Welcome to Stanley, Falkland Islands

With this post, I am going to turn our day on its head and start from what we did last — a stroll around Stanley. Why? Simple … the images from around the city are a more appropriate means of welcoming readers to the capital city of the Falklands Islands.

On our way back to the tender pier after our tour, our driver, John, gave us a quick drive-by of some of the sites on the outskirts of downtown Stanley … showing us the skeletal remains of whales, memorials, and a few other things. We found the city to be much expanded since we were here in 2007. Even the small museum we had visited then had been relocated to a larger facility.

The one thing that had seemingly grown smaller was the wreck of the Jhelum, a ship that was launched in Liverpool in 1849. It was damaged going around Cape Horn while carrying guano from Peru to France. The Jhelum “limped” into Stanley Harbor for repairs and was eventually deserted by the crew. From what John said, the reason there is so little of the wreck left since we saw it in 2007 is the worms that are eating the wooden hull.

After we were dropped off at the tender pier, we went for a “reminiscence stroll” near the waterfront. We visited Christ Church Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows and an iconic arch on the grounds … made from the jawbones of two blue whales; went into a supermarket to see if we could find some McVities chocolate (no luck); and wandered along some of the back streets, looking for the shop from which we bought woolen goods last time (closed, alas).

Our stroll completed, we returned to the tender pier by way of The Globe, one of the pubs in Stanley. No time to sit down for pub fare, but at least we got a snapshot of it with one of the iconic British phone booths.En savoir plus