Thursday, February 3, 2011

PORT STANLEY-CAPITAL OF THE FALKLANDS, UNITED KINGDON-WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2011

We arrived in Port Stanley @ 5:00 AM. It is a quiet town of 2,500 people. On the day we were in port, there were 2 other large cruise ships also there and swelled the population of the town by 7,000 people!
The British are entrenched in the area and the capital of the Falklands has been Stanley since 1845.
When the Panama Canal opened in 1915 cargo ships were no longer required to endure the arduous journey around Cape Horn and the importance of the Falklands waned a bit.
Our day was an exciting one as we took a King Penguin Expedition. We went to Volunteer Point which is the home to a colony of King Penguins. Behind Emperor penguins, King penguins are the second-largest species of penguins, typically standing 3 feet tall, and are known to dive up to 350 feet into the ocean in search of fish. We also spotted colonies of gentoo and Magellanic penguins.
In order to get to the penguins we had to go through rugged landscape which can only be traversed in a 4x4 vehicle for 2 and 1/2 hours there AND 2 and 1/2 hours back. We had a VERY capable driver named Steve, who of course is our "new best friend".

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