Port Stanley

          Saturday, 31 Dec 2011 – Today was our day to go see penguins! Since the Princess ship couldn’t dock on the Falkland Islands, had to board the ship’s tenders to go ashore. Ours loaded about 9:00 A.M. We sat on the upper deck in the open air, which was exciting to Sally; however, Jesse made sure he kept one arm around the railing and the other around Sally the whole time; just to make sure neither of us went overboard. Once ashore, we and one other couple boarded a 4 x 4 Toyota Land Cruiser.

          The Falkland Islands is a UK territory, and thus our driver (Tarra) drove on the left side of the road – when there was a road. For the first hour of driving, it was mostly a gravel road; for the second hour, it was what might be called a cow path – except that we had never seen such a rugged terrain. There were lots of ruts, holes, drop-offs, and several metal planks over small ditches that she had to maneuver the tires over. Jesse rode in the front seat, and the other three passengers rode in the back. At first, the scenery was somewhat mountainous with piles of rocks everywhere, but then it changed to flatter, rather desolate-looking, dry country similar to parts of the U.S. West. The land we traveled is private land, which the landowners charge 17 pounds ($15 US) to travel across; that is one of the main incomes, now that raising sheep is not very profitable these days.

          After 2 hours in the 4 x 4, we reached the penguins. There were 3 varieties of penguins at the site. The first thing we noticed was that the largest penguins stood more or less motionless, side by side, while the younger ones were busy padding around, investigating their surroundings. Some of the smaller ones came right up to us. Since people were told not to touch them, we did not, but it certainly seemed very possible. When we were close to a large group of them, it was noisy and very smelly. (There were sheep roaming around in the same area, and they all seemed to get along fine.) We walked down to the white sandy beach there, and watched penguins pad down to the water, wade out a little ways, and then jump in; then they swam back in, looking like they were riding surfboards. The time went quickly there. We ate box lunches, and then repeated the two hours of driving back to the port town of Stanley (population 3,000). One the other passengers remarked that there were more people aboard the Princess Star than were living in Stanley!

          Since we were so late returning to the ship, we arrived a little late for the formal New Year’s Eve dinner, but luckily, so did everyone else at our table. Roz ordered a bottle of wine to share with the rest of the table and we all enjoyed lobster for dinner. Jesse enjoyed a second serving of lobster and two desserts to start the New Year. After dinner, we danced again to the Buenos Aires Quartet; then returned to our cabin to rest up for the midnight New Year’s Eve celebration.

          HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!