
The first surprise of the day came when one of the workers greeted me around 7.30am with a half eaten foot long lizard. "Serpiente!" he said with confidence then offered to clear the area close by with his machete.
Troubled by this, we had not had too many snake sightings recently, I took my morning cup of tea and sat down on the terrace to take a deep breath and relax.
Yikes, something was wriggling about underneath the cushions, sort of behind and underneath my bottom. After jumping about 10 ft in the air and screaming for help, we discovered a Marmosa isthmica Opossum or Zorra as the locals call them. It had wriggled out from a little nest of dried leaves that it had built under the cushions on the sofa, probably last night.
The Opossum is a type of marsupial they live in the trees, or in this case my green sofa must have felt like home, and eat insects and fruit. They are nocturnal with bulgy eyes and a long snout. Their tails are quite long and strong and are used to navigate branches. Overall they are quite cute, apparently they like to nest in little wooden boxes put in the trees, think I might oblige.