When we wander around here in the Northwest some of the animals we tend to see are possums, raccoons, moles, skunks, herons, deer, and the occasional salamander. We don't think of these things as being anything spectacular. In fact some of these we consider pests and try not to have them around.

There are some animals we tend to think of as exotic animals but not in Cozumel. They are as common as our pests are to us. I think that they hotel keeps them around just for the guests to ooh and awe over.

This guy was the small iguana.

This one hung out in the tree. I really didn't think that the branch could support his weight but he was up there for two days, storm and all.

He finally came down from the tree and wandered across the walkway changing colors as he went. The claws on him are long and sharp and I wouldn't want to tangle with one.

We saw these little tiny lizards everywhere and they were quick. I couldn't believe how they could jump. Getting a shot at one was hard.

This lizard was big right after I took a photo of it, it ran into the grass and a snake came out of no where and almost snagged the lizard!

We watched a cricket thing jump across the walkway and then this little lizard jump after it until it caught the bug. It was discovery channel live.

Some boys (hotel workers, but they were young boys) found this turtle and took it to the swamp to release him. I'm sure they were dying to see how far they could toss him in but since I was there, they placed him on the railing so I could take a photo and then gently dropped him in the water. I really wanted a photo of the boys with the turtle (tortuga) but I didn't speak enough Spanish to let them know what I wanted. The workers really tried not to be noticed unless they were working to sell timeshares and then they were aggressive; but that's another story.

The last day some of the ground keepers were looking through the bushes around the walkway. I ask them what they were looking at. They said it was a large animal. All I could think of was a crocodile or alligator, but no they said it was a pig. They were smiling and looking a me. I'm sure they were teasing me. But a worker at the desk said that he was walking around the compound one day and out ran a mother pig and her baby. So I guess they are around.