Stanley Falkland Islands Part Deux

So while sitting in the International Café sitting with friends we talk about seeing so many penguins from the window here the last time.  Of course people overhear us and many keep saying “did you see penguins?”  I can’t help myself, I head back to the cabin and get a Falkland brochure that I have from last time and cut out two small pictures of penguins.  I then proceed back to the IC to tape them to the window and then the joke starts.  See the penguins!  Many people pose with the penguins in the window and I mean many.  Heck the photographers should have been there taking shots they could of sold a ton of them.  The pic stayed up all day and night too.

Thais sees penguins too

Zoran excited to see penguins

We decide to head ashore around 11 and we head to Da Vinci (the priority boarding lounge) and Cameron the CC host is there checking people in.  We are given the next tender ticket but there is a medical evacuation on a tender in front of us so we have to wait for the next tender – I hope they are okay.

Anthony

When we get to the tender it is cold but we head up on top and bear the elements for the ride in.  It is windy and that wind is cold but other than that it is rather nice. 

Once we get ashore it is crowded at the pier, lots of people are coming back and there is a long queue.  We head up the street and decide to walk to the left and we get a lovely view at the top of the hill.  We walk along streets and see beautiful gardens and homes and little store, but many are not open (hardware store, furniture) guess they have odd hours in such a small place. 

We head to Shorty’s Diner, yup that is the name.  We enter and it is filled with locals, nothing special but normal diner food and we order.  I get fried fish that comes with fries and baked beans, Bernie got a barbecue chicken.  Neither dish was that good, Bernie hardly ate any of his and mine was just too much fried food, so well I guess I won’t give it my Stanley recommendation.

As soon as we leave the skies open up and it pours, we thankfully have our wind/rain jackets but it is coming down and we laugh and say “reminds us of home”.

As we get back into the port area the crowds have invaded the town.  We walk around a bit and head to the West Store – their grocery/clothing/coffee shop/liquor store – we don’t really need anything so we are back out on the street.  All the stores are so busy and we are tired and need to find a quiet place.

We find the pink café and we enter and grab a coffee and a cupcake (darn those cupcakes were good) and enjoy some relaxation.  Now I see they have wifi but find out they charge for it here, in fact it seems all the establishments charge for their wifi.  At the pink café they charge 5 pound or $8 US for a certain period but I can’t recall the period. This seems to be standard here I later find out.

We get in the queue to get back to the ship and be prepared it is exposed the elements.  We did have to wait about 20 minutes for the ride back but we once get back on and head upstairs to the open deck.  The ride back is around a half hour. 

In the end I think I would of rather have just stayed on board for the day.

As soon as we get on board the ship we head back to the cabin and we crawl into bed and we are asleep quickly.  So little sleep last night and getting up so darn early made a two hour nap necessary but we are probably going to have a late night tonight.

We dress for dinner in Da Vinci at our regular table.  Mark and Loralei are there waiting for us. We tease Mark cause he is shocked to hear I am a transit bus driver in Vancouver, he looks right at me and says “don’t you find it hard driving a big bus” and of course I laugh and say how come you are not looking at Bernie and saying that cause he drives too.  He says well it isn’t a normal female job…. Bernie is laughing cause he knows Mark is just digging a hole.  I tease Mark more saying you know a woman can do anything a man can.  It is just as easy for me as it is for Bernie to drive a bus.  By the end of the dinner I have forgiven him.

For dinner I had the crab cake, the Thai soup (which I LOVE and had two servings), heck I could have had a huge bowl of that for dinner itself.  For my entrée I had the cowboy steak and it was way overcooked but tasty and then mango sorbet for dessert.

We thought about going to the Majority Rules game but we are don’t feel like waiting around for it to start and we walk around a bit and then head back to the cabin around 10:30.

 

Oh I forgot to mention that the Captain came on earlier in the night to tell us the approximate time for heading around the horn tomorrow.  He also commented that the winds are high and they will be coming right at us during the night and tomorrow so be prepared.

We notice the ship moving a lot more as we turn in for the night.  Lots of creaks and bumps thru the night for sure.  The seas are not bad but boy the wind is really strong.