The First Post

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Hello and welcome to my Travel Blog. The main purpose of writing this is to create a place where family and friends can visit to update themselves on my travels and see my photos.

Remember you can visit my website Magical Places Fine Art where you can see more photos, and buy greetings cards, prints, postcards, journals, calendars and more from my CafePress online shop. The best photos you see here will make their way there.

I’m currently working as an Internet Manager on a cruise ship called the Norwegian Crown. The ship is sailing between Buenos Aires in Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile and back again until next April.

I will be posting blogs and photos about the ports we visit on here. I’ll also go back a little in time and post photos from my recent trips to New York, Argentina and New England and Canada.

Last Tuesday we were in Stanley, in the Falkland Islands (or the Malvinas as the Argentinians call them). This was my first time here and I was very excited because it’s such a distant and unusual destination. We had a beautiful clear sunny sky and the ship was able to anchor in Stanley Harbour, very close to the town, because the sea was so smooth. We have a small ship with a shallow draft and there was only 3 metres between the bottom of the ship and the seabed!

Stanley was a quiet and pretty little town. There were a lot of buildings made from tin and painted bright colours. The sun was strong but there was a cold wind coming off the sea. It was similar to places I have seen in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. A local woman in a café told me there are lots of ships that come in over the summer and sometimes they have several thousand tourists come ashore for the day.

We were only there for half a day which gave me time to walk around the town and a little beyond. I looked at a couple of books in a bookstore and it seems that there are many beautiful landscapes to see around the islands and lots of wildlife. Interestingly, I learned that the Falklands are the same distance from the equator as London (I thought they were further) and that the weather in Stanley is milder in the winter than in the UK (the summers are cooler).

After being in South America for 4 weeks it struck me how British the Falklands are. Things are priced in pounds and there is no doubt about where the islanders feel they belong.

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Photos

Stanley, Falkland Islands
Typical colourful tin roof in Stanley.

Stanley, Falkland Islands
Christchuech Cathedral, framed by sculpture made from the jaw bones of a whale.

Stanley, Falkland Islands
View across Stanley Harbour.

Stanley, Falkland Islands
Shipwreck, Stanley Harbour.

Stanley, Falkland Islands
Horses near Stanley.

Stanley, Falkland Islands
Red tin roofs and Stanley Harbour.