The Western Islands

Our cruise took us over to the western islands in the archipelago. These are the youngest islands – and although I hate to choose a favorite, I really think Fernandina was amazing! This island seemed so raw to me. The black lava flow with the sparse vegetation, and the literal piles of marine Iguanas made this a super special stop! People always talk about how the animals of the Galapagos have never learned to fear humans, and the iguanas brought this point home for me. As the group walked around Fernandina the iguanas wouldn’t move. I felt like they were looking at us wondering what we were doing there. This was a completely surreal experience! As we were examining the different iguanas Ryan spotted a rotund one and said ‘well, that guy is quite the fatso, isn’t he?” Our guide Ceci approached him and said – ‘I do not know this word – fatso- can you explain it to me?” Ryan laughed, but explained it just meant he was a very large iguana. Later in the day Ceci came over and pointed to a lizard asking Ryan, “He too is a fatso?” We laughed, but confirmed!
We were lucky enough to do another snorkel here and see the marine iguanas eat under water. It was like swimming with dinosaurs! Every once and a while I would look from the ocean floor to the water line and it would surprise me to see a lizard swimming along like it belonged there! We made it to an underwater wall covered in algae and the iguanas were munching away. Spectacular!