Cape Horn lived up to its reputation yesterday morning. We arrived in the area around 8:00AM. It was breezy and cloudy with a few breaks in the sky. Cape Horn is on Cape Horn Island (what a coincidence) and belongs to Chile. When the weather permits, cruise ships sail completely around it. As we approached and could see the naval station on the Cape. The captain decided the weather was good enough to do the sail around. Initially it was quite pleasant; the sun even came out for a while and we could see a double rainbow. Then suddenly the weather completely changed. It got dark and threatening and the wind started howling. Sea spray was getting picked up and soaking us. When the winds hit 90 MPH they closed the outside decks and sent us all inside. It was definitely an exciting way to start the day. We did complete going around and then the rest of the day we sailed towards the Falkland Islands.

We spent today in the Falklands Islands. The Falklands (or the Islas Malvinas as the Argentinians like to call them) have been a British Crown Colony since 1840. In 1982 Argentina invaded the islands. Three civilians died in the war and the UK took them back after three months of Argentine occupations. After the war a referendum was held and over 95% said they wanted to stay as with the UK. The islands still have a serious land mine problem. The total population is only about 3,000 and almost all live in the main town of Stanley.

The Falklands are a tender port and the ship had to dock quite a ways out to sea, making it about a 20 minute tender ride. The day was mostly sunny and a little warmer than we expected. The Falkland are known for their penguins, the largest being the King penguin which are second in size only to the Emperor penguins of Antarctica. They are located on remote part of the islands called Volunteer Point which is accessible only by Land Rovers over a rutty muddy "road". Anyone with neck or back issues is strongly advised not to go. For a change, we heeded the advice. Instead, there is a place called Gypsy Cove located near Stanley where we could see the smaller Magellanic penguins. They run a shuttle bus for $20 to get there but it was such a nice day we decided to walk - the only ones silly enough to do it as far as we could tell. The walk was longer than we expected (about 5 miles) but beautiful and well worth it. We could not venture off the dirt road as there were land mine warning signs everywhere. When we got to the cove, there were two large clusters of probably 100 penguins each. The cove is a beautiful area with bright while sand dunes and cliffs. We spent about a half hour there and then debated whether to walk back or take the shuttle. They said we could take the shuttle back for half price so we (and our feet) took the offer. We were hungry but did not want to head back to the ship. We took the port lecturer's and the shuttle bus driver’s recommendation and went to the Victory Bar. We had fish and chips and a local beer for only $15 per person. The fish was local and fabulous, the beer was good and served a room temp as the brits like, and the chips were not really worth mentioning. After wandering around the small town for a while, we were tired and took the tender back to the ship. That evening the cruise director told us that the weather that day was the best they have had in 3 years.