Day two began with quite some excitement. After the hectic nature of a 41 hour journey, and the thrill of arriving in the Galapagos day two would be the first day of work for the students.
Their first task is to observe and work out ‘a day in the life’ of the marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus).
Overnight the iguanas line the track to the dock, one of the easiest ways for the to get to the water…..
However, in the morning they sluggishly move down to the water, swimming out quite some distance into the sea, filling themselves up with algae.
“No, you first old chap.”
After much hanging around (again, Darwin mentioned that these ‘ugly and stupid lizards’ are almost afraid of going into the water, even if as he did (mean Mr Darwin!!) try to scare them into the water, even repeatedly throwing one of them in(???), out it would climb, seemingly associating water with fear, rather than Mr D. the newly experimental biologist) they go out to sea, and eat a lot of algae.
Then at some time (currently) known only to them (hopefully I can report back to you the students’ findings) they return to land, slumping in the path, exhausted but full of seaweed.
