A Walk Among The Penguins

Today we visited the Falkland Islands landing in Stanley. There were 2 cruise ships in port. Ours, the Holland America Oosterdam, and the Sapphire Princess. With two ships converging on this southern city, and I mean Antarctica southern, our numbers were higher than the Falklands population.

We slept in a little later hoping to avoid the first rush off the ship. I looked out on our balcony to see a very bleak terrain.

But the sun was shining so that was very promising. The temperatures were in the 50’s with high winds. We had gusts up to 40 miles an hour. We tendered over to the port.

The ship was offering tours of over $200 per person to see the penguins but by the time I was looking at excursions, all were sold out. We found that we could take a shuttle over to Gypsy Cove for $20 each so that’s what we did.

It almost looks like a salt flat. There were people actually in the water.

We walked a long a path with lots of other people and our first encounter was with this little guy or girl. These are Magellan penguins.

A little further on we found a huddle of penguins.

Then we saw a pod of orcas.

Since both of us were not feeling great, we decided not to walk the 5k to the other area to see Gentoo penguins. Maybe our next stop.

We browsed around the town a bit and visited Christ Church. Of course, we said our prayers.

Then we visited the Catholic Church which was a more humble church.

It was a lovely day in the Falklands and we were very lucky to have such nice weather.

Just some random photos of our day in the Falklands.

Now we are getting ready for bed and the wind is whistling through our door! It’s rocking and rolling. I should sleep like a baby!

#penguins#magellan#orca#cruising#hollandamerica#gypsycove#shuttleservice