Last evening we left the Falklands with its pleasing person-to-sheep ratio (only 3,000 people live in the Falklands; we toured one person’s sheep ranch that occupies a mere 15,000 acres.). Before we were entirely clear of the islands, we crossed a commuter highway for thousands of Sooty Shearwaters that were headed back to their nesting […]
Lindblad Expeditions Cruise
Lindblad Expeditions: Part Four: the Falkland Islands
Days 5 and 6 we spent at sea, headed relentlessly south both days toward the unseen Falkland Islands and, by night, toward the seemingly more tangible Southern Cross. We came in and out of areas more crowded or less populated by various seabirds. The farther south, the more we left juvenile albatrosses and giant petrels. […]
Lindblad Expeditions: Day 4, Sunday, Part 2.
Next, we went to a large colony of Magellanic Penguins. Something like 20,000 pairs were nesting over many acres, attending eggs in burrows or scrapes under thick bushes. It was odd to see Penguins in scrub country that looked more like Texas than what you think of as penguin country. About a hundred miles south […]
Lindblad Expeditions: Day 4, Sunday, Part 1.
We landed at Puerto Madryn, inside the protected waters of Peninsula Valdez. This is Patagonia. Dry, windswept, scrubby. We’ve seen the strange little mammals called Maras that look like a cross between small antelope and rabbits—but are rodents. And Guanacos, one of the llama-like South American members of the camel family. Then on to the […]
Cruising Argentina, Falkands, and South Georgia Island with Lindblad Expeditions
Thursday 10/19/11, and Days 2 and 3, Friday and Saturday: We left Buenos Aires late in the day and steamed southeast downriver overnight. It took hours for us to reach the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. This is the world’s widest rivermouth, more than 100 miles across. I woke numerous times during the […]