Port Stanley

Before heading back from the Antarctic Peninsula we made one more stop at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands or as the Argentines call it, Isla Malvinas, the site of a 10-week war between Argentina and Britain  in April of 1982.  Argentina claims it, but Britain named it a Crfown Colony in 1841.  Our bus driver pointed out exactly where the attacks and resistance came.  Most of the inhabitants are British descendants so the popular position on the Islands are that they are British and English is the language.

For us, the exciting part was to see all the penguins close up.  During our cruise around Antarctica we saw hundreds of thousands of penguins, but always from a distance.  Stanley allowed us to approach to 6 feet, but it allowed the penguins to approach us as closely as they wanted.  The more colorful penguins are the King Penguins and the others are Magellanic Penguins.  There are18 species of penguins but mostly on the trip we saw these two, and some chinstrap and some macaroni penguins as well.