The Day of the Iguana
Dear Forum Friends,
You have probably heard about the famous film "Night of the Iguana". This is thetitle of a Tennessee Williams play. It was made into a film by director John
Houston. It starred Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr.
The setting was a jungle bay in the larger bay of "Banderas" (English translation "Flags",) on the west coast of Mexico. This is near the then, fishing village
of Puerto Vallarta. At the time, Richard Burton was having a torrid love affair
with the also famous, and at that time married, Elizabeth Taylor. They all spent
much time in Puerto Vallart, a long time ago. It is still popular to go to see
the location of the filming, and the houses of Taylor and Burton.
Puerto Vallarta grew, and over time became a prime tourist destination, with
five star hotels along the beaches. It also became a port on the itinerary of cruise ship lines. On our trip this Christmas we stopped there, as well as at Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.
The first impression of Puerto Vallarta is spoiled for those who arrive by shipbecause at dockside just across the street is a large flat mid grey building wall with a huge block letters on it reading WAL*MART. You cannot get away from it
. This ugliness is just another one of the unfortunate signs of globalizatiion.
Well, so much then for the film "The Night of the Iguana." I mentioned it so that I could tell you of the day of the iguana.
You might ask, what then is an Iguana? Well it is a lizard found in South
America, Central America and Mexico. They look like a miniature dragon without wings. They grow up to 1-1/2 meters long, but most of the ones I saw were about
2-1/2 feet long. They have a somewhat scaly looking dry skin, green to grey green in colour. Here comes the Day of the Iguana.
Cabo San Lucas is a fishing village at the end of the long Peninsular Baja California. It is made famous by Los Arcos. The natural arches in rock at the end of
land. I wish I had pictures for you as it is spectacular, but you can Google it.
About 30 years ago, the then President of Mexico bought large land holdings with beach access for his extended family in the undeveloped Cabo area.
Later, The Economic Development Commission promoted Cabo as a world class resort
and built infrastructure. This made Cabo today, one out of three best westcoast
destinations.
The fishing harbour is great for many yachts from around the world, but it is too shallow to allow cruise ships. They therefore anchor off-shore and use their
motorized life boats to bring people ashore. These boats hold up to 150 people at one time and you reach them by going to the lowest level in the ship, then down an outside stair to a platform from which the boat operates. It is fun to ridein the life-boat motor launches.
Upon arrival at dockside one has to walk a gauntlet of tourist touts just as Pan
so vividly described on his trip. They want to grab you for all kinds of excursions, restaurants and gift shops. Then come the vendors with all kinds of overpriced souvenirs and gimcracks. When asked the price it is always five dollars. I
guess anyone who comes on such a big and luxurious ship is automatically assessed as rich.
Among the hierarchy of peddlers are, at the bottom the sellers of clay whistles
in the shapes of birds or turtles. These are mostly sold by children. Then come
the sellers of hats and blankets, Near the top are the jewelery sellers of silver rings and necklaces. Having passed through the milling, importuning crowd you
now have the walk along the dockside to the town which is about a kilometer long
and takes a right hand turn at the yacht basin. Here we find restaurants with open air verandas.
Here are also the IGUANAS. The iguanas are held by their masters either men
or girls, who try to get you to hold still while they place their animal on yourshoulders. For a snapshot to be taken by your friend or mate. This then obligates you to pay a fee. I could not find out how much, because I did not have a camera or a friend there. But I gave a lady a quarter to buy vegetables for her iguana. One lady put her animal onto a bald man's head. Surprisingly he let it happen. The iguanas appear quite tame and lazy.
I was surprised to see how many iguanas were to be found. I counted at least seven. I started to wonder where all these animals came from. Of course they are quite common in Mexico and I have seen them also in Puerto Vallarta. But not that
many in a small area. There was also a stand where you could take a picture witha Baby Lion. But the iguana people were doing the bulk of the business.
I then strolled through some side streets of the little town and now I came upona store with a sign that said: "IGUANAS FOR RENT". And now I understood, only Cruise Ship days are iguana days. They are rented for the day. I too could have
rented one.
Best wishes to all, Uncle Ben
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