During the damp season, in foggy months, a species of cactus grows on the _lomas_ or sand hills which produces a fruit called _caimito_; this resembles in shape a large cucumber; it is first green, afterwards brown, with yellow stripes, and when ripe it is red. The taste is an agreeable subacid; but after eating the fruit a very disagreeable feeling is left on the lips, which is removed by rubbing them with a piece of the rind. The fruit is remarkably fragrant, and on this account it is frequently kept in the houses.
In the garden at Huaito there were a few plants of coffee; they were very healthy and bore fruit abundantly. Cotton of a good quality grows near the cottages of the indians, who always cultivate a few plants for their own consumption; among these plants I have observed many bearing cotton of a nankeen colour, but of this they seldom make any use.
Quantities of small lizards are to be seen on every heap of rubbish or stones, particularly when the sun shines, busily employed in catching flies, on which they appear to subsist; I have frequently watched them while seizing their prey. As soon as they observe a fly on the sand they creep out of their holes and make their advance with a slow and almost imperceptible motion; they place themselves in a right line with the object, and then make a dart at it open mouthed, and swallow it in a moment, very rarely missing it. They are often beautifully striped with green, yellow, and brown, and are generally about eight inches long. On some parts of the coast the indians eat them; they cut off the tail and the feet and fry the body, which has then the appearance of a fried smelt. I ate some at San Pedro, and believed them to be the peje rey until I was undeceived. The indians consider them as a medicinal food for persons afflicted with cutaneous diseases.
The opossum is found in all the valleys of the coast; it is about two feet long including the tail, which is as long as the body; the nose is pointed like that of a hog, and has no hair on it from the eyes to the mouth; the ears are thin, without any hair on them, and stand erect; the feet are also naked and small, and it holds its meat with its fore paws, like a monkey; the body is covered with hair, black at the roots and white at the points, which gives it a shady grey colour; the tail is slender and naked, and by it the animal can hang suspended to the branch of a tree. The female brings forth four or five young ones at a time, not larger than mice when first born, and they immediately betake themselves to the pouch under the belly of their mother. The pouch is formed by a fold of the skin, hairy on the outside and covered with a very soft down or fur on the inside; the nipples are so situated, that the young ones can suck them as they are carried about by their mother; when about the size of full grown mice they leave the pouch by an opening in the centre, and bask in the sun, but if any danger threaten them they immediately take refuge in their natural home. I one day caught an old opossum by the tail, when four of her young ones ran out; I chased and captured two of them; they immediately hid themselves by running up the inside of my coat sleeves; I took them home, reared them, and they became perfectly domesticated, were very tame, and would sleep on the same mat with a dog. They feed on fruit or esculents, will eat flesh, and are particularly fond of eggs. The indians esteem them as food, but I never had an opportunity of eating any. The natives sometimes call the opossum _mochilera_, from _mochila_, a knapsack; the indians call it _mucamuca_.