DESTINATION FOCUS


Please Don’t Step On


Michael DeFreitas straddles the Equator with the


wildlife of the Galapagos Islands


The Iguanas W


isps of fi ne spray, backlit by a low sun, pierced the morning air along the black rocky shoreline of Punta Espinosa on the north-east coast of


Isla Fernandina, the youngest and third largest island in the Galapagos Archipelago. The shoreline marked the edge of a vast lava fi eld that stretched down from the island’s massive active volcano, Volcán La Cumbre, 10 kilometres away. As we headed toward shore in our panga (the local


word for Zodiac), I couldn’t help but wonder what Charles Darwin must have thought about these strange wisps when he fi rst approached these shores in 1835. As it turned out, those tiny mysterious plumes turned out to be “sneezes” from thousands of black, 4ft marine iguanas blanketing the rocky shoreline. It seems the iguanas ingest lots of salt water when they feed on sea algae and eject the excess salt (wa- ter) from their bodies by collecting it in their nasal passages and sneezing.


82 WORLD OF CRUISING I Summer 2010


Our panga driver picked a clear landing spot be- tween the iguanas and, before we stepped ashore, our naturalist park guide, Harry Jimenez, warned: “Be careful on the sharp lava and please don’t step on the iguanas.” It was a necessary warning – they were everywhere and their black bodies blended perfectly with the black lava. And it wasn’t only iguanas we had to contend with. During our fi rst two-hour shore excursion, we also had to dodge scurrying sally light-foot crabs, fl ightless cor- morants, playful Galapagos sea lions and lava lizards.


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