This morning we hiked on the black lava surface of Fernandina Island and I finally got to meet the famous, endemic, marine iguanas. There is no way for me to improve on Kurt Vonnegut’s description of them in his novel, “Galápagos”. Here is his mostly accurate description of what is now a favorite animal of mine (they are better swimmers than he gives them credit for!):
“ In real life, the creature could be more than a meter long, and look as fearsome as a Chinese dragon. Actually, though, it was no more dangerous to life forms of any sort, with the exception of seaweed, than a liverwurst. Here is what its life is like in present day, which is exactly what its life was like a million years ago:
It has no enemies, so it sits in one place, staring into the middle distance at nothing, wanting nothing, worried about nothing, until it is hungry. It then waddles down to the ocean and swims slowly and not all that ably until it is a few meters from shore. Then it dives like a submarine, and stuffs itself with seaweed, which is at that time indigestible. The seaweed is going to have to be cooked before it is digestible.
So the marine iguana pops to the surface, swims ashore and sits on the lava in the sunshine again. It is using itself for a covered stewpot, getting hotter and hotter while the sunshine cooks the seaweed. It continues to stare into the middle distance at nothing, as before, but with this difference: It now spits up saltwater from time to time.
During millions of years, the Law of Natural Selection has found no way to improve, or for that matter, worsen this particular survival scheme”
In addition to spending time observing marine iguanas, we enjoyed watching sea lions and sea turtles swim in shallow pools near the beach and got to see the beautiful endemic flightless cormorants.
“ In real life, the creature could be more than a meter long, and look as fearsome as a Chinese dragon. Actually, though, it was no more dangerous to life forms of any sort, with the exception of seaweed, than a liverwurst. Here is what its life is like in present day, which is exactly what its life was like a million years ago:
It has no enemies, so it sits in one place, staring into the middle distance at nothing, wanting nothing, worried about nothing, until it is hungry. It then waddles down to the ocean and swims slowly and not all that ably until it is a few meters from shore. Then it dives like a submarine, and stuffs itself with seaweed, which is at that time indigestible. The seaweed is going to have to be cooked before it is digestible.
So the marine iguana pops to the surface, swims ashore and sits on the lava in the sunshine again. It is using itself for a covered stewpot, getting hotter and hotter while the sunshine cooks the seaweed. It continues to stare into the middle distance at nothing, as before, but with this difference: It now spits up saltwater from time to time.
During millions of years, the Law of Natural Selection has found no way to improve, or for that matter, worsen this particular survival scheme”
In addition to spending time observing marine iguanas, we enjoyed watching sea lions and sea turtles swim in shallow pools near the beach and got to see the beautiful endemic flightless cormorants.
After lunch we went deep sea snorkeling again at Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela Island. We snorkeled along brightly colored cliffs of volcanic rock, past a large cave. It was pretty exciting, because besides getting to swim with several sea turtles (we saw at least 6 and they let you swim right next to them!), we also got to see penguins in the water. The Galápagos is the only place in the world where you will see such diversity of sea life, because of the combination of the cold humboldt current feeding in from the south and warmer tropical currents flowing around the islands.
We went back to the cliffs later in a zodiac to get a closer look at some of the birds and wildlife in the area. Tonight, the ship set sail again and we spent sunset on the front deck of the ship, crossing over the equator as the moon came up.
We went back to the cliffs later in a zodiac to get a closer look at some of the birds and wildlife in the area. Tonight, the ship set sail again and we spent sunset on the front deck of the ship, crossing over the equator as the moon came up.