Penguins!

Well, we made it safely out of Antarctica and although it was amazing, it’s nice to be back in the sun. I could do without all the old people in swimsuits though. There was a day of transition in which we stopped at Port Stanley in the Faukland Islands. The Fauklands are controlled by the British so it was a little like being in London for a day. A much smaller and… less exciting London.

After reading the (brief) visitors guide for the Fauklands, we decided to take the ‘leisurely 4-mile walk’ to a penguin colony. We hadn’t actually seen any penguins up close so we were willing to walk instead of paying for a taxi. It started out quite pleasant, the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze. My favorite part of the trip occurred during our visit to the local cemetery along the way. It was surrounded by a fence and we couldn’t find the way out, so my dad spent like 5 minutes trying to climb over it. My mom walked about 3 feet away from him and unlatched a gate and walked out. Trust me, after spending a month in close quarters with your parents, things like this are humorous. Meanwhile, the weather turned from pleasant to gross pretty quickly. The wind kicked up and it started to rain and our destination, Gypsy Cove, was no where in sight. Thankfully, a woman in a taxi took pity on us and offered to take us to the Cove free of charge. It was definitely longer than 4 miles, and not exactly leisurely, but it paid off...at last, penguins! A whole colony of Magellen penguins and even a few King penguins huddled together on the beach. I even managed to snap a decent picture despite the fact that my hands were numb. Aren’t they cute?



After putting on out best pouty faces, a man offered to take us back to town. Such nice people, those Faukland…ians. Back in town we had fish n’ chips and Guinness at a local pub while we dried out a little. After walking around a little, we made the mutual decision to call it a day in Stanley.

On the 11th, we docked in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Most of the shops were closed up since it was Sunday so it was a quiet day in the town. There was a nice beach so I think you can guess what we did for the day. Not much happened besides that.

The complimentary tour for this segment was offered in Montevideo, Uruguay. Yay for complimentary tours! They took us to horse races that had open especially for our tour. It was a beautiful track and of course, Crystal arranged for us to be fed… heaven forbid we go without food for a few hours. So at 10:30am waiters were shoveling barbequed chicken, beef, and chorizo onto our plates and by 12 there was champagne. There were 2 races and we even got free tickets to bet on the horses. My mom and I picked the winner in the 2nd race, $6 woo!

Today ended our 2-day adventure in Buenos Aires, it was so exciting that I think I’ll save it for another entry. Hasta luego!