Dates: 1st Jan, 2nd Jan 2011
Today is the first day of 2011. Don't quite remember when was the last new year's day I woke up as early as 6am. Seems like there is a first time for everything and this trip was packed with so many such unique experiences. It was a beautiful sunny morning and for a change we were surrounded by small islands instead of open ocean on all sides. Yes, we had arrived on schedule at the Falkland Islands. We had to go out to the deck of the ship to sink in this beautiful vista blessed with great weather. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of some dolphins but ended up sighting some penguins swimming in the water. It was like showing a candy to a kid and immediately hiding it just to leave the kid wanting for more but we were hopeful to see more later in the day.
After an early breakfast we were shuttled off to the Saunder's islands for a 3-4 hour dance with the penguins. Looks like this island was chosen to give us the maximum bang for the buck. The geography of this island was quite impressive with two hills on either side and a small valley surrounded by ocean on all sides. It has very rich bird life that included 5 different species of penguins (Magelanic, Rockhopper, Gentoo, King and Macaroni) living in harmony. We started off exploring the Gentoo penguins who like to hang out in groups of 50-60 on small mounds. Occasionally you would see some moving from one mound to the other as if they were going to visit its extended family. The Magelanic penguins are the shy kind who also like to organize themselves into well disciplined groups before taking a plunge into the ocean.
My favorite on this island were the Rockhopper penguins and as the name suggests they are hang out on the rocks and have no fear against getting thrown out by the ocean on to the rocks. They have bright red eyes/beaks and easy to identify based on yellow strings jetting out of their head. I would describe them as "dudes with a cool attitude". We also got to say hello to some of the petrels that are only found around this island along with the usual cunning Skuas. The skuas hang out close to the penguin colonies waiting for an opportunity to grab penguin chicks. We could also see some huge whale bones perfectly preserved by the beach close to a small colony of king penguins. Time just flew by on this amazing island and very soon we had the staff members chasing us down to head back for lunch. We could have easily spent a whole day on this island watching some amazing wildlife. Today was our first zodiac ride and it went much smoother and fun than we had pictured it.
After lunch we had another landing scheduled to visit the Carrcass Island. Along with Magelanic penguins this island is shared by terns, ducks, geese, hawks and song birds. A unique vegetation of this island was Tussock grass which grows to about 10ft high that apparently is strong enough to pull yourself over a cliff with just a just tuft of this grass. We walked across the island for about 2-2.5mile to the McGill family home that takes care of this island. We were pleasantly welcomed with a lot of cakes/cookies along with an english style high tea. Probably one of the few times we absolutely forgot about the calories behind these delightful snacks. Many of us shamelessly wanted to stuff them into the pockets and take them back to the ship. While we were nibbling over these snacks inside there were some hawks attacking our backpacks in the lawn outside.
It was nice to hit the gym on board before getting some dinner. The gym on board is probably one of the most ill equipped gyms I have ever visited. I managed to get the treadmill working with the help of the doctor who apparently use the gym regularly. The conversation at dinner was quite interesting too. We had the pleasure of dining with one of the polar travel veterans who had some nice tips to enjoy these kind of trips and recommendations for future trips. He suggested us to go running in Stanley, capital of Falkland Islands, which was on the cards for the next day.
Time seems to be flying by so quickly on this trip. I wish I had more time to enjoy these magical moments. Before retiring to bed, here I am in the library on the ship writing this blog. We were soon joined by a fellow passenger who is a tech attorney from Canada. We chatted about how fortunate we are to be on this trip that 95-99% of the world does not get to go for various reasons. Just like a typical conversation in the bay area, we soon steered towards all the latest and greatest happenings in the tech world. When the conversation turned towards the history of England I excused myself to go to bed.
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