Day 10 Fernandina and Crossing the Equator

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This morning we visit a new island – Fernandina. The zodiac driver is quite skilled at navigating us through the shallow rock to land on the concrete platform.

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Here lives the largest population of marine iguanas.

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The rocks are literally littered with them to the point that you have to be careful where you walk.

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They sit there bathing in the sun totally unphased as masses of people walk past them.

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With big number of animals also means you find a few dead ones.

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Littered in amongst the colony is many a dead iguana sitting on the rocks where it took its last breath.

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These guys are pretty cool, having evolved from the other land iguana with the ability to swim and breath under water aswell as the ability to live on land.

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In one of the shallow rock pools there are a stack of sea turtles just pottering around.

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There are also quite a few sea lions on the shore.

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We spot one mother and a pup that must only be a few days old.

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It wants to check out the new visitors but mum calls it back and it reluctantly plods back over and sulks on the rocks.

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There’s also quite a few of the red crabs around that looks awesome against the black lava rock and the green seaweed.

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There’s 2 lots of snorkeling today and the water is extra cold with the current.morning1

There’s a few penguins that dash around through the group.

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The water is full of turtles and I really want to go in but my sensible head wins over and decided that I don’t want this cold coming straight back so I sit it out and have to be satisfied with the cool pics and videos that John is able to get.

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As he moves around he swims from turtle to turtle, just bobbing along with the current.

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The afternoon is a zodiac cruise in search of Blue Footed Boobies.

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There’s stacks of crabs.

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Flightless Cormorant

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and rocky outcrops to explore.

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The evening before sunset is the “Crossing the Equator” party. We’re all invited onto the bridge with the captain to watch the gps tick over to 0 degrees.

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We spend most of the night in the northern hemisphere and cross back to the south early hours of the morning while we’re all asleep.