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Published: February 4th 2011
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Due to weather conditions, we went to the main island of the Falklands
yesterday and won't be visiting the west island at all. I had been looking
forward to that because it supposedly had lots of penguins roaming
around that you could just walk amongst. Oh, well. Now we will be in
Ushuaia a day earlier and rounding Cape Horn before a big storm arrives.
Did you realize there were fewer than 2000 people living in the Falklands
when the war happened? (in 1982) About the same number of soldiers were
killed. Seems an idiotic waste of lives and money. There are still
minefields all over the place, but they are fenced off with skull and
crossbones signs.
Port Stanley, on the main island, reminded me a lot of Nisswa. Teeming with gift shops, but with a greater choice in restaurants! This was the first port where we used tenders. My first reaction upon entering the tender was, "Wow! It's not hot in here!" Out in the Pacific two years ago the tender trips were always miserably hot, but the high yesterday in Stanley was 50 degrees, so with the wind on the water, it was rather chilly in the
boat. There had been some problem getting the ship into port, so we didn't get into town until almost lunchtime. We strolled the tiny town, visiting the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world, the grocery store (a part of the British Waitrose chain), and the post office where they do a big business in wildlife stamps. There is only one scheduled commercial flight per week to the island. It goes to Punta Arenas, Chile, since relations with Argentina are still very cold.
In the afternoon we took a tour to a sheep farm which was over an hour's drive from Stanley. Most of the road was one lane and gravel. Hugh and I sat in the front seat which probably was a mistake since I could see all the potholes and was, in general, totally freaked out by the driving. Every moment I expected us to slide off and tip over, or meet some poor soul head-on at the top of a hill. I was certainly more scared than on the buggy ride! The farm was owned by the Watsons (!!) who had about 2500 sheep. We saw a demonstration of peat cutting (they still heat their house with it)
and sheep sheering. And we had some really good cookies, made with their own eggs and butter. The couple run the farm by themselves with occasional help from a son. It is so remote and the area was so god-forsaken, you wonder how they can stand to live there. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, however.
Throughout the countryside there are weird outcropping of quartz, unlike anything I have seen before. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to build even the simple roads we were on. The only trees are the cedars that have been planted around homes, but every garden had lupines which seem to love harsh climates.
Our tour guide had been a farm manager on the West Island during the Falklands' War. He told us tales of the takeover of their home and shelling from both sides. It seems unbelievable today.
We were on the last tender to the ship...a half-hour later than the last one was supposed to be. Now we are off to Ushuaia where we hope to take a train into Tierra del Fuego National Park.
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