The Ancient Mariner

Abstract

Photographer Sebastiao Salgado began his eight-year global odyssey across 32 countries to unearth and immortalize nature's many "unblemish faces" in Galapagos Islands. Following the route around the islands that Charles Darwin took on the Beagle. Salgado caught up with one of the many quirky creatures that live in this evolutionary haven: the marine iquana, the world's only seafaring lizard. Its tail, glistening here like chain mail against a moody reflection of sky and black laval rocks, is a perfect adaptation to the nautical lifestyle. Most outlandish of all is the marine iguana's adaptation for dealing with the harsh boom-and-bust cycles of food caused by the cyclical weather phenomenon El Nino.