Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

As our third destination on our expedition cruise we headed to the Falkland Islands (Las Islas Malvinas).

This was our first taste of civilization again after spending 2 weeks completely removed from all human impact. It felt a little strange to walk on concrete streets and see cars pass by in the little charming town of Stanley with its distinctive English feel. We still enjoyed ourselves with a good night shooting pool and having some beers and Fish’n’Chips at the pub.

In the Falklands we experienced much harsher weather with strong winds that prevented us from doing some of the planed landings and explorations. But just when our spirits were down, nature made up for it by providing us with about 30 dolphins jumping around our ship and putting on an amazing show.

On the last morning before we had to start sailing towards Buenos Aires, we got a good weather window and jumped at the chance for a final landing just after sunrise on Saunders Island in the West Falklands. Here we had the chance to see a huge colony of young baby albatrosses, not yet able to fly but practising stretching their wings on their nests anyhow. We also got to complete our set of possible penguin sightings by adding Rockhopper and Magellan Penguins to the list.

This sadly concluded our amazing journey to Antarctica and the Subantarctic Islands. We got to meet so many interesting people on the boat, got to learn from some amazing photographers, biologists and historians and got to experience wildlife in a way we had never done before. At the beginning of the journey our expedition leader, Mario, told us that life “after Antarctica” will never be the same as before. And I think he was right.