Komodo Island, Indonesia

On March 5th I visited Komodo Island.  It was really fun!  We had to tender in, there is nothing there except the lizards.  It was about 85 degrees, which wasn't bad, but the humidity was at least 90%.  Everyone was drenched in sweat by the time they returned from the island.  Personally, I was soaked by the time I got to the island after a 15 minute enclosed tender ride.  We were in  groups of about 20 people with 1 guide and 2 guys to keep the lizards away from us.  My group saw 6 of the ugly, fascinating creatures.  The picture above is the only time I saw one walking.  The rest were just laying around, raising their heads once in a while.  These lizards can smell blood 5 km away and use their tongue for smell and taste.  You can see the tongue in the photo.  I only saw the tongue when it was walking.  Our komodo dragon trek took about 1 1/2 hours and then the real danger began....making out way through the vendors!  Everyone bought a miniature wooden carved lizard!  The vendors were on the aggressive side which bugged some people...I think that kind of thing is fun.  When I got back to the ship even my jeans were soaked through in sweat, I took a shower and enjoyed the AC for the rest of the day!