Iguana in the backyard

Iguanas can run really fast. I think of this every time I'm creeping up to one to get a close up photograph. This Iguana is huge, and dumb. She really likes our backyard even though there are two dogs ready to kill her every time she digs in. This particular afternoon we let the dogs out not realizing she was in the yard. The video is not great and shaky but it will give you an idea how fast they are. Jerry is holding Nala so I can chase the Iguana back down the hole.

Ship

We had three different ships here last weekend. This one is on its way to Haiti for humanitarian relief from hurricane Ike. I made the mistake of hitting the exchange while they were here. It was so crowded you could barely make it up and down the isles. But I needed dog food so what could I do. They cleaned the place out and then jumped back on the ships and headed out.

We were at the neighbors house and I was able to get some shots of it pulling out of the bay. 

Why I will be wearing shoes in the house from now on.

Look what I just found in the living room. I hear they run in pairs........... Fantastic!

Speed Racer

Guess what the maximum speed is on GTMO. No it's not 15.

Yes, It's 25. Oh the agony of only driving 25. I never get my car out of third gear. It's going to be funny when I return to the United States and I'm driving 40 on the freeway, feeling like I'm flying at amazingly fast speeds, while cars are zipping past me blowing their horns yelling, "get out of the road old lady."

The Birds

For those of you that follow my blog you have already been educated about the Banana Rats that infest GTMO. Due to the fact hundreds of these Rats are killed each month the buzzards are very fat and healthy. Jerry and I agree on one thing, and that's about it, we don't like the buzzards. They are creepy. They are black with red heads. They have beady little eyes. They sit atop most telephone poles and while you are driving under them they stare down at you and cry, "Nevermore." Oh wait, that was a raven. Anyway, they are creepy.  This weekend one of the buzzards decided to land on our fence. I didn't like the way he was looking at me. See him staring as if to say, "if you died I would eat you." 

So I stared back as if to say, "if I had a bb gun we would not be having this staring competition." He flew off. 

Adventures with Nala

My dog Nala follows me wherever I go. She is stuck to me like glue. It's hard to take pictures sometimes when there is a dog face in every shot so I figured I would incorporate her into the shots. So let the adventures with Nala begin.

Remember this tree? The one that got an extreme haircut. Well with the help of lots of rain it's growing back quite nicely.   

We have a satellite here. It's much larger than we are used to. It took 3 grown men to lift it on the pole and install it. It's a heavy sucker. No, we are not supposed to have satellite and we had to do some shady things to get it, but hey, I need my TIVO and the NFL ticket. GO COWBOYS!
Remember the tree that blew over during hurricane Ike? Well, Jerry planted it in the backyard. I hope it lives. It's a nice addition to a blah patio area. 
Here is another shot of my favorite palm tree. My sister-in-law named it Tina. Why Tina, do you ask? Well, It survived Ike. 
Not everything survived Ike. Like this banana tree. Poor thing.
Some of my banana trees were all blow apart and some had little or no damage. 
I hope you enjoyed adventures with Nala. I know I did.

After the Storm

Here is the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. All in all GTMO suffered little damage. Just lots of branches and street signs blown down. The storm hit us in the middle of the night and the sound of the wind was amazing. I would doze in and out throughout the night. While awake would listen to the wind and a very irritated toad (Jerry calls him Hypno-Toad because the dogs are mesmerized by him) outside under our window.  The dogs didn't seem to care and slept undisturbed all night. We did lose this palm in the front of the house but I didn't care. Its not my favorite palm.

But this one is. I just love this palm tree.
As you can see the patio is rather dirty from downed branches. We will clean it up this weekend. 
Why yes, I am enjoying my new job. Thanks for asking. The office staff is great and I feel like this is something I could do for years to come. 

A question for you

What do you do when there is a Cat 4 hurricane coming right for you? Well, you go boating of course. It's hard to believe by this calm water that hurricane Ike is on it's way.

One of this things I love about Cuba is the big beautiful cloud formations that develop every afternoon.

Do you see the dog in this cloud formation?

Another beautiful day in Cuba.

I will update on hurricane Ike as soon as I am able.

Banana Rat

GTMO is infested with Banana Rats. One might ask, what is a Banana Rat? Well, they are giant rats (about the size of a possum). Is GTMO really infested, you might ask? You bet your booty it's infested.  So infested you can kill them at will. You can stab them, shoot them, run them over with your car, hit them over the head with a bat. Well, you get the idea. They actually have a environmental guy here who's job it is to kill banana rats. If you are bored one night you can set up a tour de banana rat, bring all your friends. The professionals will take you out for a night of fun, frolic, and killing. Before you bleeding heart PETA folks get all upset you must realize what would happen if the numbers were not reduced. Banana Rats have no natural predators  and compete for the same natural resources as other animals here. They would overpopulate and exhaust resources necessary for the ecosystem. Then everyone would starve. Don't I sound smart?