Today we visited the capital of the Falklands - Stanley. It's really the only town of any size here. We headed out for a dry landing, which is nice because it means we don't need to wear the knee high muck boots that we need for wet landings on beaches. We could wear sneakers. Our first excursion today is to Gypsy Cove, a natural area where there are nesting birds and beautiful views from the cliff over sandy white beaches. We took a bus out of town, a picturesque town where the houses all have colorful metal roofs. There was one Grocery store, one car dealership, which was Land Rover/Range Rover, and a few little pubs or restaurants. The weather forecast was for on and off rain moving in and out all day. When we arrived at the cove it was cloudy but not raining and we had periods of clear skies. We climbed up a path onto the small cliffs, then climbed over rocks to look down over the edges.
We ran into several birds, not many, and then after about an hour it started to really rain and sleet so we headed back down to the bus and back to the ship.
We went back to the ship to have lunch and while we were down at lunch, Ella who takes care of our cabin had decorated our cabin for our anniversary - it was quite elaborate with disco lights and a large poster and balloons and things all around the room. We believe that Marvin our waiter, who Conrad had asked if we could get a special dessert at dinner, must have told Ella and that's how they knew because we didn't fill it in when asked about special occasions on the ship.
After lunch we headed out again to Yorke Bay, which was close to Gypsy Cove but had very unique sand dune structures and a colony of Gentoo Penguins with a few King Penguins mixed in. As soon as we got there is started to rain, but it cleared as quickly as it had come.
We first stopped among the dunes to check out the Gentoos and Kings. They were calmly milling around until some very loud fighter jets circled several times which seemed to scare them and sent them running in several directions.
Once we got back to the ship it was time to get ready for dinner and after Dinner, Marvin and a few of the waiters served us a lovely anniversary cake.
After Dinner as we pulled out of the Falklands, Jamie our expedition leader had a surprise waiting. Right around sunset we pulled up to an island called Kidney island where over 100,000 sea birds nest in the cliffs. They mass on the water at sunset and just as the last light of day is fading they all fly together to their burrows so that predstors can't see where the burrows are and attack the young. It's quite a sight. We all went out on the decks to watch. The pictures don't really capture it, but it was spectacular.
That pretty much rounded out our day of our 37th Wedding Anniversary. The next 2 days are sea days as we head to South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands.