Escorpión King

One major difference between houses in Nicaragua and houses in the US is that here there is much less distinguishing between outdoors and indoors. Often times there are no doors. Windows are open all the time. Since people don't need heating and air conditioning is rare, there is little need to design houses to be air-tight. Insects and animalitos come and go as they please. One of the most ubiquitous critters here is the gecko lizard, which here is called the escorpión. It's pretty harmless. They are all over the house and I've found them in my bedroom and bathroom on multiple occasions. This one I took a picture of in the kitchen. They're about the same size as the blue-tailed skinks that you find in North Carolina. Supposedly these escorpiónes eat mosquitoes. They don't eat nearly enough. My first week or two here, I would hear someone knocking on the door and go answer it but find no one there. It turns out that one other feature of these geckos is that they make a tock-tock-tock sound every 10 minutes or so. Even after I knew the gecko sound, I would still sometimes be fooled into answering the door because it sounded that similar to door knocking. After a while, my ear adapted and I was able to distinguish the geckos from the knocks.
Other little critters come and go in the house. There are a bunch of bats that fly through the kitchen and dining area at night. Hummingbirds come to the gardens and fill up. Ants occasionally try building a colony right inside my doorway. I evict them, but they usually return to rebuild within a few days. Sometimes you see mice scurrying around or roaches, but they generally don't bother me. Since there aren't any precautions to keep critters out, the food is always kept locked up.