Marine Iguanas, Part I

Marine iguanas are often the poster children of the Galapagos Islands.  They exist no where else in the world.  They are cold blooded, so at night they cluster in groups for body heat.  You find them laying on the black rocks everywhere you go, and at first they are hard to see.  Once you see them, you realize there are hundreds - everywhere!

When their body temperature is high enough, they go into the ocean and dive down for algae that grows on rocks.  They have an ingenious mechanism for processing the salt in the water - they spit it out.  When resting on the beach, all of a sudden one will spew forth a very salty spray out of its nose.

There are also land iguanas in Galapagos, but we'll save those for another day.  I have a zillion marine iguana pics, but here are two where I like the composition of the shot, not just close ups of the iguanas.  There will be more to come though - we saw these creatures every day, on every island.