the very next day, at breakfast, a tiny little lizard fell from the ceiling right next to my cup of tea… Ecuador has such peculiar and pretty ways to say ‘welcome’ that the least you could do it to feel at home.