My staying power is close to nil, I'll be the first to admit it. Poor neglected blog, remember the first few days, when I couldn't keep away from you? Now look.
Anyway, we did some shit that I haven't told you about yet. Thing one: We went to Ushuia. That's at the very tippy bottom of South America, where it is freezing balls out all the time. And what do they have in Ushuia? Penguins!!! Well, technically not IN Ushuia, we took a boat to an island where we were permitted to walk among the penguins, though not to touch or bother them in any way (assuming that staring, cooing, and incessant picture snapping does not constitute "bothering"). Did you know this about penguins? The man penguin has to make a house for the lady penguins, and if he makes a crappy house no lady penguin will be his wife for the summer. We were shown an example of a crappy house - really just a weak little hole scratched halfheartedly in the ground next to a bush. I imagine the builder to have been around the corner at the penguin bar, wearing a wife beater and grumbling about how he doesn't need those bitches anyway, who wants to sit on an egg for 6 weeks? I wish I'd had a tiny Chevette on blocks to put outside his doorway.
Also, we stumbled upon the Ushuia graveyard, which is like a ramshackle version of the fancy cemetaries on BA, with a New Orleans feel to it on account of all the little shrines to the dead. I envy the guy whose job it is to sit in the little guard hutch all day - I bet he gets a shit ton of reading done, there among the dead at the bottom of the earth. Also, the sun went down at like 11pm.
We took a ski lift up to the foot of a glacier, but did not climb it (not enough time, plus converse one-stars are not the mountaineer's choice of footwear). First time I've been on a ski lift. Can't say I like it. Not one bit. John promised not to rock the chair. I told him it hadn't occured to me he would, thanks, but if he did, I would have to murdalize him. It was worth it for the view and the hot cocoa, though.
Because I can only post a few photos per entry, I am going to devote this post to Ushuia and start a new post for the other stuff. Next up: Montevideo, and good luck gods.
4 comments:
geepers, just like the penguins at the baltimore zoo! :D
p.s. found your blog thru atomic books blog ~
Emily,
I was recently reading Joshua Slocum's non-fiction book, Sailing Alone Around the World. He was the first person to circumnavigate the globe about 100 years ago.
When he sailed through that point in S. America (Staight of Magellan) there were cannibals shooting arrows at him and he had to fight them off with his rifle and skilled sailing abilities. About a hundred years ago that region was considered extremely dangerous not just because of the weather. I pictured it like a modern day Somalia and Papua New Guinea rolled into one.
Thank you! I thought I might die before your mental blogging was finished enough to post the damned penguin pictures.
I will not tell Monkey that you have been cheating on him with flightless fowl in tuxedos who speak in sexy Spanish accents and hold foreign passports.
Did you skip Cannibal Island?
And how did Slocum know they were cannibals?
So many questions. So much work to avoid doing.
You are coming back to Brooklyn, right?
Hugs, and much envy, Eva
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