The Galapagos was full of amazing flora and fauna. Seeing the finches, blue and red footed boobies, flightless cormorants's etc. made it clear how Darwin came up with his theories. But snorkeling and watching fish, only to have a penguin suddenly come whizzing by was probably the most surreal moment of them all. If you have a chance to go, it's truly uncanny. The plethora of animals is astounding, all the more so in that they don't run away but let you walk among them (keeping a polite distance) so that one can observe in a manner rarely possible elsewhere.