Allen’s Cay, Home Of The Allen’s Cay Iguana (Cyclura cychlura inornata)

Traveling south, we anchored amidst several small, uninhabited cays that are known for their native iguanas (see this handsome fellow in the tree above); this particular species is only found here. Unfortunately, they are a great tourist attraction, and at risk of becoming dependent on man, or sickened by man. Fast boats from Nassau bring tourists here and show them how to feed the iguanas. I don’t know what they feed them, but when we went ashore, iguanas raced to the beach and hung around the dinghy, looking to be fed. We did NOT feed them, much to their chagrin. We got to see some interesting displays between iguanas, as you can see here. These two would approach one another, bobbing their heads and occasionally opening their mouths, then one would rush at the other and the other would back off, then they’d repeat the sequence. They kept this up for quite a while. If you can’t see it in the picture, the tops of their heads were blue, and their throats were pink. The snorkeling about the cays was great, too; we saw all kinds of fish and corals and sponges and invertebrates, as well as a big hawksbill turtle that let us hover above and watch it for a while before gracefully swimming away (the turtle swam gracefully, not necessarily us). I thought the picture below illustrated our couple of days here well; Mr Mac anchored in lovely waters offshore of an iguana on his beach.