Falkland Islands (Day 2) / Falkland Islands (Day 2)

During the night, we hopped further, 140 nautical miles from the West to the East Falkland Islands. The plan for the day is simply 'Port Stanley', which is the capital. We are not too enthusiastic, as what can one possibly do for 6 hours in such a small place? Adding to that, guests from three other ships are also here ...

Well, today is Christmas Eve, and so the day begins with a small service or Christmas carol singing in the cathedral of Port Stanley. That was quite nice. Then we hop into a shuttle bus that takes us to Gypsy Cove, where we can walk a bit and where there are supposed to be Magellan penguins. We see them right away, a few on a small gravel path, and a larger group on the beach of a cove. This cove is said to be very beautiful (okay, without the sun, it doesn’t look quite as nice), and we walk along it for a while. At some point, we want to turn back, but we see two people coming from the dunes and ask them if continuing would be worth it.

They confirm that it is worth it, and after just a few more meters, we encounter 5 King penguins on the beach. We are overjoyed and fill our memory cards. Next door is a colony of Gentoo penguins (with many chicks), which contributes to our excitement as well. This was definitely a fantastic Christmas surprise; in our joy, we didn’t even notice the sun coming out and we are now quite sunburned.

At some point, we pull ourselves away and head back. We actually wanted to do a longer loop here, but the timing is a bit tight now. We settle for the shorter Gypsy Cove circuit and take some more time to observe the Magellan penguins, of which there are a few more than we saw this morning.

Then we head back to town, refuel ourselves with several liters of cola, and stroll through some souvenir shops and 2-3 streets ... well, there are not many highlights in the usual sense ... but many memorials around the Falklands War of 1982, which we can still vaguely remember. Then we are finished and take one of the last boats back to our mother ship, which will soon lift the anchor and head towards South Georgia ...

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During the night, we changed position from West Falklands to East Falklands. The plan is called 'Port Stanley', the capital of the Falklands. We are not so excited as we cannot imagine what we shall do a whole day in a little village like this, also knowing that guests from three more ships are here as well ...

Well, today is Christmas Eve, and the day starts with a small worship/Christmas carol singing. That was pretty nice in such a remote place. Now, we jump into a shuttle bus to a place called 'Gypsy Cove', where it shall be possible to walk a bit, and see Magellan penguins. The latter ones we see right away, some on a small track, and a bigger group at the beach of a nearby bay. We walk along this beach for a while as it is supposed to be really nice (well, without the sun we can’t see it like that), and just when we consider turning around and going back, we recognize two people coming out of the sand dunes. We ask if it’s worth going on, ...

... and, oh yes, it is. Only a few meters further on, we find 5 King penguins standing/lying on a sandy beach. We are amazed and start filling our memory cards, a nearby colony of Gentoo penguins (with lots of young ones) does its share for this as well. This was a super Christmas surprise, and in all that excitement, we didn’t really recognize that the sun came out ... now we are significantly sunburned.

We stay here for quite a while but have to leave at some point, of course. The original plan was to do a longer loop trail here, but now the time allows only a short version of it - anyway, we take a close look at some more Magellan penguins and take the shuttle back to town.

Now, it takes some liters of cola to revive, afterwards, we walk through some souvenir shops and some streets and recognize that the village itself has not much to offer. The only remarkable things are some memorials around the Falklands War in 1982, which we hardly remember from our younger days.

Finally, we jump into one of the last tender boats to return to our mother ship; soon the anchor is lifted, and we head now towards South Georgia.