to read - Jaltemba Bay Life

THE LIZARDS OF NUEVO VALLARTASunday, 6 February: The sun is out and I feelalive and happy! Today we decided to travel toNuevo Vallarta and visit Paradise Village. Whenwe arrived we first visited the public marinabecause I wanted to show my father the type ofboat I had dry-docked in Key West in preparationfor my sail through the Caribbean. As we walkedonto the dock my father almost fell through theplanking. What the heck?! I stopped and lookedaround. It was another broken dream. Builtbeautifully twenty years ago, but not a thing doneto maintain the pier since then. So much for that.As we walked along the dock I noticed aniguana lizard sunning itself among the rocks.These animals have the amazing ability tochange color according to their surroundings.The lizard I was looking at was gray with flakesof black and rust. These colors matched therocks and boulders, which formed the jetties. Igently pulled out my camera and eased myselfonto the rocks. I came closer and closer; thelizard eyed me. I finally settled down into asquatting position and poised myself to take theperfect shot. As I was bracketing the lizard in theviewfinder, I felt something slide across my leftfoot. Then I felt something gently slap my rightbuttock. I slowly looked around and saw that Iwas surrounded by hundreds of iguana lizards.They were slithering back and forth across therocks to my front, to my left, and rear. Oneseemed to have a three-foot tail. I looked to myright and saw an open path. My stomachrumbled, my hand trembled, and with one