South American Adventure: Part 6 - Days 11 & 12

Day 11 – Tuesday, February 7th – Aboard the Crown Princess – Stanley, Falkland Islands

When we awoke, the Crown Princess was already anchored in the outer harbor of the town of Stanley. Our first impression of the landscape reminded us of Lerwick on the Shetland Islands: greenish hills with no trees. Since this was another tender port, and we didn’t have to be on land until the afternoon, we enjoyed a leisurely morning, including breakfast in the dining room and catching up on email and such.

The presence of a large cruise ship is an interesting phenomenon here. It holds as many passengers as there are permanent residents. The Falklands comprise many islands (over two hundred! – AFK), with the large East Island (where Stanley is located) where ninety percent of the population lives. There is a twice-a-day ferry to the West Island, but people only go to explore and sometimes stay in small cottages. But no towns. One more detail: it’s a British territory, so English is the official language, they drive on the other side of the road, and the Falkland Islands Pound is pegged to the English Pound. It’s a little bit of England eight thousand miles from London.

By mid-day we tendered into Stanley, and it was charming: the houses with colorful roofs climbed the hill from the harbor, a very small but bustling commercial center (especially with a shipload of people doubling the population), and not much else; not even hills covered with sheep (like New Zealand). Since we hadn’t eaten in five minutes, we made our way to a recommended resto, Bitter Sweet. The fact that it had a gay pride flag hanging outside only made it more inviting.

Inside was chaotic, with lots of tourists (and a few locals) ordering in the crowded front area, and searching for a table in the larger seating area in the rear. The barista was a cute, young, tall bear with a plummy English accent. (I would’ve said he was more of a wolf or an otter, as he was not stocky at all and the only hair we could see on him was on his head and his chin – and he had more than a passing resemblance to Paul McCartney – AFK). He was aided by a woman who was no-nonsense, but friendly when spoken to in the right way. While waiting in line, the cute local guy in front of me (is it the fresh South Atlantic air?) told me that he worked at the local airfield. They get two flights a week to the U.K., and one a week to Chile. The Chile flight is not allowed to overfly Argentina (the 1982 war is still vivid in these parts).

We placed our orders and found a table in the seating area. The staff of this place worked hard, and served up some good food (Mike and Chuck had fish and chips, and said that they were quite excellent). With our bellies full and energy renewed, we explored the town (easily done in 45 minutes).

The main commercial street, Rose Street, fronts the harbor. In addition to tourist-focused shops, there is also a Waitrose grocery store, large post office, police department, and town hall. The Anglican Cathedral (southernmost in the world) was built in 1892 and had some interesting stained glass windows. Near it was a monument of two whale jaws place upright against each other to commemorate the founding of the town in 1832 (erected one hundred years later). It sounds odd, but the whole thing was charming.

There was also a group of typical late 19th century British row houses, one of which had a delightful golden lab puppy playing outside. (I think a lot of cruisers miss their pets when they’re away, and when they get a chance to play with one it’s always welcome). One of the stores had a collection of Valentine’s Day cards from England, and even I was shocked at how cheeky they were (of course I got one for Allan and vice-versa). Modesty forbids me from repeating them here, but just ask us. We also managed to squeeze in some souvenir shopping.

Today was the only ship’s tour we had booked (Bluff Cove), and our coordinator Larissa met us at 2:15PM. We were broken into three groups of 16 people each and put into mini-buses. Our driver, Stella, gave us a nice description of island life during our twenty-minute drive down the island’s only highway (two-lanes, paved). Apparently, there is a full-time British unit at the air force base, about 14 miles down the road. This nearly doubles the island’s population.

The mini-bus arrived at some remote place, where we transferred (in groups of four) to other guides driving Land Rover 4x4s. Our driver, Neil, was an older, blustery sort of man (think Sterling Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle in “My Fair Lady”, but with an easier air (and gingery blond hair, with a distinct twinkle in his eye - AFK). Bluff Cove is part of a privately-owned sheep ranch, and the owners control the tours of the penguin rookery. So, after a short dirt road, it was nothing but open country for the 4x4s to traverse. I’ve seen footage of these vehicles driving in challenging locations, but to be in one was lots of fun. Bouncy and rocky, but fun.

After about 20 minutes of driving over the country, we came toward the cove and the beach. While not as impressive as the thousands of penguins we saw at Punto Tombo, there were still plenty of penguins to get up close with. Well, at a distance, adhering to white plastic flags planted to keep animals and humans apart.

Bluff Cove has two kinds of penguins we hadn’t seen: Gentoo, and the larger King (second largest to the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica). Most of the Gentoos we saw were the adolescents: their parents were at sea getting food for them. There were fewer King Penguins, but they were more impressive, with a shock of gold feathers and a larger body. Some of the Kings had chicks tucked beneath them. – The King penguins were all sort of huddled together in a cluster, nearly surrounded by the Gentoos. It seemed odd that the two groups just sort of ignored each other and our guide explained that the Kings were probably using the Gentoos as “cannon fodder” for predators, as they were at the periphery of the group. - AFK

There were also a couple of turkey vultures hovering nearby, as well as geese and seagulls. Alas, I came across one Gentoo carcass near the beach. It’s a tough life for penguins: it’s amazing that the species even survives. But we thoroughly enjoyed our hour with the penguins, despite the biting wind and cold.

As we walked away from the small colony we saw a group of five or six Gentoos running back toward the colony from the sea. It was a fun little spectacle to watch but also a little sad. I thought about how terribly vulnerable they all were as they ran. They are practically defenseless when on land, and as they ran I imagine they would be easy pickings for those turkey vultures. Our guide said that only about twenty five percent of the penguins we saw that day would survive to live a full life. :.-(   - AFK

Happily, the owners had a small tea house and gift shop about two hundred meters away from the cove, facing the pounding Atlantic surf. We were not only able to warm ourselves from the peat-fueled stove, but also enjoyed hot tea and freshly-made cakes and cookies. The gift shop had some beautiful tartan blankets and throws designed for this ranch using wool from its sheep.

We reluctantly left this beautiful, rugged setting as Neil drove us in the Land Rover all the way back to Stanley (we were the last tour of the day). We saw the giant wind turbines along the highway that provide about 30-40% of the electricity needed in Stanley. The rest of energy comes from a diesel-burning plant somewhere else on the island. Neil also drove us through a neighborhood where one homeowner had giant whale skulls and jaws as yard décor.

We arrived back at the pier by approximately 5:00PM, and were the next to last tender to head back to the ship. It was a fun excursion, and I certainly found Stanley appealing. Very remote, but appealing.

A slight side note – as we approached the pier after Neil dropped us off I spotted off to the right one of the ruddiest, gingeriest, bruisers of a bear it has been my pleasure to see. Obviously a local, with skin that was a bit weathered and pink, a broad well-proportioned face with bright reddish orange wiry short hair and slightly deep set very blue eyes that seemed to convey a wistful sad quality. He was truly a striking visage and I happily caught a few very good photos of him as we walked by. - AFK

We napped for a few hours before meeting up for dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room. We decided that the waiters at table 261 (Alex and Allan) were our favorites and have made this our permanent table for the remainder of the cruise.

All in all, it was a memorable day, and we went to bed looking forward to tomorrow and reaching the southernmost point of the cruise, Cape Horn.



Day 12 – Wednesday, February 8th – Aboard the Crown Princess – At Sea and Cape Horn

Today was a much slower-paced day, with cooler temps (around 50 degrees) and gray skies. Breakfast in the dining room was unhurried, and we were keen to make sure Mike was feeling well (he thought he was coming down with something last night, but it passed).

After breakfast, we attended Julio’s lecture on Punta Arenas, Chile. Once again, his humor and ability to point out references in town made for a delightful hour. After that, we went to the Explorer’s Lounge to hear a talk/sales pitch on surrealism. The real reason we went is that they showed the Disney/Dali animated collaboration: “Destino”, which is Allan’s all-time favorite short animated film. No art was bought, but Allan could provide an answer to another passenger’s question about female surrealist artists - Kay Sage, wife of Yves Tanguy, in post-WWII America. I was a bit annoyed with the staffer doing the presentation. He should have been better prepared with his material. He was enthusiastic and kind of cute though. :-) – AFK

After an unfortunate lunch in the Crown Grill, an English Pub lunch where Steve found nothing appealing and my “Ploughman’s lunch” was just… sad, Mike and Chuck went up to their room and Steve and I went up to the grill to get a burger, then down to our room for a nap.

We got up in time to join the throngs up on deck to watch as we began our cruise around the islands of Cape Horn. It was a beautiful afternoon with mostly blue sky and just enough clouds to give visual interest to the scene – with a spectacular rainbow at one point right of the side of the ship – amazing! This whole scene was really, quite unexpected and delightful. We all had the best time chatting with an older couple from outside of Brisbane, Australia and taking in the majestic scenery that surrounded us. This was our southernmost point on this journey. Hopefully, next January Steve and I will get to venture even further South – to Antarctica! (fingers crossed) – AFK

One always thinks of a point of land at the tip of the mainland being the “cape”. But in this case it’s a series of islands, and Cabo de Hornos (the Spanish name for the Cape Horn) was far larger than we were expecting (about the size of Vashon Island in Puget Sound, if you removed all the trees and added a great deal of height).

We approached the Cape from the northeast at around 4:30PM. We lucked into spectacular weather: calm seas, clear blue skies, and perfect lighting. The ship rounded the island at a slow 10 knots, with the island always off to our port (left) side. There is a scientific station on the island, some antenna towers, and a four-meter tall lighthouse at the very southernmost point. That’s it. The rest is rolling hills of brownish-green and some dramatic cliffs that plunge down to the sea. It was the sort of open hills that Julie Andrews traversed in “The Sound of Music” …minus the trees, the abbey, or anything Austrian.

We spent an hour going around the island, then headed off again toward the northeast toward our next destination, Ushuaia, Argentina.

Tonight’s dinner was a marked improvement from last night’s, and our waiter Alex showed us a few tricks with stirring sticks. All in all, we were fortunate to have a spectacular “rounding of the Horn”.


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