Blogs from East Falkland, Falkland Islands, South America

After rounding the Horn and thereby becoming “Masters of the Seven Seas,” we made our first stop in Argentina at Ushuaia which is also the Capital of the Malvinas. Ushuaia is the southern-most city in the world and its name means the End of the World. The town started out as a prison colony and has grown into a thriving business center with fish processing and computer assembly plants ringing the Beagle Channel. The Malvinas include the disputed Falklands Islands. Argentina still hopes to “free” the Falklands from what they consider the British Imperialists. Right now there are protests and port blockages by Argentinians because of increased tensions between the two countries. Fortunately the Mariner does not fly a Union Jack. One thing we have found in traveling around the very Catholic countries of South America ... read more

Fri 4th Feb Port Stanley, Falkland Islands Sparrow Cove penguin experience Like many other people i think, until Maggie’s involvement in defending these islands from the Argentinean invasion, I had never heard of Port Stanley. Murdo of course knew about this region due to his fathers tales of his whaling trips to Antarctica. So for different reasons we both were looking forward to our stay today. A tender boat took us over to the island to commence our excursion to see a colony of gentoo penguins. Having stepped onto the island, we felt like we were back home !!! The similarity of the terrain to the Scottish highlands was uncanny with it's small farms nestling amongst wild backdrops of rocks, heather and peaty ground. As we walked our feet sprang in a comfy familiar way. It ... read more

We sailed into the Port William, a large inlet on the east coast of East Falkland island, shortly after sunrise. The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located 300 miles from the coast of Argentina. They consist of two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, together with 776 smaller islands. Stanley, on East Falkland, is the capital. The islands are a self-governing Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. In 1982 the islands were invaded by Argentina, precipitating the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, which resulted in the defeat and withdrawal of Argentine forces. To visit Stanley we tendered through a strait called "the Narrows" into Stanley Harbour. Stanley is the capital and only true city in the Falkland Islands. It is located on the isle of ... read more

After a light lunch on board, we went into Stanley for a wander around the neat, colourful small town of about 2,000 with its pub, churches, civic buildings and four terraced town houses that could have been transported brick by brick from Victorian England - apart from the green corrugated roof rather than tiles. The morning cloud had blown away and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. We were told there had been a fair bit of damage in yesterday’s storm but we saw not a sign of this - frankly it was a tribute to the quality of construction that half the homes weren’t completely flattened. I suspect that the buildings here are pretty well put together given that a fresh wind apparently blows most days of the year- you could see, for example, that ... read more

Tuesday 22nd we were at sea for the day. A somewhat hot day so it was spent on deck getting the sun and relaxing. In the evening prior to dinner, we went to yet another gala evening attended by the captain and again more free booze. Wednesday we arrived in Puerto Madryn, Argentina at around 0800hrs. This town has a population of around 65,000. The town is an industrial center, a major port and has a large fishing fleet. Tourists flock to this area for the superb scuba diving and to see the birds,whales, penguins and sea lions in the nearby wildlife reserves.The first Welsh emigrants to Ptagonio landed near here in 1865. We took a tour to a welsh village for tea and cakes. Not only did we have the eats and drinks but were ... read more