Anderson South America Adventure Day 9 – Port Stanley, Falkland Islands “Watch Where You Walk.” March 12, 2020

We woke up this morning and the ship was not rocking. I looked out the window, I could see land so we were near The Falkland Islands and the water looked calm. Yes, we were going to be able to tender in. When people asked where we were going on this cruise, penguins on Falkland Islands was one of the first things that I mentioned. I knit a hat and scarf so that I could keep warm while taking pictures of penguins. If we could not go ashore I was going to be bummed, although I would still have a nice scarf. The instructions from our tour was to get on the first tender possible. The problem is that Holland America has their own system. You go up to the Ocean Bar to get a ticket to get on the tender. We were told that they would start to issue tickets at 8:00. We went up at 7:15 figuring that we would wait in line. Wrong, there was no line and we were given group 7. That means that there are 6 groups ahead of us. We head down to get in line to get off. They call groups with tender tickets 1 – 6 so they can now board the tenders. I am generally follow rules and expect other people to also follow the rules. However, we really want to get on this excursion. The people ahead of us hand in their tender tickets and head down the stairs. I hand in our tickets face down and head down the stairs. The woman taking the tickets takes a bit to read the tickets. I am down half a flight when she calls down “Ma’am, you have tender tickets 7.” I kept going, pausing just long enough to make sure that Rob was still behind me. I promise that I will follow the rules from now on. We get on the tender and head for shore. It takes us about 20 minutes to get in. We head for the Estancia Tours signs. There are other people on our tender heading for the same tour. As four people sign in they are assigned to a guide. We are assigned to a Land Rover driven by Ailsa; we also have an Asian couple from Australia with us. I get the front seat and Rob sits in the back with them. He commented on how glad that he was riding with them in the back seat so that they all fit. We take off. After 20 minutes on pavement we turn off onto a gravel road that is not in great shape. We are on that for 40 minutes and our guide shows us points of interest from the Falklands War. Her family has a farm that we pass. I ask what they farm and the answer is sheep. So of course I ask what kind. She was very surprised that I asked this. They raise a Merino cross. I asked what they were crossed with. Now she was really surprised. She asked if I knit a lot. Well, yes I knit but primarily I weave so I go through a lot more yarn than a knitter. We leave the bumpy gravel road for driving across a peat bog/sheep pasture. Oh my this is not fun. We are jostled all over as we go up and down, sometimes driving in ruts and sometimes going on a different path. I am starting to miss that gravel road. This goes on for over an hour. We start to see a few penguins as we are getting closer to the shore. You actually see them right near the sheep. They appear to get along. We have to stop at a shoe wash to dip the sole of our shoes before we can enter the penguin area. Finally we are there. There are three different kinds of penguins here; King, Gentoo and Magellanic. We are so excited that we are walking right along with the penguins. We head down a hill and watch a Magellanian penguin dive into its burrow. Keep in mind that there are sheep here and penguins. The ground is covered with “organic matter”. We start out trying to avoid stepping on the “organic matter”, but after a while you give up since it is literally everywhere. There is a huge group of King penguins and we head for them. They are a noisy group but fun to watch. One will suddenly start to trumpet. I got a picture of two of them singing a duet. We looked at the Gentoo penguins. They are just kind of standing around and not making any noise. After seeing the King penguins these are kind of boring. We head around the King penguins and I start to see the fuzzy babies in the center. They are brown and have brown fuzz. Then we realize that you can tell that some mother penguins are sitting on eggs. If you look at the pictures, you can see a white bulge near their feet, that is an egg. A guide shows me that you can see some little babies between the moms’ feet. I catch a couple feeding babies. I did see a teenage baby trying to get its mother to feed it and she was not having anything to do with this. I guess that they cut them off at some point. We were very lucky: while it is only about 50 degrees, the wind is brisk but not bad and it is not raining. I had thought that we would have to escape to the warming shed but we stayed outside the entire time. I was very glad that I knit my hat and scarf. I did not have my special gloves with me since I still have to find them in the closet. So I took a pair of Rob’s gloves. They were not that large on me, so I was able to use the camera. Switching lenses was a little interesting so I had to take off one glove for that. I tried to record the noise that the penguins make but the wind drowned out most of it. On our way back I see a Magellanic penguin in a burrow. I kneel down to take the picture and look up to see a warden standing near me. I think that she wanted to make sure that I did not get closer. We get our lunches, peel a couple of layers off and take off. First a stop at the shoe wash. I try to remove as much “organic matter” as possible but I do not get rid of everything. Another hour across the peat bog/sheep pasture. I am clinging to a handle to keep upright. I did hit my head once during this while being thrown back and forth. I look in the back seat. Somehow Rob has fallen asleep is all of this, not for long, but wow, how do you sleep through this? We finally get back to the bumpy gravel road that now does not seem that bad. Ailsa gives us more highlights of the area and the Falklands War. Much of the war was fought in this area, so we see two burned out helicopters and a large area where they have removed landmines. Ailsa’s family housed three British paratroopers during the conflict. Their front room was turned into a hospital. When we returned to Port Stanley, she gives us a tour of the town. There were houses that we destroyed by Argentinian shells during the war. She does point out two stores where I could buy yarn. She drops us off at the port and we head off for the possible yarn. I do find lovely yarn, some hand spun on the island. It is 50 gr for 7.5 British pounds. Yeah, more than I am willing to pay for yarn. I will say that Ailsa was correct that Falkland Island wool is the softest and whitest wool. I took a picture of the southernmost Anglican Church in the World. When we got off of our tour the line for the tender was very long. When we return from wandering in Port Stanley, we get right in line and are among the last to get on the tender. Rob missed a step getting on and scared the poor crew hand. After that he practically carried everyone else getting on. I am sitting near the door. On the way over Rob sat next to the door and they left it open. I thought that this would have been a great opportunity to take photos. Before we take off though, they zip the door cover almost all of the way down. OK, no photos. The ride is smooth until we are just about back to the ship. We start to rock and a couple of waves crash on the tender. Splash, one comes in that opening and gets my right leg from mid calf down. Lovely, it is cold water. I use this opportunity to remove some more “organic matter” from the treads of my shoes. I stomp and move my feet back and forth and while I do not know how much I have removed there is a mud puddle there now. The waves near the ship are picking up so getting off of the tender is tricky but the crew assists us. Go through screening and we decide to walk up to our floor rather than wait for an elevator. We take our shoes off before we walk into our room. I am trying to figure out what I can use to remove the “organic matter” from the treads of our shoes. I open my manicure kit and find a wooden orange stick. Yes, this will work. I carefully removed everything as best I can and we allow our shoes to dry. I know that I walked a fair amount today but the shaking of the truck as we drove got my Fitbit to think that I walked over 20,000 steps. As I load the pictures onto my computer I realize that the rough ride out there and the “organic matter” in our shoes is well worth it. I hope that you enjoy them. If you do not like penguins this is not the day for you to go through my photos.