Also known as San Salvador or James, this is the fifth largest and one of the most visited islands. There are three visitor sites. Puerto Egas on James Bay offers a black-sand landing beach with impressive wind-carved tuff-stone layers. The relatively flat black-lava shoreline is broken up by pools, caves and promenades where hundreds of marine iguanas sun themselves, seek mates and slither into the sea. Watch where you step—they are everywhere and their black skin allows them to camouflage themselves among the lava rocks.
You can't miss the dozens of bright red-orange Sally Lightfoot crabs that frolic in the tide pools. Among the only people-shy creatures in the islands, they quickly scurry about on the rocks. The area also has a colony of sea lions. The snorkeling is good along the rocks, where it's possible to see colorful fish, moray eels and sharks.
At the east end of the island is Sullivan's Bay (it's across from Bartolome Island). A volcano spewed a stream of lava there in 1897—it still reaches to the sea. Visitors can follow a marked trail over the lava to see fascinating untouched volcanic formations such as pahoehoe lava. Only a few plants have taken hold there, including an unusually shaped cactus and some carpetweed.
