Around the World in 180 Days: PenguinsPenguinsPenguinsPenguinsPenguins

Now that we are back in Buenos Aires and I have just figured out how to add a link, here is the website of the Teatro Colon which we visited last time we were here to see Onegin. I don't think it has as many pictures as I would like but there's an interesting piece about the history. Speaking of technical blog stuff, I would really like to post a video of the penguins but have to upload them to said Dropbox (thank you so much Uncle Scott) before and it is moving so slowly, so if a seemingly-random penguin video pops up in a few days this is my explanation.
Last night we arrived a little before 10. Even before we landed the vastly contrasting scenes were apparent; while Patagonia is wilderness for miles and miles and miles in every direction, dotted with a few towns, Buenos Aires is lights and city for miles and miles and miles in evey direction, dotted with a few trees. Well, Patagonia is a lot more 'miles and miles and miles' but the point is that it's a lot of city.
I think I mentioned the money-transfer company Xoom before but didn't go into detail, so while my parents are there I will explain.
In Argentina the official exchange rate is 4.9 pesos: 1 dollar but there is this thing called the 'blue market' where you can get a much better exchange rate of anywhere between 5 pesos:1 dollar and 6.5 pesos: 1 dollar. The only problem is that you need dollars to make the exchange and the banks only give out pesos, probably because of this. I'm not sure how but we found a company called Xoom that will let you make transfers from your bank account into pesos using a better exchange rate. Something's a little messed up with how they do the transfers, though, so it's a hassle to actually comlete a transaction.
Today we are either crashing or setting out on an overnight bus to the Iguazu falls. There are pros and cons to either, but I hope that we aren't going anywhere because I am so sick of packing and unpacking. When you're travelling for this long it becomes less like packing and more like moving since we have, in effect if not in fact, everything we own with us. I am editing this again 12 hours later: we are staying! Had dinner at an outdoor Mexican restaurant. Sorry for any future discrepancies referencing the will we stay/won't we stay.
Before going to the airport last night we redeemed the coupons given us by the Tres Marias company for hot chocolate. It was possibly the first hot chocolate not made at home that was not too sweet and it just so happens that that same chocolate store has a location on the same street as our hotel. Yet another reason to stay two nights here.
Before going to redeem the hot chocolate coupons we went and walked with penguins.
We brought our binoculars with us so that we could be sure to see them well. Little did we know that, had we used our binoculars, all we wouldn't have been able to make anything out on the smudge that is the view through the binoculars when looking at something to close. They were everywhere. On the beach where we landed there were hundreds watching us, sleeping, swimming, preening, honking. The transformation of land-penguin to sea-penguin is extreme, morphing from plump, waddling, inquisitive little bird to sleek predators. Underwater penguins can reach speeds of 15 MPH and, when in pursuit of a shoal of fish, will leap in synchronization out of the water a few feet into the air and almost skip like a stone across the water for a few yards.
There were three types of penguins on the island. The Magellanic penguins were the most common, the ones with black markings along their jaw and on their face, the Gentoos, which were the second most common, and the King penguins of which there were only three. The Kings had arrived a few weeks ago on the island and nobody know how they got there, but if they breed they could start a third colony.
Sometime in the future the island could be filled with too many penguins to be able to support them all. This is hard to believe because it already felt like the island was filled with too many penguins. Their nests are everywhere, and there are three or four penguins to a nest (two parents and one to two babies/juveniles). At this time of the year the juveniles are mostly still nest-bound but are losing most of the 'fur' that covers their water-proof feathers and prevents them from swimming. While they still live at home one parent will stay with them while the other goes and fishes, and the island echoed with the honks of the restless stay-at-home penguins.
They burrow into the ground to be safe from predators and to stay cool, and are monogamous. I suppose that I could have incorporated that into the body of what I was saying, but sorry, I didn't (and won't).
A few zillion penguin pictures, on the basis that there can never be too many penguin pics: