Our impromptu ‘guide’ in Manzanillo, Mexico took us down an unshaded sidewalk beside a canal.

“From here on,” he said pointing, “iguana, iguana, iguana.”

And there they were, all over the trees on the other side of the channel, although tricky to photograph without a decent zoom. Further down there was a dirt bridge across the channel and we entered an enclosure into the ‘Iguanario’ our hotel had told us about. It was feeding time when we got there – fortunately for us these prehistoric-looking creatures are vegans. There were masses of them and it was a feeding frenzy.The males are orange……the females green. The happy couple. This colour differentiation was something I didn’t know and I see I will have to change my previous post on Iguanas. Here we called an ancient green iguana ‘El Jefe’ – the Boss (and she turns out to be ‘La Jefe’ instead). I also speculated that an orange iguana had a ‘completely different coloration than El Jefe – I’m not sure if it’s because he’s a different type or if they have a mild form of chameleon colour-changing properties as I’ve seen in other lizards’.‘Conserve me, take care of me and protect me. We accept donations in food (vegetables). Business friends, we are counting on your donations.’A sign on a cage: ‘Do not touch, do not cut, do not hit, thank you’.A nearby stone wall is cleverly painted with an iguana. 

• Iguanas are My Favourite Lizard
• Our stay in Manzanillo on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
• More about travelling in Mexico.