Its sturgeon probes jeff dunham puppets population is juff dunham investigates now critically endangered because of the unappeasable demand for the fishes' tiny black eggs, known as Beluga caviar. "The biggest problem," Singh told me when I met him in his Bucharest office after my stay at the resort, "is that no one seems to know who is responsible for the delta. It's now under the Romanian ministry of agriculture, and that's a contradiction. There is no master plan for it, and the people of the delta see no reason why they should be involved in its conservation. "As we turned off the highway west of Tulcea, I marveled that it took an Indian deal maker to take on the task of protecting the Danube delta. This is a man whose knowledge of Romania, when he first arrived here eight years ago, began and ended with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Outside the ramshackle village of Somova, we ascended a hill covered in shaggy grapevines. Suddenly, I saw the delta, a petit-point tapestry in shades of green that stretched from horizon to horizon.

A wattle fence banked by a riot of wildflowers marks the beginning of the resort, centered on a courtyard building with a bar, restaurant and observation tower. Below it, 30 villas in three military rows and a swimming pool watch over Lake Somova, connected to the main river channel at high tide jeff dunham peanut . A dock at the waterfront with a handful of motorboats tethered to it serves as the resort's parking lot. I met Munteanu at the reception desk jeff dunnam . He described the sightseeing itinerary included in my three-night package and warned me to stay indoors between 10 p. m and 6 a. m. , when hordes of mosquitoes come out jeff dunhan . The resort was preparing for a corporate executive retreat, but for the moment I had it virtually to myself. A few months after the resort opened, avian flu was discovered in delta ducks and swans, the first instance of the potentially lethal virus in continental Europe jeff durnham . Since its appearance in the Danube delta it has spread as far west as France. Transmission of the H5N1 virus from birds to humans is rare, yet thousands of contaminated birds have been killed in Romania, and the fear of a pandemic has kept the resort's villas largely empty. That's a pity, because they are charming, green shingled structures with stone fireplaces and wide front porches where greenery hangs from the roof to the balustrade, framing the view. Each one has a spacious living room, bedroom and bath, decorated with such folk craft touches as woven rugs, wooden lamps and ceramics chosen on forays through the Romanian hinterland by Singh and his wife.

The villas have modern amenities such as air conditioning, but I immediately opened the tightly screened picture windows to let in the breeze and the hum of the delta. The first evening, I sat in the high-ceilinged dining room, surrounded by an Audubon guidebook of delta birds hand-painted on the walls jeff dunham ventriloquist . I was about to order from the menu, which is heavy on freshwater fish and produce jeff duham Jeff Dunham - wikipedia . But Nassim stopped by to tell me that he had asked chef Sandeep Chadha, one of the only resort employees not from the delta region, to make food from the subcontinent. So I started with a plate of delicious, mixed Indian appetizers, followed by creamy catfish curry jeff dunam Jeff Dunham Jeff Dunham - jeffdunham . The wine list features Romanian vintages that I thought would be better used in the making of ethanol jeff donham . The restaurant sells wine by the bottle, so I couldn't try Romanian vintages by the glass. Jeff Dunham tickets And I had other concerns, stemming chiefly from service that had all the ambitions of a luxury hotel but consistently fell short My villa had fresh flowers that were left to wither. No one tended the pool area, and when I asked for coffee in my room, a waiter brought only a single cup, because, he said, the resort didn't have any thermoses. After that, I breakfasted on the restaurant's terrace, watching barn swallows flit neurotically around nests tucked under the roof. White pelicans and black cormorants flew by, playing a game of chess in the sky.