Falklands! Penguins! No Falklands! No Penguins! Finally, Penguinos!

This is a 12 Minute Read 😁

                        One of the more interesting ports of call on this Cruise is Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. This is the same set of islands that Argentina tried to “annex” back in the early ‘80’s. Not many folks get to visit there as it is definitely not on the regular Cruise Itineraries of most lines. To say that it was one of the highlights of this particular Cruise would be an understatement.

                        We pulled into the anchorage area right on time, around 0700 which gave the local authorities time to come out to our ship, get the paperwork done, and let us lower the Tenders as this is a Tender Port. We are way too large to fit close to the main harbor of Stanley.

                                    This is where the rub is.

                                    It is a half hour Tender Voyage to reach the Port.

                                    We are anchored in a nice calm deep-enough bay on the lee side of an adjacent spit of land. Stanley is accessed by going through a small strait and then into the larger bay (wider but not deeper) on the other side of the spit.

                                    We were early getting into the meeting area of the ship where we were to receive our “tickets” with our first-come-first-served Tender numbers on them. We were in touch with our Local guide, via WhatsApp, this time from Viator as TBL did not have any Guides on this archipelago. They were ready to get to the Port as soon as I informed them that we were on our way.

                                    Not five minutes later we heard that three-tonal sound that indicates that an announcement is coming next. This is the usual S.O.P. as keeping everyone apprised of our time and situation is quite critical. And it is usually the Captain that come on the system, at least initially, then he turns it over to another “voice” that regularly comes on and announces things like “Tickets with #19 may proceed to the Tender area, have a nice day in Stanley!”

                                    So, when the Captain came on and immediately told us that he had come to the unfortunate conclusion that he needed to cancel that day’s call in Stanley…. well maybe you can sense the obvious disappointment in the ship, but you probably really can’t because unless you were one of the Thousands(?) that were waiting their whole lives to see penguins in the wild, then you really have no idea.

                                    To the uninitiated, who at the time were experiencing the calm waters that we were anchored in, the Captain’s decision was met with incredulity and vocal unpleasantries. The problem was that fetch of water on the other side of the spit that was not in a leeward position at all. In fact, it was directly affected by the winds that we were presently sheltered from, but the Tenders would soon be going, teeth first, into. The chance of getting everyone to shore was indeed possible, the chance of not retrieving everyone at the end of the day (when the winds were forecast to increase significantly) was also extremely possible.

                                                It was a gutsy call on the Captain’s part. The classic damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. The easy decision would be to let everyone go out and worry about it later, but the smart decision was the one that was made because as they say when trying to get to the top of mountain…. getting to the summit is optional, getting back down is mandatory.

                        Anyway, we now have more than the amount of what you may expect of adults ready to burst into tears and that is neither an exaggeration nor is it a comment on anyone’s status as a “grownup”. It just goes to show you the level of anticipation and hopes that were now dashed on the rocky shore that we could see from the ship.

                                    When this occurs, there is another set of consequences that need to be dealt with and I’m not just talking about the refunds of all of the Shore Excursions that were booked. I’m talking about the fact that the crew was anticipating a day when the vast majority of passengers would be ashore, and they had planned accordingly. The daily routine of contests, trivia, lectures, and everything else takes a hiatus on these days. When it suddenly and I mean suddenly takes an about-face, well let’s just say that this is when you get to see what that Cruise Director and his Team, and all of the Dining Personnel are made of because now no one is going ashore, everyone is disappointed and it’s their job to put as many Band-aids on everyone as is needed to quell the rioters.

                                    The crew rose to the occasion as they always do and at least made the day of those captured on board a fun one.

                                    Another aspect of this Missed Port Day was made evident on the next Port Day, two days hence, in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.

                                    You see, there are some Penguins there.

                                    Cute little Magellanic Penguins.

                                    Now I knew this, and I also knew that as soon as everyone realized this then the mad race to procure a coveted spot on the already filled Tour Busses would spill over into the Private Tours sector. Armed with this knowledge and having my trusty laptop with me I quickly logged into our TBL account and booked a tour to the Magellanic Penguin Rookery (baby raising!) that is located about two hours south of Puerto Madryn. And this is the time of year that the kiddies are still hanging around the house before they get kicked out into the cruel world.

                        Successful I was in retaining Alex, one of the TBL guides here in Puerto Madryn.

                        Successful we were in staking out a strategic Waiting Spot in the Walk-Off area as this was not a tender port, we were actually going to be secured to a Pier. Before we left our stateroom I glanced down at the pier where I saw an unusually large number of buses lined up and waiting (I presumed) to take folks to the same place that we were going to. As it turns out, the demand for additional Penguinos Tickets made the Shore Excursion folks do their best to hire more and more buses to accommodate everyone.

                                    Ouch! That meant that our Private Tour of the little guys was going to be trampled by the masses.

                                    Unless…. we were increasingly strategic and cunning in our efforts to get to Penguin Central first!

                                    Back to our place in line. We thought that we had a great spot. We had arrived early, figured out which way we were to be allowed to disembark, and set ourselves up accordingly.

                                    Until…. Someone (security) came by with those ‘velvet-rope’ stations and proceeded to cordon off our area. The guy behind us raised holy hell to the point where I thought that he may be thrown into the Brig! Paula glanced over to me, and I said lowly, “just stand here and don’t make eye contact.” She nodded. The hope was that when the Go button was pushed, we would just slip by and get out. In the meantime, about twenty (20!) officials from Argentina marched aboard purportedly to “check credentials” and the like. We kept looking at the time because our whole day was depending on us getting off the ship and getting in front of those buses of millions that were waiting to run over us.

                        Finally, that Tonal Sound emitted from the speakers announcing that the ship had ‘cleared’ immigration and that we were free to go ashore. We never heard the end of that announcement because as soon as it was indicated that the announcement was of a positive nature, the masses pushed forward, and we shot out of the hull like a fire hose on steroids!

                                    Yes! Successful again we were!

                                    We (yes… just us!) were the very first to be jettisoned out onto the pier where we booked it to the mainland about a half mile away! There our trusty Guide, Alex, was waiting for us. He had already known about the newer vast influx of invader species and acted accordingly. Rushing aboard his little Renault, we felt like Luke and Leia strapping themselves into the Millenium Falcon when Han busted them out of the Mos Eisley Spaceport.

            We hit the National Road #3 at 120 (kph) and headed south.

                        We were confident that we would be among the first to arrive at the Punta Tombo Magellanic Penguin Colony. I had planned on telling Alex that I would give him an extra $10.00 for every bus that he passed but our getaway was so successful that that tactic was deemed unnecessary. We shuddered at the thought of wading through hordes of Penguinos Aficionados in order to gain a peek at these little guys.

                                    Success(!) does not even come close to the fact that we were the first (by far!) to get to the Sanctuary. Alex’s plan was for us to walk to the end first and then take our time walking back. This was an excellent plan guaranteed to get us the most time with our tiny friends as possible. And it worked great despite that fact that as soon as you hit the trail there were Black and Whites all over the place! Who can resist the impulse to stop and say Hi! to these little guys and snap a few candids!  We couldn’t!

                                    But….. we were sooooo far ahead of the rest of the ship that it made no never mind! We had the entire place to ourselves (as planned!) until we were on our way back and could discern a cloud of tourists on the horizon but by then we had had our fill, were sated nicely, and could now walk past (almost!) the cutest ones with impunity while the others were busy gawking (as we had!) at the first ones they came across.

What is fascinating about these little guys is that they could care less if we came or went. They were thoroughly unfazed with our presence and the fact that their breeding colony is historically stabile would suggest that our proximity has no bearing on their living here. This Preserve has been here for 52 years and so we can assume that there have been several generations of penguins that have come to just ignore us and go about their business. They breed at about six years of age and have two eggs per year. The rules are strict, no touching (although they do come close enough for petting) and stay on the pathway (but there are burrows directly next to it).

                                    Our next step was to get some lunch at their little deli/grill, and this was also successful as no one from the buses would dare to stop before going Penguin Watching! We had this place to ourselves also. Our first and only problem occurred next as since we were the first to arrive, we were the first to park, which would not normally be an issue except where do you fit 20 billion other vehicles when they arrive after you? Yes! Behind you and in between you and the exit, with buses parking willy-nilly as space allowed (and there was no ‘space’!)

                        Had Alex’s car been any larger we would still be there.

To say that this day will go down in history is an understatement.

Been there!

Done that!

and yes…. even got the (embroidered!) Tee-Shirt!