Chris Delyani's Blog, page 11
December 26, 2012
For The Love Of Penguins
Two days later our ship docked early on a cold and windy morning in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, about 825 miles (1,330 kilometers) southeast of Buenos Aires. From there we took a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride across the empty Patagonian plains to one of our most anticipated destinations of the trip: Punta Tombo, a nature reserve where tens of thousands of Magellanic penguins make their homes in the spring.
I’d seen penguins in their natural habitat two years earlier, on a trip to southern Africa, and I couldn’t wait to see them this time around. I used to love watching them do laps at the New England Aquarium in Boston, but to walk among them in their natural habitat is to see them for the wild birds that they actually are, not some cute animated figure on a Hollywood movie poster, or a Santa-hat-wearing mascot on a glitter-spangled Christmas card. On the bus ride to the colony our guide had joked that Magellanic penguins swam to Brazil in the winter “to do the samba,” and in that phrase, I think, she captured why the penguins have such appeal. I can hardly imagine a pigeon or a seagull doing the samba.
African penguins testing the water near the Cape of Good Hope (Sept. 2010). Watching them only whetted my appetite to see penguins again in the wild.
When we got to Punta Tombo, I must admit, I was disappointed. I was expecting to see thousands of them crowded on a beach, like the hordes of penguins in the famous Gary Larson cartoon in which a single penguin in the crowd sings “I gotta be me.” But it wasn’t like that. I needed a couple of minutes to spot my first penguin, then another, and then another, until I looked around and realized the colony stretched for miles. The landscape reminded me of a U2 album cover: black-and-white birds, about a foot-and-a-half tall, artistically spaced apart from each other on the scrubby, sandy, wind-lashed terrain. The penguins certainly acted like rock stars while we were there, seeming very much accustomed, and not at all concerned, about the human beings walking along the pathway, looking, pointing, leaning in as close as possible to snap one picture after the other.
Our penguin visit lasted all of forty-five minutes. We were given strict orders to return to the bus in order not to miss the ship. While we walked through Punta Tombo, trying to take as many pictures as we could, the cold wind sliced through us. And right before we were due to leave, a chilly rain began to fall. I had just traveled thousands of miles, first on a plane and then on a ship and then on a bus, to get forty-five measly minutes hiking around a bunch of birds who frankly couldn’t care less that I existed. Would I do it all over again? Oh, God yes.
Penguins at Punta Tombo: more U2 album cover than Gary Larson.
Penguin striking a pose. Like the celebrities they are, they seemed quite used to the constant snapping of cameras.
Penguin hanging out in his nest under a thistle bush. Many penguins make their ground nests under these bushes to protect their eggs and chicks from predatory seagulls.
Penguins guarding the castle.
Penguin charging the paparazzi.
Penguin chillaxin’ on the wooden path that snakes through Punta Tombo. Signs along the path warned us to cede the right of way to the “pinguinos.”
Penguin eggs. The fact that I could see them made me nervous for their safety.
The stark, forbidding, altogether beautiful landscape, especially under the lowering clouds, was itself worth the trip.
I managed to snap this photo right before I had to get back on the bus. (It had just begun to rain.) Looking at this picture now reminds me how sad I was to leave Punta Tombo.
December 19, 2012
December 18, 2012
Kitchen Secrets
Thanksgiving at sea. The cooking — and cleanup — occurred well out of our view.
One of the many illusions — perhaps the biggest illusion — that a cruise offers is the constantly available food. We’d wake up in the morning, walk up a short flight of stairs, and there the food was waiting for us, ready to be put on our plates by smiling servers. And so it went all day. I don’t think our species can get any further away from its hunter-gatherer roots than a couple of weeks on a cruise ship.
For the first couple of days at sea I tried to dupe myself into the notion that the meals I was being served was something out of Hogwarts, that there was some Albus Dumbledore in the main dining room to clap his hands for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, not to mention the desserts, from opera cake to Baked Alaska to Poire Belle Hélène, to magically appear. To cure myself of this, I eagerly stood in line to take a tour of the ship’s spotless kitchen, a large, windowless, clinical-looking space that snaked a path next to the main dining room on the seventh deck. And here I saw first-hand the tremendous effort put in by the ship’s staff to bring the plates to our table. The place seemed to operate like a Swiss watch: every meal, every garnish, every glass and fork and spoon, seemed broken down to its tiniest component. If you ever find yourself on a cruise ship, then a tour of the kitchen is an absolute must — a feat of human ingenuity to create the most unnatural human eating environment.
Meals under construction.
Chocolate Eiffel Towers, also under construction.
Hobart mixer, presumably to help process some of the 2,700 lbs. of butter and margarine, 1,300 lbs. of sugar, and 2,900 lbs. of flour that the ship estimated was consumed each week.
Detail from a poster providing a visual aid for every meal served on the ship.
Flowers and shakers waiting to be used for stateroom service. Yes, the flowers are real.
The finished product (opera cake). I still find it hard to imagne how the staff made every single dish look like this one.
December 17, 2012
Montevideo
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
December 11, 2012
Buenos Aires on Foot
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
December 10, 2012
La Recoleta
Just got back from a two-week vacation to South America, starting in Buenos Aires and ending in Santiago by way of a penguin colony, Cape Horn, and the Chilean fjords. I'm gradually posting pictures onto my blog -- my first post on Buenos Aires's famous cemetery is up today. I hope you check it out!
Chris
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
November 12, 2012
After The Sweep
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
November 5, 2012
Four More Years
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
October 29, 2012
Sex, Art & Film
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
October 22, 2012
Smack Dab
http://www.chrisdelyani.com/events/
