Day of the Penguin (Tuesday)

Sam: What's a pirate's favorite country?

Youth: What?

Sam: Arrrrrghhh-gentina!

Krissi: And that is pretty much how the whole day has gone ... lots of cheesy pirate jokes. It just seemed appropriate to start the blog out that way.

Rebekah: Breakfast was muy delicioso!

Brice: You mean "desayuna" was muy delicioso! (Spanish for "breakfast")

Rebekah: We started the day with waffles, bacon, eggs, jugo de naranja, y leche. YUM!

Krissi: Today was "tourist" day so we loaded up a private bus with a tour guide and drove an hour and a half to Penguinero -- a ranch that hosts over 750,000 penguins! We were joined by three Argentinian girls - Florencia, Valentina, and Cynthia.

Emily: One penguin tried to attack Nolan - he poked his head out and raised his wings as if to say, "What up, fool?"

Matt: The penguins all huddle up together even though it was really hot. We were so close to them that they could have pecked our eyes out!

Amelia: We had to walk 1 km one way over gravel and rough rocks to see a huge huddle of penguins, but it was so worth it!

Chris: It was very weird to see an alpaca/llama/camel - called guanaco - standing right next to the penguins.

Sam: Krissi told me to mimic the penguin by waddling behind him. So I did. And I got in trouble by the tour guide who told me to "Behave!" Apparently, penguins have feelings, too.

Rebekah: My favorite part of the whole thing was standing on the top of the cliffs where I could see the blue ocean and the penguins swimming and playing.

Krissi: I agree - I thought the ocean was beautiful. I will always cherish sitting there on the cliff listening to water rush into a little arched nook below us and hearing the distant cries of the penguins. I felt like I was in a totally different world that I'd only ever seen in movies.

Nolan: Penguins have showdowns, too - they fight with each other and they headbutt each other to knock them down.

Connie: Teri is the Penguin Whisperer. She was looking at the penguin and she would tilt her head to the left and say "hello!" The penguin would copy her. Then she'd go the other direction and the penguin would do the same. It was very funny - we got video of it.

Brendon: I just really liked the ocean. Period. I did think it was pretty cool how there were that many penguins in one area.

Krissi: On the way home, everybody slept while Emily and I had some really fun conversation with the three Argentinian girls. Little Valentina was just in love with Emily! We were so impressed with their English and had fun practicing both languages together. 

Emily: They liked to ask general questions like, "what's your favorite color?" and I was impressed by how many actors from the USA they knew.

Chris: Tonight we went to dinner at a restaurant for the first time. The meats were all cooked over an open fire. The chicken was delicious!

Amelia: We really got to relax at dinner because there was no rush to leave. The custom here is just to chillax at mealtimes - they do not push you out of the restaurant like they do in America. Meal time is social time. We got to watch tango dancers and that was pretty cool.

Emily: We actually got to see Dancing With The Stars live! Except there were no stars ... 

Eli: The dancers are in incredible shape. I think they'll both live till they're, like, 100. 

Sam: I'm pretty sure that 60-year-old woman could beat me in arm wrestling.

Rebekah: The dessert was so good - it was a raspberry and blackberry mixture with vanilla ice cream on top.

Sam: Actually, the dessert was gross. It was so sour that I paid Chris two pesos to take a big bite.

Brice: By the way, I wore a mohawk all day. I am so "gopalo" - Spanish for "cool."

And now we're sitting here in Ted and Connie's living room, making more bracelets, stuffing Easter eggs, being entertained by Chris's voodoo toothpick magic, and struggling to stay focused enough in our conversation to complete this blog. Ay caramba!