Land o' Leezards!

It's always sad to leave our little friends on vacation, but at least on this one to the Galápagos my wife and I had a pacifier :lol:

This fella is a marine iguana. They're around 1 m long and as you can see, there are piles of them! When they swim up out of the ocean, they're like a mini Nessie and they will snort excess salt out their noses (the white around their faces). I love how you can see dragon-esque poses in them in the 2nd pic. There's "splat", "I'm a big dragon", "stink eye", "sexy leg", and the ever-popular "meh. humans"

There is also a land iguana which we saw only once, and a much smaller "lava lizard".

Great pics of the big scaly friends ! What a unique and exciting experience .

Awesome! I've always loved them from the moment I first saw them on a nat geo show.
They are awesome lizards.

-Brandon

So cool! My kind of island =)

Wow! It must be amazing to see them in person; I've only ever seen them on TV, and that's likely going to be the extent of my iguana viewing, but I love your pics!

... and let us not forget the naturalist sub-plot of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (especially the Extended Version).

I'm admittedly envious of your opportunity.

Did you happen to run into any pink iguanas? :mrgreen:

I loved that part of Master and Commander!

Then--if you haven't already--you should definitely check out the extended version. :wink:

MrSpectrum":1u51qln6 said:

... and let us not forget the naturalist sub-plot of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (especially the Extended Version).

I'm admittedly envious of your opportunity.

Did you happen to run into any pink iguanas? :mrgreen:

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Haha, no, those guys and the Christmas variety aren't on islands that the general public can get to.

Here's one more closeup of the big guys and one of the lava lizards (the female is the one with the colors). Fun fact for the M&C crowd. The spur of rock in the movie is actually an anachronism. At the time the movie was set, it would have been a much larger outcropping. The present-day formation is the result of U.S. military target practice. :study:

Aaradimian":307pebgo said:

Fun fact for the M&C crowd. The spur of rock in the movie is actually an anachronism. At the time the movie was set, it would have been a much larger outcropping. The present-day formation is the result of U.S. military target practice. :study:

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I'd respond with a line from M*A*S*H (the movie) but it'd likely conflict with forum rules on decorum, so I'll "mash" it up with a euphemism from Firefly/Serenity...

"Gorram Army."

:? You could identify one particular outcropping from another, or was this "tour-guide trivia"? :?

Lava Lizard. I like that. Cool looking lizard(s), too. (And who knew there are 22 species of them!)
It appears (from a quick google search) that they've not made it (yet) to the /hobby/pet trade, let alone CB (No "for sale"s or care sheets). Not that I'd expect a Galapagos species to be found (despite their being the most common lizard on the archipelago), but 17 of those species are from the coasts of South America & environs.

Aaradimian":7vq6vmfs said:

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Lol I love how they all just chill together like friends

daveferns1":1mhfjkph said:

Lol I love how they all just chill together like friends

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It's probably that or kill each other--not a whole lotta room to get away from each other on an archipelago; I spoze it's possible their "society" evolved out of necessity(?) :dontknow:

But they should have left the soundtrack in...

• We gotta get out of this place
  If it's the last thing we ever do
  We gotta get out of this place
  'Cause girl, there's a better life for me and you

MrSpectrum":1sno2gy3 said:

:? You could identify one particular outcropping from another, or was this "tour-guide trivia"? :?

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I don't have a picture here at work of it, but it's a very prominent spike of rock several hundreds of meters tall at the edge of the water. We took a zodiac around it looking for penguins (of all things at the equator), and that's when the guide dropped said 411.

Great pics - thanks for sharing!! :0)