Day 6: Port Stanley, The Falkland Islands…

Port Stanley's main street

Belted Galloway cow on our trip to see the penguins

Jerry taking a photo of Gentoo Penguin

Young Gentoo Penguin

Jan and Mark, our driver, in front of 4x4 at ship's dock

What a wonderful place! With only 2700 full time residents, the Falklands is clean, crisp, and wind blown with belted Galloway cows (which look like an Oreo!), penguins, fish, and many other birds. Most of you will remember the Falkland War in 1982 when Argentina decided to take the Falkland Islands away from Great Britain. Today land mines remain on much of the area just outside Port Stanley, the island’s main city. It seemed a bit eerie to us that all around us were jovial, peaceful English speaking Brits. They did stand fast and, of course, the country remains a British colony. A big extra special thank you to one of those military men who helped make this possible, our friend Nick Carter. (Nick is in the blogs below from our Asia Pacific cruise this past fall, and was a member of the British military during the Falklands War.)

We had quite tasty fish and chips (English style with malt vinegar) made from mullet fish at a local restaurant. Then came our excursion to visit the Gentoo penguins. Oh my gosh, they were everywhere! Gentoos are one of the smaller penguins (30 inches high and only about 12 pounds) and they have a white circle above each eye. This time of year their young are separated into a “crèche” area of the rookery (their home area) with the adults feeding them twice a day. These penguins are hatched (2 eggs per nest) after 35 days. The parents feed them by regurgitation for the first month after birth before they join the “crèche”. After 100 days it is off to sea and life on their own. Bluff Cove Lagoon has about 1000 breeding pairs, but there are over 300,000 breeding pairs of Gentoos in the Falklands (30% of the world’s population). Jan even managed to get a very short video of their chatter, running, and squeaky calling out to one another.

In the midst of the Gentoos we also saw four pair of King Penguins. Two chicks were born the day we were there. In fact, one arrived while we were watching. The stretching an howling noises were amazing as another King announced the arrival of the new chick. Adult Kings are three feet tall and weigh about 30 pounds. They live 30 years as opposed to the Gentoo, which usually makes it only about eight years. Kings are also known for their orange/yellow ear patches and neck. Kings seem a lot like the Emperor penguins (in the “March of the Penguins” movie) except their climate is warmer…living a bit further north). One egg takes turns sitting on the feet of the penguin parents for 54 days. The chick then spends another 35 days under that flap of skin at the top of their parent’s feet. Parents will feed their chicks fish, squid and crustaceans. Chicks will stay with their parents for a year, so parents only have a chick every other year. Fact: they sit back on their heels to cool off!

We were remiss in telling you how we arrived at the cove: what a 4x4 ride! The trip of several miles took place on (in) a peat bog. Peat is used for heating and cooking in the Falklands. They basically have no trees. So, peat is it. Well, the large amount of rain has created huge ruts over these gently rolling hills. The ride was lots of fun. Mark, our driver, ran us back and forth, over hills, into ruts, over planks spanning gullies, through streams, and in a race with fellow drivers.

Following 90 minutes of looking at and photographing hundreds of penguins, we enjoyed Diddle Dee berries with clotted cream topped warm scones and hot chocolate before we began our trip back to the ship. What a wonderful day!