When I was a child, we had a house full of slightly uncommon pets. True, we had the traditional family dog(s) that watched over us kids and snuggled a wet nose against my cheek and coated my face with a tongue lashing of complete adoration each day, but we also had many reptiles. One in particular was not nearly as warm and cuddly (as reptiles tend to be) as the others.  He was a nile monitor lizard with a long, dark speckled frame that was uniquely intriguing, but who had a nasty disposition and waited patiently poised to swing its 3 foot whip of a tail at anyone who ventured to crack the top of his terrarium. He was bigger than I was at the time, which was saying a lot since I sprouted a good 4-foot tall early in life, and I used to watch him through the glass wondering if he was contemplating the day when he would get to eat me rather than the large rodents he would fiercely tear in half before consuming. He was cool, on a childhood ‘unique pet’ status scale, but he was never one of my favorites. In fact, I didn’t think I was going to be much of a reptile person at all until my brother got a green iguana. A sweet, sits on your shoulder, eats out of your hand, VEGETARIAN of of lizard. Pretty cool. He looked like a miniature dinosaur…Little did I know at the time, he practically was. I watched a nature show with him once that talked about the ‘marine iguanas of the Galapagos’ and I explained to him how they were his extended family. Even more amazing was that not only were they vegetarians, but they would swim in the ocean and eat the algae growing on the rocks below. Cold blooded critters would actually dive into the water, swim to the bottom, and nibble on green slime rather than eat other creatures! Wow! (He was very impressed) Sadly, no matter how often I tried to put him into his water dish, the kitchen sink, and even the bathtub…he had absolutely no interest in swimming (in fact he began getting a little annoyed with my efforts to encourage him 🙂

Now, I finally get to see the creatures I awed over so very many years ago, and I remain my 10 year-old giggling, giddy, jumping up and down excited.

I saw my very first marine iguana minutes after landing in San Cristobal. Marco, who picked me up from the airport,  asked me (in broken spanish/english) what I most wanted to see during my visit. I burst out before he could even finish the question, “Sea Iguanas!” He has a kind smile, and corrected me by saying what I think is the scientific name, followed by ‘marine iguana’ and he snaked his right hand through the air back and forth as if it were a swimming snake. I repeated “marine” to acknowledge our great accomplishment over the language barrier and he stopped the pick-up truck on a long, seemingly empty road a minute later. He got out and walked under a short hanging branch on a dirt path that lead out to a sea of black lava rock. there were easily a dozen marine iguanas sunning themselves sprawled out among the stones.

I have since discovered that these little critters are quite common here. The will sun right next to you on the sand, they walk on the same paths to the beach, and they let you get quite close to them without acting even mildly concerned.

But the most amazing thing…is that they swim *grin*

This place is AWESOME!!!