The Falkland Islands
The harbour at Stanley doesn't have a dock that would accommodate our ship, so we went ashore in tenders. There are only 3000 or so people on the islands, about the same as the number of tourists who landed that day. I suspect the town gets much quieter in the winter. The street along the water has a number of tourist shops. Due to a dead battery in my camera and a little rain when we were walking around in town, I don't have a lot of pictures to share. We took a bus out to Gypsy Cove to see the wildlife--
And there it is on the beach at Yorke Bay. I think the dolphins swimming around in this cove discouraged
the penguins from going into the water. They have it all to themselves because the Argentinians left
behind an estimated 20,000 land mines when they left after the Falklands War.
the penguins from going into the water. They have it all to themselves because the Argentinians left
behind an estimated 20,000 land mines when they left after the Falklands War.
There's really not a lot to do if you're a penguin or an upland goose.
We could see our ship while looking at the Second World War gun and ruins. The derelict ship is the Lady Elizabeth from British Columbia, which was damaged rounding Cape Horn in 1909. According to one of the naturalists on our ship, the shipwrights on the Falklands were expert at repairing damaged vessels. They were also expert at price gouging, and the owners for the ship abandoned it rather than pay to have it fixed, so it has been there for a century. We would see a lot of abandoned fishing boats later in Puerto Madryn and Montevideo.