Galapagos journals Day 7

Dear diary

Today, I will be writing very briefly because... it's my birthday.

Our day started very early with popcorn and chocolates for breakfast! Not as good as Ioni's pancakes but not bad either! 

We rushed to the harbour for our second day trip to a small uninhabited island called Santa Fe. At our first stop, we snorkelled off the boat. The sea was so beautifully clear and there was so much tropical fish, it was fantastic!

As soon as I jumped in, I spotted two Galapagos sharks.

No fear, just joy! Soon after, we spotted three sea lions close to the cliffs - a bigger, bull sea lion and two smaller, young ones. Underwater, you could hear the noise they made to communicate, it was great. We swam with them for a while as they dived elegantly in and out of the water. 

What else? There were loads of angel fish and some pipe fish. The most beautiful bit though was the shoals of fish under our boat. With the water being so clear, you could see it all so closely. It was amazing!

After that, we went fishing. Well, in theory, we were all supposed to give it a go, but actually it was only our guide with the boat crew fishing and showing us the 'Galapagos way of fishing'! They quickly caught a very big fish which we later had for lunch and it was yum!

Our next stop was to another beach on Santa Fe where we saw many fish including rays (sting ray and eagle ray), giant turtles and, many very playful sea lions. One of them came very close and I'm sure it looked like it wanted to play with me. 

The surprise of the day was that Dan and Ioanna got me a cake which we had after our lunch on the boat. Everyone sang happy birthday to me....I felt very lucky to be there, and celebrate my birthday in such a great place!

In the evening, we took the water taxi and went to a restaurant at the edge of the harbour. It was really pretty and the food was great. 

Off to bed now because tomorrow we are going to another island for 6 days called Isabella. The ferry leaves at 6 o'clock in the morning and I am not looking forward to such an early start. 

Buenas noches