Today we sold our souls. No, not fo earthly riches: no gold, euros, part of Jaime McCourt's settlement, or property in Montecito. No, we sold our souls for penguins. Today marked our first embarkation upon the first of not-so-many tour groups. But, it was for penguins, so we bid our souls ado, and jumped into the eurovan with nary a worry for our eternal life, only that of our earthly enjoyment.
We arrived by bus in the town of puerto madryn with the goal of walking peninsula valdses, claimed by lonely planet to be a wildlife gold mine, and thus booked another bus to the sleepy coastal town of puerto piramides--approximately half the size of carpinteria, with at least a third the life, that is until the tourist bus leaves around seven at which point the town literally shrivels up and dies. That's where the excitement was suposed to begin, so that is where we stayed, all with the hope of seeing "pinguinos."
The first day we showed up, went to our campground (located behind the gas station, second only to "located behind the bathroom of KFC," of places-I'd-love-to-camp-at), and went directly to the tourist information office to find out where to go to see penguins.
Long story short, the lady laughed in my face when I asked her, in pigeon Spanish, where to walk to see the little guys. Though we are here for the long hall, 80 kilometers is well out of my walking budget. We are not that lazy, we did the 5k to see the sea lion colony, where Beth recognized at least 10 runaways from San Francisco, but I digress. And that is how we came to take a tour with 15 septuagenarians in the wildlife goldmine that doubles as a tourist trap.
Beth says that penguins are people too (then again she says that pigs are people too, which makes me a cannibal...take that as you will) and I'm beginning to agree with her. Bonobos may be closest in terms of DNA, but penguins are just extremely small and extrodinarily dapper, midgets. They are the most entertaining creatures I've ever had the pleasure to watch in their natural habitat. I loved every second of our fifteen minute penguin pause-on-the-tour, even when Beth and I stretched it to twenty and were forced to chase after the bus because it didn't notice the only people under 70 weren't on it. And after all this I would not trade our guided herding for anything, except a 1.5 liter Quilmes and a rental car...but that's it.
Alternate Ending aks Beth's ending: Pinguinos are my friends. I love them so bad. The End!!!
Pictures to follow...when we have a real live computer.
Eat a penguin...
Squish a penguin...
Adopt a penguin...
Kiss a penguin...
Be a penguin!
Pinguinos are our friends! So jealous by the way...of the penguin sighting, not the camp site... :)
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time saying penguins (or pigs) are people too, I prefer to say people are animals too (which I think we often forget).
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