Thursday Jan 26, 2023
Hi all! Today’s words of the day are KING PENGUINS! We did this cool all day excursion to an area on the Falkland Islands called Volunteer Point where they have one of the largest colonies of King Penguins in the world. The King Penguin is the second largest penguin breed after the Emperor Penguin. The King’s stand about 2.5 to 3 feet tall and their gold coloring around their beaks and upper chest is stunning against their black and white bodies. And we were within inches of them!
But we did have to get off the ship early (7:30 AM) to start the all day excursion. We went out to the site in groups of four people in each Land Rover and it took about 2 hours to get there an hour of which was the roughest off road riding we’ve ever done. We thought we were on an African Safari! There were no roads but just track marks over ditches and shrubs. It was crazy but well worth it!
The area actually had three different kinds of penguins there. The Kings, the Gentoos, and the Magellanic. But the Kings were the biggest number. They had people there to ensure you didn’t touch or scare the penguins but they did let us get up pretty close to them. There was a group of about 6 Kings that worked their way down to the ocean and actually jumped in and started swimming around. It was so funny to see them marching down in single file.
That was probably the coolest excursion we’ve had this trip. The ship internet is getting a little better but I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to post any pics but I’ll try. I wish I could post a video because that’s how you can really see how they interact. The Kings either had recently had their babies or were still sitting on their eggs and while you couldn’t see the egg, their flap of skin at the bottom protruded out and it’s called their “beer belly”. And No!, it wasn’t named after mine! Lol
After our excursion we stopped in town and did some shopping. Then on to the ship for our nightly routine… siesta, dinner, piano players and sleep!
Tomorrow is a sea day as we work our way up the eastern coast of South America. And it’s getting warmer each day. No more Antarctica cold! Today was 60, tomorrow will be about the same but the day after that it will be 85 degrees! Back to summer in the Southern Hemisphere! Hope everyone had a great day!
The Wandering Italian 