I slumped back into my chair, overwhelmed. My seat at the window faced the stern, we were sliding past giant blue glaciers, their cracked faces a wall above the blue black mirror of the Lemaire Channel. I felt oddly sad, all of a sudden, like I might cry, though sad isn’t the right word at all. “What’s the matter?” asked my breakfast companion — she must have seen the shift of emotion on my face, in my body.… continued…
It wouldn’t have been that hard to find a way to get out into the Andes, they’re that close. Or to the ocean, about an hour away, or, well, to any number of places besides skinny Chile’s capitol city. But I had been so far off the grid — I wanted city time. I wanted the noise and distraction and color of a big city. So I stayed in town, in the center, mostly, and enjoyed the excellent company of my hostess, Eileen, and I walked — we walked.… continued…
Everything that you imagine about seeing penguins, free range penguins, is true. You are, perhaps, unaware that you smell penguins before you see them, but everything else you know — that they are the perfect combination of adorable and hilarious — is completely accurate.
There was a lot of yelling on our first day of penguin spotting, mostly because people were getting too close. One is meant to stay 15 feet from the penguins, but that was not happening.… continued…
