Iguanas at Leaf Cay

We have visited Leaf Cay before in past trips to the Bahamas, to hike around and try to catch the iguanas. We would use lettuce to lure them in, and then grab them. Three years later, as we pulled our dinghy up onto the beach, the iguanas emerged from the woods and began advancing on us expecting to be fed. At that moment we realized how wise we were to have eaten our lunch at the boat. Frequent tourist trips to feed the iguanas had accustomed them to human presence making them unafraid of us. They were especially interested in Sam’s shoes (which were green), our turtle sand mold (which was green), and our tennis ball (which was, needless to say, green). To avoid further attraction, we hid the various green articles in the dinghy, or under buckets. I made a quick run back to the boat to retrieve our GoPro to take some footage of the iguanas’ hilarious antics, which you may see posted here soon, as well as a funny picture of mom sitting in her beach chair brandishing a toy shovel, surrounded by a crowd of hungry iguanas. My favorite video depicts Sarah holding out a shovel full of sand, while each iguana in turn runs up and takes a huge bite of sand, thinking it food, then retreats, opening and closing its mouth, trying to get the sand out. Yesterday we moved back to Highborne Cay to anchor in calmer water, still laughing at the stupidity and single-mindedness of the rock iguanas at Leaf Cay.

Tanya, Queen of the Iguanas