Colombian Iguanas

I have a confession to make. Actually, if we’re friends you probably already know about how I'm not the biggest fan of lizards... Lizards of any size, shape or color. Yes, the tiniest little lizard will send me squealing like a little girl. I think my fear stems from a horrible experience involving lizards in my bedroom when I was a teenager, but that’s another story for another time.

Now, you might be wondering what lizards have anything to do with my post, and truthfully I don’t know why I started with the lizards. I spent a lot of time staring at the iguanas on the roof of my family’s restaurant in Cali this past weekend because I was sick and was laying in the bed trying to recooperate before my long bus trip back to Sogamoso. If I would have known about their daily visits, I probably would have asked to be put in a different room.... Ok, that would have just been rude of me, and sweet little Southern girls who are scared of lizards are not rude.

These are some of the ‘firsts’ this Southern girl experienced over the weekend:

• I traveled by myself in a bus for 4 hours in a foreign country
• I also managed to get to get to where I was going and back without a single problem (I hope you noticed that I didn’t mention doing this for the first time in a foreign country. I haven’t done this in the US either. No one really trusts me when it comes to traveling because I have a horrible sense of direction.)
• I got sick and went to a doctor in a foreign country
• I was unable to find the medicine the doctor prescribed for me to take so I could get over my cold faster
• I visited my family’s home in Colombia for the first time
• I took a shower in a semi-outside bathroom (it was very well shielded)
• I shopped in a ridiculously nice mall and only bought coffee for my boyfriend (If you know me this is a very notable experience)
• I saw stars strategically placed to mark where people who were hit by cars had died (These are all over the streets in Cali. There are over 5 million people who live there, so the availability of sidewalk space tends to run over into the roads…)
• I watched 2 iguanas crawl down from the trees onto the roof of my family’s house, and I watched a whole herd (not sure what you call a group of about 5 of them together) fight over the platanos my cousin tossed to them on the other side of the river

I've linked the title to a YouTube video I created by compiling some of the pictures I took in Cali. Maybe they'll help you understand why I'm not such a big fan of lizards... Maybe not. Either way, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be climbing any trees in Colombia because now I know that’s where they live…. Just in case you were wondering.

By the way, I do have other YouTube videos posted. I'm planning on posting more, but the connection here tempermental. I've got to figure out how to create my own channel. Does anyone know how to do this?

God Bless!
Amanda