Tinum...The Wildlife

Sometimes when I write a story, I have to look for pictures to enhance the descriptions within the tale. This time, I am looking for stories to tell about the pictures...but maybe they describe themselves after all. Over three months, we have sometimes literally run into the creatures pictured here (like the lizard clinging to my hammock as I went to hang it up one night). Some of them actually sat still enough for us to run and find the camera and snap a shot of them. Others, like the iguanas that love to perch on stone walls, also love to run off when we get close. So I don't have pictures of everything..most notably the hummingbird that flew into the sala today, and the mouse that just happened to be running around in a plastic bag that I pulled out of the cupboard. Not to mention an oversized rat-like creature the size of a cat that lives in the backyard and only comes out at night. When I see a snake, I run the other way, and never mind the camera. Even though my guidebook says that the mouth on a Coral snake is too small to bite anything but the webbing between fingers and toes, I feel only moderately better considering how often I am wearing flip-flops. And the armadillos are slow enough, but where's the camera when you need it, right? But a few times we have been lucky with the shutter, mostly with the lizards, of which there seem to be lots of variety amoung them. The big one that is clinging to the sala doors is over a foot long, not counting the tail, and runs on its hind-feet like a dinosaur out of the movie Jurassic Park. The geckos, which are maybe two inches long at most, can cling to anything, and we've just discovered that they love to chase laser lights (and you wondered how we would fill our time here!). There are many beautiful butterflies out in the forest, some with brilliant hues of blue and green and yellow, but since chasing butterflies can be futile, I admire them from a distance, and only take pictures of the stupid ones that fly into the house and can't seem to get out again. So there you are for now, hope you enjoy our animal pics...and wish us some more shutter luck!