Sunday bird blogging

A giant petrel swimming in Fortuna Bay in South Georgia.

Yesterday after class I took the bus on Fifth Avenue—walking the full two miles home after standing all day is not always possible with my still highly tempermental knee. The bus was crowded, and as soon as I got on, a young man jumped up and offered me his seat.

Reader, I accepted— gratefully—even as an incredulous voice in my head was shrieking, “Wait! I'm not old!”

Sunday bird blogging

A few penguins hanging out on the beach in Gold Harbour, in South Georgia.

Saturday reflections

The São Sebastião Cathedral looks better as a reflection.

Urban poetry

Packing up after a long day on the beach at Copacabana. I am so impressed by everything this man managed to pack onto that little cart. Most of the vendors I noticed around the beach used big trucks to haul all their stuff around.

Watching it all

I don't think it's possible to look more Brazilian than this woman on a balcony overlooking the steps.

Waiting out the rain

Some locals near the bottom of the steps who were also hanging out while getting out of the rain.

Murals

Street art near the stairs

The street below the stairs is full of murals and mosaics. (Eu te amo means I love you, for those of you who understand as little Portuguese as I do.)

Escadaria Selarón

The Selarón Steps (locally known as the Lapa Steps for the neighborhood in Rio where they're located) were created by Chilean painter and sculptor Jorge Selarón. In 1990, he started painting the dilapidated stairs outside his home, and decorating them with tiles he salvaged from building sites. The steps became an obsession, and he used his other art as a sideline to finance the project. Eventually visitors from around the world began to donate tiles.

Selarón died in 2013.

If you think the picture above isn't great, here's an example of the rest of my pictures. Not only was it pouring rain when we were there, but the weather did nothing to discourage the multitudes of tourists. I didn't even attempt to fight my way through the crowds and climb the stairs; instead I joined the more intelligent tourists huddling under awnings outside nearby shops until it was time to get back in the van.

Homeless Jesus

But I did love this outside the cathedral: a status of Jesus as a homeless man (identifiable only by the wounds on his feet), created by a Canadian artist, Timothy Schmalz.

Then there's the exterior

Ever wondered what a Brutalist Mayan pyramid would look like? Well, here you are.

The cathedral was designed by Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca, and built in the late 60's-early 70's. I have not been able to find any information about why he chose a Mayan design for a Brazilian cathedral, except that the conical shape is supposed to represent bringing the people closer to God and a break from Brazil's colonial past. Okay.

I just find Brutalist architecture so dreary. It was a very gray, rainy day when I was there, but I've looked at many pictures online and honestly it doesn't look any better when the sun's out.

Crucifix

There's no way to capture the scale here, unfortunately, without a lot more time and camera equipment than I had. This crucifix is suspended over the altar, and is six meters high and four meters wide (approximtely 20 by 13 feet.)

Everything in the interior is colossal.

More from São Sebastião Cathedral

This is a very odd building, and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. The four stained glass windows seen from the interior are certainly spectacular (from the exterior you can't even tell that they are windows); they extend more than 200 feet from the floor to the ceiling, where they meet in a skylight shaped like a cross.

Prayer of St. Francis

A statue of St. Francis of Assisi at the São Sebastião Cathedral in Rio de Janeiro. I've always loved St. Francis, not just because I grew up in a city named for him. During the the late 60's-early 70's days of the folk Mass, we used to sing several songs written by Sebastian Temple. This is the only one I remember, not least because they sang it at my stepfather's funeral, a few weeks before it was played at Princess Diana's.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.

O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.

Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we’re born to eternal life.

-- Adapted by Sebastian Temple

I am often not being as kind as I would like to be these days, but when I listen to this song, I am always inspired to try harder.

Sunday bird blogging

Evidence that not every penguin in South Georgia is identical.

I'm sure that these two characters are coordinating with their relatives in the Heard and McDonald Islands to cheat their way out of the new U.S. tariffs. My experience is of course limited, but after spending some time around several different species of penguin, my impression is that their primary export is poop. Lots and lots of poop.

There's a metaphor there somewhere.

Urban poetry

A fountain in Tijuca National Park in Rio.

Sunday bird blogging

Frigate birds reeling through the skies over Rio on Christmas Day.

And no, I didn't get a closer look at them.

This seal is my spirit animal

At least today. I've been very busy but I will resume posting regularly soon.

Here's an iceberg

Plus a poem:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

That's Mary Oliver, from When Death Comes.

We talked about the Harlem Renaissance in my class on Saturday, and read a couple of Langston Hughes poems, which the students loved. One student suggested that they could memorize a poem in English as a homework assignment, so I spent yesterday putting together 15 poems/excerpts that I think they would understand and enjoy. (Not necessarily to memorize, although if anyone wants to do that I'd be thrilled.)

One more dive

And that's a 10 out of 10 for form, a 7 out of 10 for being too far away and too hard to see against the rocky background.

Before and after

Although I missed the actual dive on this one. They're speedy little buggers.

Sunday bird blogging

I might not have captured any good shots of penguins porpoising, but I did manage to capture this gentoo mid-dive.

Admittedly, a diving penguin is much easier to photograph because they don't just pop up out of nowhere.

Bodyguards

Fun fact: although penguins get much of the water they need from their diet, they can and do drink salt water. They have a gland by their eyes that excretes excess salt from their bodies.

This quartet of penguins (yes, there are four—count the beaks) look like they're standing guard while their friend takes a drink.

Penguin Feet

I offer this closeup of gentoo feet in Cierva Cove for no other reason than it makes me smile.

And more spooky Antarctica

Also near Neko Harbor.

The light changed as fast as the weather did. It went from dazzlingly bright—if overcast—to sepulchral and back again very quickly.

Sunday bird blogging

Gentoos living the good life, in Mikkelsen Harbor.

More spooky Antarctica

Mikkelsen Harbor.

Saturday reflections

Neko Harbor, and a picture that really shows how spooky Antarctica can be, with the mists draping over the mountains and the water that looks almost black in the dim light.

Thai food near me

I passed this restaurant when I was walking home from a doctor's appointment this morning and I laughed out loud (always welcome these days.)

I googled “thai food near me” when I got home and this restaurant was indeed at the top of the search results though it's actually on the other side of Manhattan. Very clever.

Sunday bird blogging

 This seems appropriate. In Cierva Cove.

I'm shattered

Well, that's an exaggeration for me personally, but less so for these remains of a large mirror that until late last night sat on top of some shelves in my apartment. (Or our honor and reputation as a country, though that is not something I have the energy to think about today.)

Yesterday after having made it to class at the last possible minute because I could not find my phone, I got a text during lunch because of fraudulent charges on the credit card I use most often. They're issuing a new card, and while I'm grateful that it's being taken care of, it means I will have to go through the tedious process of updating all the automatic charges.

Another series of texts late that afternoon informed me that I am an "ignorant moron" who should leave the USA for Ukraine. This was apparently in response to some texts the previous day on the teachers' group chat, expressing our anger over the White House meeting and joking that we should leave and open a language school in Europe. This was unnerving, to say the least. It was not only the malicious tone of the texts, but the fact that our chat had been intercepted and read by some unknown person. (Only those of us who had actually commented in the chat the previous day received the texts.) I know SMS texts are not really secure, and it's not as though we were plotting a rebellion but in this political climate you don't want strangers looking over your shoulder.

We set up a new group on WhatsApp, I watched some TV and tried to relax, and then broke the mirror on my way to the bathroom before bed.

Yes, that person vacuuming at midnight last night was me.

Elephant seal aerobics

I so wish I had video of this: an elephant seal in Fortuna Bay actually moving.

The seal had been on the grassy slope above the beach and the process of working its way back down towards the water was only slightly faster and less laborious than my recent climbs up four flights of stairs to my apartment with a bad knee.

The Whew! I'm exhausted reaction upon finally reaching our goals were pretty identical, though.

Elephant seal yoga

In Fortuna Bay. The onlookers were clearly amazed by this display.

Iceberg on a sunny day

A closeup of the iceberg. I like the way the scalloped shapes on the top mimic the mountains behind it.

More landscapes

More of the beautiful surroundings in Fortuna Bay, including the only waterfall I saw in South Georgia.

The even bigger picture

The mountains around Fortuna Bay, seen from the ship. If you zoom in, you can see tiny penguins and seals by the water.

The bigger picture

In South Georgia, I took pictures of the animals, I took pictures of the mountains, but I seldom managed to combine the two. This picture from Fortuna Bay has mountains, snow, a glacier, seals, penguins, and a couple of petrels hanging out by the clump of tussac grass.

You want a piece of me?

Not a baby, and a seal that wasn’t interested in appearing cute.

I’m not sure if it was our zodiac that was pissing him or her off, but I like this picture because it’s the only time I’ve seen a seal baring its teeth. During the briefings about maintaining a safe distance from the wildlife, we were warned to be especially careful of seals because they bite. And if anyone was bitten by a seal, the cruise would be over for everyone because we’d have to head back to Chile for medical care.

A seal actually jumped into one of the zodiacs when it was ferrying passengers, and everybody had to huddle as far away from it as possible while the driver returned to the ship. The passengers disembarked and the seal wranglers on the expedition crew persuaded the seal to go back into the water.

A newborn

I'm no seal expert, but this baby, the tiniest one I saw, can't have been more than a couple of days old.

Kids and teenagers

When playing turns to squabbling.

Sunday bird blogging

A gentoo taking a stroll past a seal crash pad in Elsehul Bay.

The colors of the seals' fur coordinates perfectly with the rocks behind them.