Mary saved a life yesterday. It happened by the pool. She was walking by the edge of the pool and suddenly she called out to me. I was at the far end in a deck chair.

(Now, first of all, you have to understand that here in Bonaire, you live side by side with many different species of lizards, from the tiniest geckos to three-foot-long iguanas, and they are everywhere.)

“Jim!” she shouted, “Come here quickly! There’s the smallest gecko in world drowning here!” Before I could get out of my chair, she was forced to spring into action.

When she first saw the tiny fellow, he was in the pool with his head up and all four feet moving frantically. Then suddenly, he stopped moving and dropped his head, in what appeared to be sheer exhaustion.

Mary looked over at me, determined that I was moving too slowly, did a little dance, squealed, “OOOOOOO!”, dropped down to her knees, and scooped the little guy out of the water.

For a good two or three minutes he stood perfectly still on the cement, just as he had landed, apparently catching his breath.

When Mary approached him to see if he was okay, he scooted off for the protection of the nearest shrub.

This morning, as we were having breakfast on the balcony before our first dive, a tiny gecko climbed up the wall from the ground below and peeked over at us. Then he jumped onto the floor of our balcony and just froze there for a moment, staring at us.

Mary looked up from her coffee, smiled and said, “Your welcome.”

The little guy hung around for a few moments, and finding no crumbs or bugs to eat, scurried back the wall the same way that he came up.

Was it the same gecko? Probably not, but it’s fun to think that it was. I really didn’t care if it was or not, just as long as he didn’t try to sell me car insurance.