Post Number 2

Day 3 – Puerto Madryn, Argentina

After a day at sea (calm waters, sunny skies, 79 degrees), we arrive in Puerto Madryn, board one of NCL’s excursion buses, and head for the Punta Tombo Penguin Rookery (a nationally protected reserve). A 2 ½ hour ride each way, we are fortunate to have a comfortable bus (in a part of the world that warns tourists that good transportation is extremely limited, roads can be dusty and bumpy, and the weather can be very unpredictable).

Punta Tombo is the largest penguin nesting ground in continental South America - thousands of Magellan penguins all over the place.

There are between 200,000 and one million+, depending on the time of year. Because the penguins are accustomed to humans and don’t feel threatened by us, they cross “people paths” constantly to get from their nesting areas to the ocean.

They are hilarious to watch, and getting up close is a blast. Make sure to check out the 2 videos of them that we posted.

VIDEO 1

VIDEO 2

Day 4 – At Sea

At sea days are all pretty much the same. We spend our time reading and watching the occasional ship go by. Other times we are sleeping, sometimes gambling, going to shows, watching the sun set and, depending on the weather, wandering around the ship. Big decisions for the day are: which restaurants to eat in, when, and with how many of our new friends do we dine with.

Day 5 – The Falkland Islands are remote – 300 miles off the coast of South America’s Patagonia region and less than 600 miles from Antarctica. They are a British outpost, though Argentina made a claim for them in 1982 when a military junta occupied the islands for 2 months (remember the Falklands War?). And, although we refer to them as the Falklands, Argentinians call them Islas Malvinas.

We tender to Port Stanley, formerly a whaling port. We don’t quite know what to expect, but find that we are totally enamored with the town. We spend several hours walking up and down residential streets – brightly colored houses and quirky vignettes make for great photo ops. And I keep thinking how much fun it would be to spend some time here painting.

Tomorrow we round Cape Horn and are off to Ushuaia. Stay tuned!