There is not anywhere that we have found on our planet where a tourist can exist in such intimate harmony with nature like the Galapagos Islands. I (Brad) visited the Galapagos Islands in 2012 and I was blown away by how close you were able to get to the animals without seemingly causing any interruption in nature. For the week that I was touring the archipelago, I wandered around the islands like a ghost, observing some of the most unique and beautiful animals on our planet, up close and in their natural habitat.

Several times on my trip I found myself within mere feet of various exotic birds hovering above their single egg, not even remotely concerned as I snapped hundreds of pictures of close up animal faces that I thought only existed on TV.

I was able to lie down next to hundreds of sea lions basking in the afternoon sun on the beach and nobody even bothered to recognize that I didn't have whiskers. Baby sea lions even approached me, confusedly thinking that perhaps I was one of them and that I might be able to spare some milk to fill up their empty stomachs.

It is always difficult to quantify how amazing a place is, but consider this - on my 8-day trip to the Galapagos I took over 12,000 pictures! Friendly and exotic animals were not my only subjects; the equatorial islands are worthy of a visit on their own.

The thing I will remember most from the Galapagos is swimming in the wild with groups of sea lions 500-hundred miles off of the coast of mainland Ecuador and South America. As we snorkeled around tiny wildlife filled islands, sea lions would dive into the water and swim towards us almost as if they were in search of a new friends to play with. I never would have imagined that such grumpy creatures on land could become so tranquil and friendly under the waters surface.

 

• Charles Darwin was actually not the first to discover the Galapagos Islands; he arrived 300 years after the islands were discovered by a ship that had been blown off course.
• The Islands were formed by lava flowing upward from the ocean floor, creating 13 main islands and 6 smaller islands, in total covering approximately 19,000 sq. miles (30,577 km) in the ocean.
• The Islands has very distinct and unique species combinations due to its location between two different ocean currents, one warm and one cold. As a result there are both polar and tropical species inhabiting the islands the surrounding waters.
• There are thirteen different species of Darwins finches.
• The Galapagos penguin is the only tropical penguin in existence.
• The Giant tortoise is another famous species in the Galapagos Islands, growing up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) and living for up to 150 years.