Today was a truly great day. No home-school (it’s the weekend) and we took a boat trip to Santa Fe, another island about an hour away. We were promised swimming with sea lions, sharks, turtles and blue-footed boobies. The water was freezing and we hadn’t thought to organise wetsuits, but despite each snorkelling trip being short and sweet – we saw them all.

The first snorkelling location had lovely clear water and a family of seals played in front of us and with us, less than one metre away. In a second snorkelling spot, Andy and our eldest son, saw an eight foot black tip shark swimming just underneath them. Despite knowing they’re not man-eaters, basic instincts kick in and it was still pretty terrifying.

Watch our snorkelling highlights here.

On board, we met Yoran, a fast walking, 71 year old, man from Sweden, who offered to show us the right way to Tortuga Bay once the day trip was over. We now know that yesterday, we were just one road off!

The trail is 2.5km long and it’s clear we can’t keep up with his pace, so we say goodbye and off he goes.

Tortuga bay is beautiful and well worth the long walk. The local surf instructors keep the boys entertained with their keepy-uppy-football-skills (sic) and we play in the water. The bay is part of the national park so everyone needs to sign in and out at the start of the hike so we are all accounted for.

Fresh langoustine and tuna for dinner in ‘fish street’ – where each family-owned-booth will grill or barbecue today’s catch right in front of you.

A great day.