31/05/2019 – My Birthday, Galapgos, Ecuador,

I woke up at 04:00 needing the toilet to discover we had either accidentally locked ourselves out of our bathroom or the jiggling from the engine had locked it overnight, so had to go upstairs and use the communal toilet. I had a little ‘hola’ from the captain, who was navigating the boat overnight to Genovesa island, a good 7 hour journey. Poor guy, I bet it is so eery driving the boat through the night on his own! He sorted the bathroom out for us in the morning, seems like it wasn’t an unusual problem! After this hour I drifted in and out of sleep, Josh and I had left the blinds open so I saw the sun rise as we arrived into the bay. We woke up and Josh brought some coffees down (its on tap from 0600!) then put some birthday banners up and gave me birthday cards from Trudie and Pete, Sophie, and himself. What an amazing place to wake up to on my 30th birthday, I feel so lucky!

30th Birthday in the Galapagos.

We relaxed in bed then went up to the top deck to look at all the birds circling around the top of the volcano crater. Josh spotted a frigate bird with its red balloon neck inflated, which they inflate as part of their mating ritual. We were all pleased as we had been told that it is a bit late in the season so we may not have seen them. Then we had breakfast – scrambled eggs, potato fritattas, sausages, cheese, fruit, granola (and more!) before getting ready for our first activity. We met again on the deck where we grabbed lifejackets and hopped onto the dinghies to be dropped at a set of steps that were well disguised into the cliff. The landscape was dry and barren, and it was pretty hot out. It is amazing how the animals are not threatened, and are as inquisitive about humans as we are of them.

We still can believe how close we were!

I felt like I had real interactions and conversations with them! We saw nazka boobies, red footed boobies and lots of frigate birds nesting. We also managed to spot a beautiful lava owl that blended in well with the rocks it was hiding in, waiting to spot its next meal. We walked around for a good 1.5 hours then got picked up by the dinghies.

Red footed boobie!

Another Red footed boobie.

Back on the yacht (how posh does that sound!) we had mango juice and empanadas whilst drying off in the sun. We got issued snorkelling gear - masks/snorkels, flippers, and a wetsuit – I ended up with a shortie from the kids section instead of a long wetsuit like everyone else. We got dropped by the dinghies in our gear for an hours snorkelling session where we saw reef sharks and loads of tropical fish, it was beautiful! Next was lunch time, we get very well fed on board! It was a bbq surf and turf up on the top deck, octopus, fish and veg/salad. We had a little sunbathe and I had a G+T (birthday!) and Josh a cerveca, before the next activity. Josh and I went for a kayak, we saw marine iguanas and both black and orange crabs. When we were back aboard we saw quite a big turtle swimming around. I have never known so much wildlife in such a short amount of time, it is wherever you look! There is a German orthopaedic surgeon here called Harold who is travelling alone, so I volunteered to go with him in the next session so he didn’t have to be alone in the double kayak. We then all got dropped off onto the beach where we went for a little beach walk. We saw sea lions, hermit crabs and red footed boobies – one was nesting on her egg, and there were a fair few young chicks too.

Nesting Boobie with egg.

Back on board we were served plaintain chips with a soft cheese dip, and some sweet pastries that were called elephant ears. We got showered and then had a briefing to explain tomorrows itinerary before dinner – fish, vegetables, rice and cheese. Unbeknown to me Josh had kindly organised a cake with the chef, so it was brought out and I was sung happy birthday, I pretended to blow out an electric candle. What a surreal birthday, absolutely amazing and unforgettable.

Hand made birthday cake out at sea.

Happy birthday Jen!

The boat started motoring towards Rabida island, and we were shown the Southern stars in the sky by some of the Aussies, which Josh absolutely loved, there were a fair few stars up in the sky without much light pollution around. We had some nice chats and then everyone turned in by 21:30, its busy days and early starts so sleep isn’t hard to do!