As seen from the plane, Xmas Island is reasonably large, you definitely need a car to get around
Thankfully they have a real runway that allows full size jets to land (along with proper luggage)
Anyway, back to visiting the island, we covered a lot of the island thanks to the rental car: This is the lovely 4x4 we got. It was full of dings and scratches, and that turned out to be a feature since we sure got a lot more scratches while driving between trees and plants and trying to avoid running over crabs that were everywhere. We used our beaten up 4x4 rental to drive around the island to some hikes, remote beaches, and interesting viewing points, and it was definitely worth it. While they call themselves "the other galapagos" this is over-reaching, but they do have lots of cool birds, many many kinds of crabs, boobie birds, and more.
look at the webbed feet around the branches
I have so many crab pictures, it was hard to select a few:
we missed the big crab migration, but some roads were still closed due to too many crabs
those little guys were fearless and all over, including the road
we found this coconut crab white driving back at night
this little guy went hiding in the urinal during a rainfall, maybe not the best move
coconut crabs come in different colors
the path was littered with crabs
this coconut crab found in the rocks had eggs
the ubiquitous red crabs eat all debris, vegetal or animal
we were able to feed the crabs some leaves, which they were happy to take from us
unfortunately, many get run over
we actually got to use the 4x4
remote beach we drove and hiked to
the tracks are from turtles that came to nest
these crabs can't swim, but they lay eggs in the ocean
they were underwhelming when we arrived, bad timing