What You Have Been Waiting For-------Penguins!

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands - population 2000
2 main islands - East Falkland (the largest) and West Falkland (slightly smaller)

The Falklands are actually a total of 776 islands.  Most are just rocky windswept outcroppings with nothing on them.  There are more sheep than people in the entire country.  When ships didn't make it through the Strait of Magellan, they generally retreated to the Falklands, so the people became adept at repairs and resupply.

One of the most interesting facts about the Falklands is that there are about 20,000 unexploded land mines on the islands.  Do you remember the Falklands War of 1982?  If you are under 40 you probably won't!  LOL

 On Friday, April 2, 1982 Argentina invaded and occupied the Falklands.  That ticked the British off, who replied by dispatching a naval task force to retake the islands.  The conflict lasted 74 days

until the Argentinians surrendered, returning the Islands to British Sovereignty.  The Argentinians sunk a British war ship, killing about 250 sailors.  In all, about 650 Argentinians and 3 Islanders died.  The funny thing was that for about 100 years no one wanted the islands.  They were sort of left out there to themselves, sheep farming and peat cutting.  England ended up caring for the islanders, which was costing them a lot of money so they tried giving them back to Argentina.  Then the English damaged an Argentine sub, and the Argentines retaliated by sinking British ship, and back and forth.  The British sent 43 Harriers, 2 submarines, 144 ships of various sorts and numerous escort vehicles and jet refuelers.  It was not easy taking the Islands back. 

Now the Islanders are British Subjects who are given free health care, free education and free college in the British Isles in return for their taxes and service in the British military.  They are hardy but happy people.

Frank asked our citizen driver, Andy, what did the citizens do during the war?  Did they leave?  He guffawed loudly, and returned, Bless your little cotton socks!  Why would we leave?  This is OUR home! 

As we drove over the bumpy peat bog out toward the penguin colony, we passed the mine fields.  Argentina laid thousands of mines in the areas outside of Port Stanley.  There were multiple teams of 4 Kenyan soldiers in bright yellow protective gear sweeping a grid area to find unexploded mines.  After an area is cleared, they fence it off and turn sheep and horses to graze.  After an amount of time, if they haven't exploded themselves, they consider the area clear.  They tell you that if you are hiking in the Falklands and you come across the back of a metal sign, consider that your lucky day!

Penguins..........

In order to have enough buses to handle the tourists from the cruise lines, the cruise lines get together and bring buses to the island every season.  These buses bring tourists to a staging area where Falklands citizens come with their Land Cruisers and 4 x 4s and pick them up.  The tourists are thusly transported over bumpy peat bogs and mug pits to view penguins!  



Andy picked us up in his 23 year old Land Rover named Margie.  We drove over the rough terrain and he talked about his life in the Falklands.  After we visited the penguins and the Sea Cabbage Cafe for the lemon cakes called Diddly Dee Cakes and hot tea we headed back to Port Stanley in a pouring rain.



We attempted the Maritime Museum, but ended up on tenders heading back to the ship in a heavy sea.  

Those are whale rib bones in an arch in front of the Church of England in Port Stanley.

I leave you with Penguin Pictures

The ones with yellow necks are King Penguins. The rest are Magellanic Penguins.  There is an egg and a new born baby penguin.  See if you can find them.

#6 - Penguins? Maybe......

The Beagle Channel is a strait in Tierra del Fuego on the extreme southern tip of South America.  It is partly in Argentina and partly in Chile.  The Channel is about 3 miles wide and 150 miles long. It is not the safest route from one ocean to the other.

Map:  "Canalbeagle" by Createaccount - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canalbeagle.png#/media/File:Canalbeagle.png

 

The Channel was named after the HMS Beagle which carried Charles Darwin on a hydrological survey of the area in 1830.  Actually the captain needed Darwin's money so he took him on.  It was on this voyage where Darwin first saw glaciers, of which he describes their incredible beauty in his writings. 

The largest settlement on the Beagle Channel is Ushuaia.  U-shy-a.   It is considered to be the southernmost city in the world.  Most of the inhabitants living in the city when Darwin happened upon it were from the Ona and Yamana people.  Into the 1900s it was settled by mostly British subjects of some sort since typhus and measles killed all the original Onas and Yamanas.  In 1873 the first Argentine couple arrived, and immediately established a prison for Buenos Aires inmates.  The prison was closed by Juan Peron in 1949.

For the 25,000 residents there are 12 secondary schools, 2 television channels, spotty internet, 7 hockey stadiums and one same sex marriage.  Interesting statistics.

 

The houses are build with metal frames, fiberglass insulation and tin roofs, and are heated by natural gas that costs residents about $2 per month. The average temperatures in winter is about 32 degrees and in summer no higher than 50.  The sun is often hidden by clouds with only about40 sunny days a year, so the residents all take Vitamin D as mandated by the government.  The land outside the rocky soil of the town is mostly peat bogs.  Because of these peat bogs there are many large cross country skiing competitions during the winter months. 


We boarded a bus that took us to 3 locations in the Fin del Mundo (the End of the World) at Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) created in 1960.   In the Sub-Artic forests there are some familiar trees -- Beech, Chinese Lantern and Pines.  And mistletoe.

As luck would have it, there is a post office here.  Such as it is.  But it was more than enough for me to "request"  that Frank go in there, purchase a post card, and send it to me at home.  It arrived on this last Thursday.  I was ecstatic!  Frank was less so.  but he is a good husband and humored me.


Condor Mountain is just across the Beagle Channel and is in Chile.

Here is Frank looking like an explorer in his bush hat, if he could speak Spanish he could be a dashing guide to the  Patagonian Forest!





There were trails to hike, and this was just the first stop on our day!











                                                       Such great beauty.


The second stop was the Lookout at Alakush.  At Alakush there is a small museum and a snack shop.  Building was originally a hotel but in 1984 a fire destroyed everything and only this building was rebuilt.







These beautiful Upland Geese nest in the grassy areas beside the glacial runoff.  Right out in the open!








From there arrived at a port where we boarded a catamaran. This is the closest we would be to Antartica! 

 We were very lucky to be on this beautiful lake on one of the 40 sunny days!  I guess the yellow flowers are sort of mocking the sun.
 
LaPataya Bay was formed by glacial  movement digging out the rock.  And wait...............are there penguins?

This is the lighthouse at the End  of the World

OMG!  Penguins...........really?


Sea lions, yes, yes, those sure look like penguins.

 Finally, I am seeing penguins!


Oh, but am I?



Look closely.......



Not penguins?

What are they?

 Cormorants.  Awwwww.........not penguins.

They fool a LOT of people.  Frank said he was just going to believe he had seen penguins and deny the cormorants.

We did really see penguins, but just not this day!