Brazil facts & history in brief
Iguana, a large lizard like reptile, common in the
Americas especially the South and
Central American jungles.
Most iguanas live in deserts or other
dry habitats, but a few species live in
tropical rainforests.
All iguanas are active during the day and sleep
at night.
They have distinct eyelids, large external eardrums, and
often conspicuous throat pouches.
Their limbs have five free toes ending
in sharp claws.
They display a conspicuous courting and defensive
displays, like raising their bodies
and bobbing their heads vigorously.
Iguanas are herbivorous.
They can be found living in trees, near
water, or in arid regions.
The green iguana, also called the common
iguana, is found from Mexico to
southern Brazil and Paraguay.
Green iguanas may grow up to 1.8
metres in length.
Adult males are grey or
light brown coloured, with dark bars
on the sides of the body and broad
black circles ringing the tail;
the females are generally green coloured.
These iguanas have a large flap of
skin called a dewlap at their throat
and a crest of scales
along their back and long tail.
Their colour ranges
from grey to green, with brown
bands around the body and tail.
Green iguanas and their eggs
are often eaten for food.
These lizards also
are often captured
for the pet trade.
As a result, green iguanas are
in danger of extinction
in many areas.
Green iguanas live in trees,
especially near water.
They typically lie motionless on horizontal
branches and rarely move.
When attacked by an enemy, they leap out of
trees and hide underwater.
If cornered on land, they use their long
tail as a lash.
Iguanas eat fruit, flowers, and leaves.
Most other
lizards eat insects.
Plants are difficult for most other lizards to
digest.
The iguana's digestive system contains
certain bacteria that help
the animal digest plants.
Iguanas are born without these bacteria and it
appears that they obtain them
by eating the faeces of adult
iguanas.
The rhinoceros iguana, a
terrestrial species found in Haiti
and the Dominican Republic, gets
its name from the three horns on its
forehead.
All species of iguanas lay eggs.
Females may travel long
distances to find a suitable
place to dig a tunnel and bury as many as 75
eggs. Some of the females
may guard the nest for several days.
The
young hatch after 10 to 14
weeks and dig their way to the surface.
New-born green iguanas may leave
the nest in small groups, probably
for protection.
The young iguanas grow slowly
and may take two years to
mature.
Some iguanas may live for 30 years
or more.
Soon after our arrival at
the Airport we were accosted by
one of the agents (Bayardo Hornos)
of Four Tourist travel and a very
attractive picture of our sightseeing
trip was presented to us.
We were promised everything
until we paid up.
In reality we ended up very unhappy
and feeling fiddled, cheated and
short-changed.
These sales
people have wide knowledge of
various countries visitors are likely to
come from.
They endear themselves to you by
praising your country and call you
by the nickname of your country,
(Kiwis in our case) also rattling
off numbers of people they dealt
with from your country etc.
Now the
promises and the unkept promises.
We were very interested to take the
trip, after all that's what we
came for, and the sales talk and promises
sound very good, but very soon
we got our first disappointment, he would
not accept our Visa (Cost too
much commission and rampant inflation, he
claimed).
As New Zealanders we have to buy
U.S. dollars of which we only
had a limited supply, to
last another 6 weeks.
We were to go on a jungle
safari, a boat ride up to the falls,
(We did get these two and thoroughly
enjoyed it too) then we were to be
transferred to a regular free boat to
go to the island where another
boat would have taken us to the Devil's
Throat.
Arriving at the landing we were
promised a video of our boat trip,
to be delivered to our hotel
but we never received that and we were told
the free boat to the island
was not running, neither did the boat to the
Devil's Throat.
From the landing site now we had to walk to catch a little
train to take us near the
walkway over the falls.
We got lost because the
people promised to meet us at
arranged places just weren't there.
Our walk
over the falls was terrific,
thoroughly enjoyable.
Next day the
continuation of our tour
was just as troublesome.
We desperately wanted to explore
Foz do Iguacu, the Brazilian Iguazu
town, but our driver only give us
a glimpse of it, claiming we had
no time, but we had to spend 5 hours
at the Airport waiting for our plane.
Iguazu town, our Hotel the Los
Helechos (Telefax(03757)4-20338,
was reasonably priced and quiet adequate)
and the spectacle
of the falls were terrific.
Please be careful with the choice
of Tour companies, the many unkept
promises can be expensive and disappointing.
You can click on these photos for an enlargement.
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