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’s Legion Park. The class is popular—it 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—until 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—and completely wild—incident was captured on film as Sanchez streamed the class on her Instagram account.
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. “I look to my right, and I see an iguana scampering up the tree, so in the video, first, I’m laughing because ‘Oh cute, there’s the iguana,’ and then I look again, and I see this man holding his face and blood,” 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, the Miami New Times reported. (He declined to provide his full name for privacy and reputation concerns.) I mean, an iguana on your face. Initially, Michael thought it may have been a falling coconut, he told the Miami New Times. Unfortunately, it was not.
After the incident, Legion Park Yoga posted an update about the fall.
“Thankfully Michael is safe, although he/we were all a little shaken,” the post read. ‘Thanks 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.”
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—and 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. “Iguanas have put us on the map, this community that I adore” she says. It also seems as though the dueling iguanas could benefit from the practice, as well. Some ahisma, perhaps?