We arrived around 08.00 in the morning and by 09.30 the first tenders were on their way in to the harbour about twenty minutes away. We have booked a trip to see the gyuys with little feet wearing formals outfits at midday and so wandered around the town for about one hour and a half.
We came across a couple of guys building a house and started chatting to them about life on the Islands and both were fiercely proud to be British and under no circumstances wanted the be under Argentine rule. I asked them about counter measures during the war but apart from a story about building the flag pole to small for the Argentinian flag there appears to be no attempt to help themselves but wait till Mrs Thatcher came along. There is a road of of course called Thatcher Drive.
The ports from South America have been blocked and so all good come from UK but I am not sure who might be paying the difference in cost, maybe the British Taxpayer. Fuel cost is again half the cost of the UK although food costs are higher.
There are approximately 3000 people living on the Islands with somewhere between 1000 and 3000 troops depending on who you ask. Prince William is due here soon, perhaps may even be here as according to our driver in the afternoon military aircraft activity has increased significantly to prepare for any attempt from Tevez and his mates to invade.
The locals are allowed full access to the military base to visit the Cinema, swimming pools etc
Our trip out to Bluff cove took about 20 minutes in a bus and then we transferred to 4x4 Land Rovers for the next twenty minutes across very rough grounds to the beach to see the Penguins. There were three types of Penguins, a few King, some Gentoo and a small football team of Megellan
We stayed about an hour making acquaintance and they smell like hell and have flees and are likely bite you for straying to close.
The weather today has been fantastic with only blue sky and a temperature around 14 degrees centigrade and so we were completely over dressed and kept taking layers of clothing off as it got warmer.
On the beach was a small café where were given free tea and cakes before heading back to town. In the Land Rover on the way back to the rough tracks the driver was listening to talk sport with commentary on the Liverpool game which somehow struck me as being odd when driving over rough ground on a beach 8000 miles from home.
People onbly use 4x4 on these islands as normal cars wont travel off road.
A final walk around town and connected to the internet at the information station and even they were charging £ 1.00 for ten minutes and so we ended up spending £ 3.00 between the two of us for about thirty minutes of very slow connection time compared to my home broadband which is very fast and costs a fiver.
We arrived back on ship and went for the afternoon tea then retreated for a shower before heading of for a pre-dinner drink
And then on to some British Food, prawn cocktails and Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and some Malbec, gosh we Brits know how to live
