January 25, 2004 
The Friendly Rock Iguanas

There is a teeny Galapagos of sorts, on Leaf Cay in the Exumas.  The island's sole inhabitants are the rare and protected "Rock Iguanas" of the Bahamas.  We visited the island by dinghy, and from their slumber on the rocks, they took immediate notice of us and all ran to the shore, nearly right up to the dinghy.  There I was face - to - face with dozens of these creatures, some of whom stood over a foot - and - a - half tall and nearly three feet long.  How nice of them to come and greet me, I thought!  They didn"t appear to want to attack me, but after a while they seemed to lose interest in me sitting in the dinghy, and went back to their cliffs and crevices.  Later that day, I found the source of their friendliness.   A pair of  "Island Adventure" Cigarette boats loaded with tourists, came to the shore to feed them grapes.   The iguanas were jumping and snapping at each other for the grapes, a veritable feeding frenzy!  After about a half hour of the grape feeding, the iguanas seemed to lose interest in the tourists, too. These are protected creatures indeed! view photo