As Mara and Rusty are left to their own devices…
…they spy with their little eyes Professorial Assistant Becky. That, after having spent almost no time with her at dinner one night before they went chasing after Toucans… Well, I’m guessing that Rusty might have had other things on his mind, but that’s all that Mara would allow…
Good golly, these “stories” just plod along, don’t they?
The Daily Trail 
Perhaps the poisonous Gila Monster is foreshadowing some danger, though the Yucatan jungle is way out of its Sonoran Desert range — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_monster
Of course the kidnapping(?) will not be resolved until Thanksgiving.