How to cook an Iguana: A recipe according to Rafael

I am the lookout, perched on the front of a three-wheeled trici traveling down a dirt road in Pomuch. Rafael is pedaling. His head swivels from side to side. We are on the hunt. He is a gregarious and enthusiastic gourmand, who spent the day cooking and sharing recipes, including this one for a free-range meat source: iguana. This is what he told me:

1) Attrapelo! First you have to catch it. Find the iguana's hole, and you set up a wire, a noose around the hole. Then you wait, wait, wait for the iguana to come out. Then you grab it! Squeeze it tight, though, because iguanas like to fight.

Or, if you don't want to wait, you take your ule, your slingshot, and you take a rock and tak! You better hit it in the head, too.

2) Matelo! Kill it.

3) Quemelo! You take the iguana like this, and you lay it in the fire, until the skin is all burned and you can scrape it off. You see?

4) Abrelo! Cut him like this- slowly draws hand from throat to navel- like you were performing an operation.

5) Cortelo, y Salelo! Chop your iguana into several large pieces. Salt to taste.

6) Cocinelo! Oh, you can put the iguana in a delicious soup, with onions and chiles, or if you want to you can fry it in oil, then squeeze a little lime on top! So good! You can put it in tamales, or in stew. Anything!

“There, there's one!”. Rafael waves his hand towards a pile of rocks. I missed it entirely. We turn around, approaching slowly, silently. To no avail. The iguana has retreated to the safety of his hole. “Be-ey”, Rafael sighed in Mayan: that's the way it goes.

Note: Wondering what to do with the moles that are tearing up your garden? Rafael recommends serving them in adobo sauce.