As most absurd stories start, this one happened in Florida. (Apologies to the Sunshine State, but you know how you are.) On Saturday mornings, Anamargret Sanchez teaches an outdoor yoga practice in Miami鈥檚 Legion Park. The class is popular鈥攊t often has more than 120 attendees. But in her 14 years of teaching yoga in the park, Sanchez had never had an unwelcome creature disrupt her serene environment鈥攗ntil a class earlier this month.
On January 7, as everyone moved into Savasana, the final resting posture at the end of class, a large iguana fell from a tree onto the face of one of her students. And the very strange鈥攁nd completely wild鈥攊ncident was captured on film as Sanchez streamed the class on .
The impact happens at 47:40 in the embedded video. In the video, the moment where Sanchez realizes something is amiss is obvious. As she later explained, Sanchez was leading students into that restful state when she heard a thump. 鈥淚 look to my right, and I see an iguana scampering up the tree, so in the video, first, I鈥檓 laughing because 鈥極h cute, there鈥檚 the iguana,鈥 and then I look again, and I see this man holding his face and blood,鈥 she says.
After she realized what was unfolding, she says she ran off camera to grab a towel for him. Nearby paramedics provided medical attention.
The student, Michael, experienced excruciating pain, . (He declined to provide his full name for privacy and reputation concerns.) I mean, an聽iguana on your face. Initially, Michael thought it may have been a falling coconut, . Unfortunately, it was not.
After the incident, Legion Park Yoga posted an update about the fall.
鈥淭hankfully Michael is safe, although he/we were all a little shaken,鈥 the post read. 鈥楾hanks to the amazing paramedics that happened to be there buying flowers. They came right over, sunflowers and all. Thank you to the yoginis and yogis that held the space. Love and gratitude.鈥
But, how exactly, does an iguana fall from a tree? Apparently, the plunge stemmed from an iguana fight. (Yes, an iguana fight.) Sanchez says participants later told her they had spotted two iguanas battling, when one of the creatures suddenly fell out of the tree鈥攁nd onto the face of the student.
Sanchez reports that Michael made a strong recovery after the encounter and returned to her class the following week after getting an all-clear from his doctor.
Sanchez plans to continue teaching yoga in the park. But the iguanas have definitely changed the tenor of the local community class. 鈥淚guanas have put us on the map, this community that I adore鈥 she says. It also seems as though the dueling iguanas could benefit from the practice, as well. , perhaps?