Fernandina Island

We stepped off our panga through a bunch of big red crabs and around a big sea lion onto Fernandina Island. This is the westernmost and youngest of the Galapagos Islands. It is covered with uneven, ropy lava which made walking difficult, but the sights we saw made the difficult walk easy. The beach was covered with piles and piles of marine iguanas. There were thousands of them just warming themselves in the sun. They really are ugly and scary looking, but the naturalists all assure me that they are harmless. They do have a mighty spit and I got sprayed several times. They spit to clear the salt from they nostrils. They actually blend into the lava and several times I almost stepped on one. I am sure that would have scared me more than the iguanas who seemed completely unaware of our presence. Sling, I couldn't decide which one to pick for you. You will just have to choose from one of these.





Little lava lizards scampered all over the iguanas feeding on little sea urchins on the iguanas' skin. The lizards' lunch was the iguanas' bath.



The island was a nursery for the sea lions. We saw several babies not far from their moms. Twice I saw babies nursing from their moms.



We saw sea turtles often in the water. This beautiful one swam ashore and posed for pictures.



My birdman was always looking for more birds and added new ones to his list every day. On Fernandina he saw this Galapagos pelican and a flightless cormorant. The cormorant is one of the many endemic species that evolved to better survive the harsh life on these islands.






Fernandina felt like we had visited a land that time forgot.