Looking Back Post 73 Marine Iguanas
After leaving Isla Genovesa, we had a long sail around to the western most and youngest island in the Galapagos Archipelago, Isla Fernandina.
Fernandina is a truly wondrous island. Being the youngest of the islands, it has the least vegetation and is very raw. Plenty of exposed lava and no sandy beaches.
Fernandina is also home to the rather peculiar flightless cormorant. I'll talk more about that creature in another post. Today it's marine iguana time.
I'll probably share a couple more marine iguanas before I'm done with the Galapagos as they are everywhere in the Galapagos. On Isla Fernandina, however, they were piled up massively, one upon another. We had arrived early in the morning to catch them clustered together for warmth.
Interesting characters these guys. Being cold blooded they have to rely on external heat sources to warm back up, so after a hard hunting session in the ocean they climb back out to laze in the sun to recover. All the while snorting and spitting out salt snot. Yeah, you gotta be a bit careful around them that you don't get salt spit all over your camera. Kinda funny though.
And like most of the creatures of the Galapagos, they don't run away, so you get to really take your time with them.
This characteristic of Galapagos Island fauna is both blessing and curse. Blessing because you can really take your time watching them and composing your photograph. Curse because you can really take your time… and spend ALL your landing time in one spot and miss out on what else there is to see.
Careful observance of time and rationing time is highly recommended.
