Che Iguana grew up on the small Galapagos Island of Santa Fe.  In the days of his youth he was recognized for his insect trapping prowess among his peers.  Che attributed his trapping skills to information he absorbed from the vast publications he read.  True, there was no newsstand on Santa Fe but there was never a shortage of newspapers and magazines left behind by the eco-tourists who made their daily pilgrimages to the island.

It was his voracious appetite for reading periodicals from around the world that fed his desire to one day travel the world himself.  In the meantime, he made a pact with himself to cull all the information he could from these publications to improve his quality of life on the island.

One of Che’s proudest accomplishments that he attributed to his reading, and as Che would say…Cajones Grande, was his masterly of the art of surfing.  His concern for social integration also became evident as he organized the first Santa Fe Surfer’s Open, open to all of the islands wildlife, not just iguanas.  When it came to the outcome, it did not matter who competed, Che always prevailed as a virtually unchallenged champion.  It didn’t matter that the island could muster no real competition, he never lost his desire to surf.  “Out here, I feel alive,” Che would say.

Probably the most profound change in Che’s life that he attributed to knowledge gained by reading, was his change in diet from insects to fruits and vegetables.  Che’s friends said he made the change because he was lazy.  “Not so!” Che would respond, “My hunting skills require such a minor expenditure of energy that I could hunt in the heat of midday and still not break a sweat.”