Geckos

Geico jokes aside please, we're talking real geckos. And the ones here aren't green, and certainly don't have Australian accents.

I'm really adjusting to things like bugs in the house, and geckos everywhere, but you have to let me take baby-steps here. I've been doing quite well with carrying the bugs outside (on paper of course, not in my hands, I'm just not there yet) instead of smashing them. Well except the evil, giant red ants that set up shop in my bathroom. They're menacing and have been known to bite, so if I spot one pre-shower sorry but it is not getting escorted outside. So these geckos. They are really quite adorable, and eat insects so I'm really quite happy to have them in the house. But the first time I saw one run across my wall...oh my. All I can say is poor Maryann, and thank goodness for her patience. I walk into my room, click on my light and this crazy brown flash scurries across my wall! I let out a little, "Oh my goooodness!!!" and backed out of my room with my hand over my mouth. When Maryann came to see what was the matter and I explained about the gecko she gave me a sort of hand-on-hip sideways glance. Yeah yeahhh they don't hurt you, but it moved SO fast, and I was startled! The way they move is actually kind of cute. Once I'd calmed down it was fun to watch it walk around. Though I kept a close eye on it the rest of the night (it sort of setup shop in the corner of my ceiling for a while) and was a little unnerved once it left the corner and I didn't see where it ended up. That night I'm pretty sure I dreamt that it was in my bed, and I remember waking up thinking it really was next to me only to realize it was a curl in the sheets. My vision really isn't so great without my glasses :) Ok so the way they move--their shoulders move with their tiny arms when they scurry, so they get this sort of ess pattern when they run across the wall.

In town the other day I saw a gecko flip his tongue out and eat a fly. A little creepy of course, but also pretty cool! Linda, the Mexican's wife, was telling me that they didn't use to have geckos around here, but now they're everywhere. I wonder what brought them in. I guess the biggest downfall with them would be their poo. They leave this little black droppings all over the place. Mostly on the perimeter of rooms, but we've noticed them in the shower (bleh) and the other day I was organizing my desks and found some on top of one. Ew dude, there's learning to be done here! I've heard as long as you keep your food covered there's no real threat, and we do that anyway thanks to ants and other fun things.

The shower gecko...this one killed me. I was showering one night and had just set my shampoo down when I saw the flash of a scurry. Contacts were out and of course I don't shower in my glasses, so I'm squinting like crazy trying to figure out what and where it was. Its earthen-colored flesh blended in far too well with the pinkish/off-white shower tiles, but it was a little baby gecko! A little background about the shower...it's awkwardly wide and long. I find the "walk" from spray to shampoo/conditioner a little odd. I'm just not used to leaving the shower spray to get my toiletries. But my reaction to the tiny gecko was just silly. The way I cautiously lunged for my conditioner, and basically tossed my razor back down so as not to get too close to the intruder. I tried my best to rinse with at least one eye open, and washing my face was pretty hilarious. I'm not sure what I was so worried about--did I think the little guy was going to try and cop a feel when I wasn't watching?

These gecko encounters were very early in my stay here, and I've since calmed quite a bit. The noise they make is what really gets me. They sound like they're laughing! Maybe they're just laughing at the crazy gringa they've all surely heard about at this point...