Fernandina and Punta Vicente Roca

Fernandina is the youngest island of all the Galápagos, and it has the most volcanic activity. This is because it is the closest to the hotspot, a place where hot rock rises from deep inside the Earth.

Huge groups of marine iguanas rest on the black lava rocks. Special salt glands above the nose remove extra salt (sodium) from the body. The iguanas push it out by sneezing.

The cold Humboldt Current and the deep Cromwell Current bring cold water full of food up to the surface here. Because of this, the Galápagos penguin can live almost on the Equator. No other penguin species in the world lives this far north.

The El Niño event of 1982-1983 made the penguin population fall by about 77 percent, because the cold currents became weaker.

The Galápagos cormorant lives here. Of about 40 cormorant species, it is the only one that has lost the ability to fly. All its food is in the water, and there are no land hunters to escape from.