Murray Heights

Falkland Islands. Penguins. Private Guide, Carlos.

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning and got on the tender for a 20-minute ride to the port city of Stanley which is the capital of Falkland Islands. The tender held 150 people and was modern and comfortable. When we got off, we saw lots of guides holding signs offering private tours. It was only 11 o’clock, and we realized there really wasn’t much to see right at the port and we would have a long wait for our included tour scheduled at 3:00. We decided to choose a private tour guide, Carlos. He took Lee to a bank to get some money because the guides don’t take credit cards and only accept The Falkland Pound. While I was waiting for Lee to get the money, I saw across the bay, white stones spelling out the names of ships. Endurance, Protector, Beagle, Clyde, Barracuda and Dumbarton. It turned out that these are the names of ships that have provided prolonged periods of protection for the islanders and are still in action.

Carlos was born in Chile and stayed there until he was about 16 when he moved to New Jersey in the States. He returned to Chile when he was 20 and fell in love, married and had 2 girls. He moved to The Islands about 6 years ago when his girls were 12 and 10. When we asked him why he liked the Falklands so much he said it was very safe and secure, free of crime and drugs. Education is paid for including University off island, if the student elects to go to a university. In this case, the government pays the base rate and the student tops up depending on their choice of university.

He gave a lot of random information along the way. Remarkably there are about 200 sheep for every person in this starkly beautiful archipelago, yet the Falklands are also known for their biological diversity. Five penguin species call the islands home, from the King penguins that waddle along Volunteer Beach to the Gentoo and Magellanic Penguins on further shores.

-There is only one bank in Stanley, two supermarkets, five bars and two churches.
-With the soil being clay, it’s hard to grow much of anything and he gave us some examples of pricing at the grocery store. One avocado cost 3/1/2 Falkland pounds, ($6.10 Canadian ) I litre of milk costs 1 pound and 3 pence.($2.26)
-He told us that if he hits a sheep on the highway that he has to take it to a vet. The vet by virtue of tags knows how to contact the owner and the owner will tell him how much he needs to pay and then you can take the sheep home and eat it if you want.
-They don’t use the water in the lakes but rather collect and recycle water from the mountains and rainwater.
-They have one horse racetrack in Port Stanley, but betting is illegal in this country. However, they open the racetrack for special holidays including over Christmas and New Year’s.
-Windmills provide about 60% of the hydro power for the island.

On our 1-hour drive to see the penguins at Bertha's Beach, we passed through one of the largest farms on the island called Fitzroy. It was named after Captain Robert FitzRoy of HMS Beagle that Darwin sailed with in 1833. It is now owned by Luciano Benneton owner of the Italian clothing company Benneton. He owns several farms totalling 2,220,00 acres. The Spanish name for sheep farms is Estancias.

We also passed by the military base, RAF Mount Pleasant, which has its own school as well as the islands International airport. Just the day before, a Chilean Hercules plane crashed somewhere in the ocean just off the coast of the Falklands and all 32 people on board are feared lost. We saw the rescue planes searching for floating debris. We saw where the cargo ships dock at Mare Harbour necessitating all goods to be transported by truck for an hour before reaching Stanley. Currently, the harbour at Stanley is too shallow for ships to dock, (which is why we had to tender in).

Once we reached Bertha's Beach, we walked about 300 meters towards the beach and saw hundreds of sheep with their newly born lambs and hundreds more Gentoo penguins hopping up towards three separate large nesting sites, about 300 meters from the ocean. They all mill around with each other, sheep and penguins, neither bothering the other. These penguins grow up to three feet tall and are a riot to watch. Their eggs are just now hatching, some have one chick and others have two. They are very organized in caring for their young and one parent does not leave the chicks until the parent takes over and moves onto the nest. In this way, they keep the eggs warm and safe from predators.

The drive back was over the same route and Carlos graciously took us to Gypsy Cove, the destination of the tour we would have otherwise taken. It was fairly close to the ship. The location was a very expansive beach and there were maybe a thousand Magellanic penguins moving back from the beach to the burrows that they dug for a nest (rather like Groundhog holes) up on the hills. These penguins are shorter than the Gentoos at about 2 feet. How they hop up the steep cliffs back to their burrows is hard to understand but they do. They will get to within about 15 feet of humans and just wait till they move, to continue their trip back to their burrows.

Known as the Islas Malvina's to Argentines, the Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory comprising 770 small islands. The population of the Falklands is only about 5,000 people. The islands were uninhabited when discovered by Europeans. France established a colony on the islands in 1764. In 1765, a British captain claimed the islands for Britain. In early 1770 a Spanish commander arrived from Argentina with five ships and 1,400 soldiers forced the British to leave Port Egmont. Britain and Spain almost went to war over the islands, but the British government decided that it should withdraw its presence from many overseas settlements in 1774. Spain, which had a garrison at Puerto Soledad on East Falklands, administered the garrison from Montevideo until 1811 when it was compelled to withdraw by pressures resulting from the Peninsular War. In 1833, the British returned to the Falkland Islands and had sovereignty. The government of Argentina continued to have a hard time accepting this.

At a time when the president of Argentina was experiencing problems at home with low approval ratings, he decided that declaring a war to reclaim the islands would bolster his approval rate. Argentina invaded the islands on 2 April 1982.
At the same time Margaret Thatcher was experiencing the same problems in the UK and it was a perfect opportunity to take action and retaliate. The British responded with an expeditionary force that culminated in Argentina surrendering. It was a nasty war, lasting 10 weeks, taking the lives of 649 Argentine military and 255 British and 3 Falkland citizens. And the casualties for both sides to military aircraft and ships was extensive. One of Argentina’s strategies to protect the Falklands from the inevitable British invasion, was to plant up to 30,000 land mines along the shores where they expected the invasion to land. Some of the mines were cleared after the war and those areas that were still not cleared were fenced off. While we were watching the penguins, we saw a party of 6 men on the beach in yellow suits, all from Zimbabwe, who were searching for land mines left behind and still not discovered from the war between the UK and Argentina in 1982. Partway through the production of the mines, they changed from metal to plastic, so are very hard to detect. There are 5 more areas to clear at this time, but they expect to be finished by next year.

On the final leg back to the ship we passed by the wreck of Lady Elizabeth, a cargo ship carrying lumber from Vancouver. On the 4th of December, 1912 it encountered severe weather halfway through the voyage and was damaged just off Cape Horn. The Captain ordered the ship to the nearest port for repairs. Lady Elizabeth altered course for Stanley, Falkland Islands. 24 km outside Port Stanley, Lady Elizabeth struck a rock. The ship began to sink but was able to get to Port Stanley for repairs. She was declared unseaworthy and converted into a coal hulk. February 17 1936 her mooring lines broke during a storm and she drifted to where she now lies on her side in Whalebone Cove in Stanley Harbour rusting away.

Our final stop was to buy a copy of the local weekly newspaper, called, appropriately, The Penguin News!

We thoroughly enjoyed this private tour and definitely saw a lot more than if we had been on the ship’s planned tour.

Tonight, the entertainment was Beatlemania, a fun hour long program led by the ships vocalists.Read more