Photo: Getty Images
A Florida man was enjoying a free yoga class until he suffered a slew of injuries from a falling iguana. The man, who only wanted to be identified as Michael, was attending Anamargaret Sanchez's free community yoga class at Miami's Legion Park when the shocking event happened, per Miami New Times. He remembers relaxing on his back and preparing for the final resting post. But that moment of peace became a burst of pain.
"I didn't see it coming. It felt like a sandbag hit me in the face," Michael recounts to reporters. "The first thing that went through my head was it must have been a coconut. But there were no coconut trees. And then I thought maybe the guy next to me slugged me — but, I mean, we're in a yoga class and it's so calm and peaceful. Why would the guy hit me?"
His fellow classmates had to tell him it was a green iguana weighing "between 20 and 30 pounds" that attacked him. He suffered a swollen eye and he was bleeding from his nose and lip, according to the Times.
Sanchez was streaming her yoga class on Instagram when the iguana fell on Michael. During the last few minutes of the livestream, she rolls up from her position after something catches her and the rest of the class's attention. The instructor then utters, "Oh no," before quickly walking off-camera.
"Guys, I think we are going to close the class," Sanchez can be heard saying on the recording. "I'm going to take care of someone who just got an iguana dropped on his face."
Paramedics with the city's fire department were briefly seen on the livestream as they trotted over to check out Michael. The yoga attendee declined to be taken to the hospital and waited for his wife to drive him home.
"It's kind of scary if you believe that kind of thing — out of 150 people in the class, I just want to know why me?"
Iguanas are known to fall from frees when the ambient temperature drops below 50 degrees, but parkgoers believe the "suspect" may have simply lost his footing or had a fight with a rival male. This invasive species was first reported in the Sunshine State back in the 1960s.
You can read more about this wild story on Miami New Times' website.