Chapter 5

At Sea(4),

Falkland Islands,

Puerto Madryn, and

Buenos Aires

January 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ,9, 10, 11

Back to the overall cruise map

From the photos at the top of the page, you might get the idea that we’re going to see some penguins in this chapter, and you would be correct.

Sunday, January 4:  Cruising

After the excitement and taking hundreds of photos, today is a relaxing and “take it easy” day with only a couple of activities on our schedule.  The first activity of the morning was to start a batch of laundry in the guest laundry machines.  We started the washers, went to a quick breakfast, got back just about when the washers were finishing, and transferred the clothes to the dryer.  45 minutes later we had a good supply of fresh, clean clothes.  In the morning there was another in the Enrichment series presentations. This one, “Formation and Circulation in the Worlds Oceans”, was about the various currents in the oceans: how they started, and what effects they have on our weather and environment. 

After lunch, at 1:30, we had another wine tasting: this one named “360 Degree Reds” and which concentrated on, surprise!, types of red wines.  Apparently, since the last tasting about a week ago, a new sommelier had taken over responsibility for hosting the tastings and she did an excellent job. 

A few bottles and lots of glasses were ready for us.

The previous sommelier knew about wines, but did not convey any excitement or real interest in wine while this new sommelier (I wish I had her name) was knowledgeable, interesting, and FUN!  She made learning about wine exciting and, well, tasteful.  The tasting was not as highly structured as the first one, much less formal, and she and her assistant were very free with additional pours or tasting something out of order.

After the tasting we tried to get in some laps around the exterior decks, but the wind and the ship’s forward motion produced consistent 30+ mph winds across the deck along with occasional light rain.  It was just plain unpleasant on the deck and we gave up after a couple of laps.  Whenever we got cold from walking on the decks or other outside activity, we frequently warmed up by going to Baristas coffee bar and getting either a hot tea or a “double shot Americano”.  Baristas definitely got a lot of activity on this cruise.

Dinner this evening was in the Toscana (Italian themed) restaurant and an Albatross put on a show for a while behind the ship: we had a ringside seat at one of the window tables.   We stopped in Martinis for the usual cognac and went to check out another Paullette Ivory show, “Divas Unleased: The Ultimate Hits Showcase”.  We were a little late getting there and just took seats at the very back of the lounge, which worked out well because, after the first song we could easily get up and leave.  We enjoyed a glass of wine and some peace and quiet in the Horizon lounge rather than the loud show.

Sunday, January 5:  Stanley Harbor, Falkland Islands

When we woke up and looked out our balcony, the ship was just entering a fairly narrow channel that leads into the outer harbor of Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, an “Overseas Territory” of the United Kingdom and residents here are British citizens.  The Falklands are somewhat notorious for bad weather causing cruise ships to cancel the port call, mostly because of the narrow and dangerous channel which can be problematic in rough sea conditions, so I was glad to see that we had apparently made it into the harbor OK.  There is both the outer and an inner harbor, but only relatively small ships can go all the way to the inner harbor.  After we had anchored, another, slightly smaller, ship joined us anchored in the outer harbor and a third cruise ship, probably only about 200 passengers, sailed past us both and anchored in the inner harbor.  The only disadvantage with being in the outer harbor is that it made the tender ride somewhat longer, a good 20 minutes from ship to dock.

We had scheduled an excursion to see some penguins: our group was called soon and we boarded the tender for the ride to the dock.  When we unloaded at the dock, there were several vans waiting for us and the signs on the side of the vans made it clear what we would be doing.  We were in the Falkland Islands to go to Bluff Cove to see Gentoo and King Penguins.

The van signage said it all.

Our driver/guide herded us into the van and the twelve of us were soon on our way.  The ride to Bluff cove was about 20 minutes through mostly rather barren landscapes.  Other than tourism, the main product of the Falklands is sheep: there are about 3000 people on the islands and almost a million sheep, although we only saw a few on our relatively short journey.

What the terrain looked like out the windshield

One interesting thing I didn’t notice until looking at the above photo after we had left the islands:  the road edge markers appear to be set up very similar to channel markers in harbors and sea lanes.  One of the common memory aids for remembering on which side of a marker you should pass is “Red, Right, Returning”.  In other words, when returning to port, keep the red marker buoys on your right side (and the green ones on your left).  Since, in the photo above, we were leaving town/port, the green markers were on our right.

When we got to Bluff cove, we could see the penguins from a distance: there were hundreds of them, both adults and immature young ones.  There were markers in the ground that showed where we could and could not go in order to not disturb the penguins.  When a penguin ignored those markers and came out among the humans, we had to carefully make way for them and try to not get too close: they definitely had the right-of-way.

Hundreds of Gentoo Penguins, young and old

The penguin below had left the large group and took a rather round-about route to the nearby beach, giving me a good close-up in the process.

This guy came out away from the main group.

You could tell the young “children” by their smaller size and their light gray downy feathers: these feathers looked almost like fur rather than feathers.  You could also tell the young ones by how they open their beaks and called for their parents to give them some food, like the one in the photo below.

Someone thinks he is hungry.

One of the ranger/guides pointed out an interesting behavior among the Gentoo penguins.  You would occasionally see a immature penguin apparently chasing an adult all around the group, but the adult would stay just out of its reach.  Here is a video of such behavior.  The ranger said that the parent is teaching the chick that it needs to chase after a fish to catch it and get something to eat.  The adult will encourage the chick to chase it until the chick finally gets close enough and knows to peck the adult on the back.  The adult will then stop and give the chick some food.  This teaches the chick that it has to chase/swim after its prey in the ocean in order to catch it and get something to eat.

The Gentoo penguins were in a large group, and just a few feet away was a much smaller group of King Penguins.  These penguins are about twice the size of the Gentoo penguins, more colorful, and more distinctly marked.  Their breeding season was apparently several months behind the Gentoo penguins as their eggs had not started hatching yet.  Several of the King Penguins below are actually sitting on their eggs.

The King Penguins are definitely “Regal”.

The two groups, Gentoo and King penguins, were close to each other, but definitely stayed in their own group and did not appear to intermix at all, but neither did they seem at all aggressive to each other.  They appeared to co-exist very peacefully. 

Everyone likes to watch penguins walk, so here is a little video of both standing and walking penguins.  You might also notice the grass being blown by the wind:  the air was cool, around 40F, and the wind was blowing about 20 mph, so standing around watching the penguins was cold!

The two groups seemed to get along well.

The large group of Gentoo penguins were about 300 – 400 feet away from the beach while the King Penguins were another 100 feet further from the beach.  There were smaller groups of both types down right next to the beach and occasionally one of these would run to the water and jump in.

These King Penguins were right next to the water along the beach.

After watching the penguins for 30 or 40 minutes, we were sufficiently chilled to look for a way to warm up a bit and, of course, the Bluff Cove people had just the thing for us: a café with complimentary tea or coffee and a choice of breads/rolls in the “Sea Cabbage Café”. There was no charge for this, but I think most people left a generous tip for the ladies running the Café.  In addition to the café, there was a small, but interesting, museum of the islands, with a focus on the penguins, and a small gift shop with some very cute penguin items.  We warmed up in the museum and gift shop a couple of times during the two hours we were at Bluff Cove.

A very popular place to warm up

If you are wondering about the “Sea Cabbage” part of the café name, there were several large clumps of what I assumed to be “Sea Cabbage”.

The bloom of the Sea Cabbage was about the only color along the beach.

We watched the penguins along the beach for a while as they went back and forth between the smaller beach group and the water.  When they get close to the water, they jump in as soon as they can possibly swim:  for them, swimming is a lot easer than walking.  Here is a video of several penguins going to and from the water.

These two penguins are headed toward the water.

We watched the penguins on the beach for a while and occasionally warmed up in the museum or gift shop until our van returned to pick us up after two hours.  When we got back to town Susan and I took a short walk along the main street fronting the harbor.  The biggest structure around there was a church with well-groomed landscaping and a whale bone “arch” in the front.  The arch was constructed in 1933 to commemorate 100 years of British administration of the islands and is also a reminder of the whaling history of the islands.

The bones are jaw bones from two Blue Whales, the largest animal living on earth today.

There were also several plantings of colorful plants and flowers along the walkway in front of the church.

There is some color in the Falklands!

Across the road from the church is what remains of one of the masts from what was once (1845 – 1853) the largest commercial (non-military) ship in the world.  The SS Great Britain had a rather checkered history, spending much of its life as a partially sunken hulk in the Port Stanley harbor and now, after being towed back to England and restored, is on display in Bristol Harbor.

This is part of the mizzen mast, the smallest mast on the ship.

After looking around for a while, we took a tender back to the ship.  I understand some more adventurous people from the ship found both a beer brewery and a Gin distillery.  It was rather late for lunch when we got back so we headed to Waves Grill for a sandwich and then relaxed for the rest of the day, with both of us still feeling the effects of our illness.  That evening our late lunch caused us to not be very hungry, so we headed back to Waves and shared a pizza.  The entertainment for the evening was a “Blue Horizon Party” in the Horizon Lounge (“Dress code: Blue”) with both bands providing dance music.  We didn’t think we were ready for such a party, so we just stopped by Martinis bar and had a cognac (or two), strictly medicinal purposes for our throats.

Tuesday, January 6:  Cruising

Today was another “Sea Day” on the way from the Falkland Islands to Puerto Madryn, Argentina.  The weather continued to be cool and windy, making our walks on the deck rather brisk and almost an adventure in themselves.  For a while, we did have some company in the form of a Albatross (or, it might have been a Giant Petrel) that flew alongside the ship.

I think it was an Albatross.

For a better look of it in flight, you can check this short video. Dinner tonight was in Red Ginger (Asian) and I had the Lobster Pad Thai and it was very bland.  I heard later that you could request that some dishes, such as the Pad Thai, could be “spiced up” at your request.  I wish I had known this sooner, as this Pad Thai could definitely use some spicing up.

Red Ginger: Home of non-spicy Asian

After dinner, we went up to the Horizon Lounge for a while to listen to the “Dance Band”, Deuces.  Since we did enjoy much of their music, I really should include a photo of the “Deuces” here.

They put out quite a bit of sound for a 4 person band.

Wednesday, January 7:  Puerto Madryn

As we got up this morning, the Marina was docking at our last enroute port on this cruise, Puerto Madryn, Argentina.  Another cruise ship, a Viking cruise liner, had arrived shortly prior to us and people were already getting off of it as our crew was still making our mooring lines fast. 

The Viking ship arrived before we did and also left before we did.

We had an excursion scheduled for the day that would involve significant time on a tour bus: more time than I had expected.  As we awaited clearance and the call for our tour group, we could see numerous busses lined up on the dock.  There were several available excursions, but almost all of them involved relatively long bus rides.  If you take a look at the photo above, you may notice that the dock is relatively narrow and some parts of it were only one lane wide, especially if a bus or truck was involved.  This occasionally made for a minor traffic jam between the ships and the streets.

One of those busses was to be ours.

We loaded onto our assigned bus and we headed through the town of Puerto Madryn to one of their main roads headed south toward Punta Tombo.  Puerto Madryn itself would probably be an interesting place to investigate as it was settled in 1865 by 150 Welsh immigrants who kept many of their Welsh customs and traditions.  But, we were headed to Punta Tombo to see penguins.  This part of Argentina has a lot of relatively bare rolling terrain without much to see, so our guide was almost excited to point out one of their local landmarks, a dinosaur.

A lifesize replica of Patagotitan Mayorum: largest terrestrial animal ever

While Trelew, Argentina is home to the replica and a dinosaur museum, the fossilized remains were actually found about 180 miles from here.  But we were just getting started on our almost three hour ride to Punta Tombo.  This included a restroom break at the halfway point and the last 10 miles or so on a gravel road.  After we got off the bus our guide pointed out the trail (gravel and boardwalk) and basically said “The penguins are that way: be back at the bus in 45 minutes” and off we went.

There were actually penguins hidden in some of the bushes.

Punta Tombo is estimated to be home to about a million Magellanic Penguins, although there were far fewer than that when we were there.  Magellanic Penguins tend to be burrowing animals and almost any little hole or opening in the ground would suffice for a nest; hollowed out areas around the roots of a bush seemed to be favored.

They did not seem bothered by the many people walking through their colony.

On the way to Punta Tombo our guide had told us about their region’s favorite large animal, the Guanaco, which also makes their home alongside the penguins.  We came across these deer-like animals a couple of times and they did not seem disturbed by the people any more than the penguins were.

The Guanaco resemble a stocky deer, but no antlers.

The trail led us over a hill and on the other side we could see the ocean and many penguins spread out before us.

Just a small section of the penguin colony

Like the Gentoo Penguins in the Falkland Islands, these Magellanic Penguins had many adolescents still with their fluffy grey feathers, although the grey feathers here seemed a little darker than the Gentoo youngsters.

Fluffy gray feathers on the adolescents, but darker than the Gentoos

These Magellanic Penguins did not seem to cluster in a large group as the Gentoo Penguins did, but rather stayed in small groups of two or three together as a family unit.

Most “family units” seemed to have either one or two chicks.

The penguins frequently used the elevated walkway as a form of shelter and would sometimes take a short-cut under it on the way to the beach, as the one in this video does.

These two apparently think they need something to eat.

We followed the trail to an overlook where we could see the beach where the penguins would occasionally enter or exit the ocean from the beach.  Here is an example of a penguin coming out of the water in this video.

A common sight at Punta Tombo

We came across another group of the Guanacos and they are a very robust and healthy looking animal but were also very alert to their surroundings.  There was a group of 4 or 5 people walking beyond the Guanacos, in an area where no one was supposed to be, and these animals were watching them very closely.

Several of these Guanacos were watching the “intruding” people.

These two adolescents look like they have had enough to eat.

The photo below makes clear a feature that many penguins have, but which is especially noticeable with Magellanic Penguins, a hooked beak.  This hook makes it easier to catch a slippery little fish in the ocean.

The Hooked Beak is very clear on this penguin.

We had about 45 minutes to wander around the penguins before we had to be back at the bus and ready to leave.  When we did climb aboard the bus, we were given a very complete “box lunch” that even included a serving size can of Argentina wine.  After eating, we headed back for the almost 3 hour ride back to Puerto Madryn.  I think most people got in a bit of a cat-nap on the way.

If you have not yet had enough of watching penguins, I have a cure for you.  I put together many of the penguin photos and videos from our entire cruise into one video and uploaded it to Youtube.  You can watch it here: “Penguins: You Gotta Love Em”.  Fair warning…  it is six minutes of nothing but penguins!

This evening we met up with friends we had made from Toronto and had some wine in Martinis and then we all went to dinner in the GDR for a very pleasant meal.  The entertainment was Collin O’Conner again, so we skipped it in favor of a quiet drink and early night.

Thursday, January 8:  At Sea

This was a rather quiet day at sea.  We did do a small load of laundry to make sure we were taking home as few dirty clothes as we could: besides, we had plenty of time.  After the laundry was finished, we tried doing laps on the deck but soon decided that it was just too windy, wet, and uncomfortable for that but the cup of hot tea in Baristas coffee bar sure felt good.  After lunch there were a couple of enrichment presentations and, after sitting through those, the weather had calmed some and we were able to get in about a mile and a half walking on the deck.  It was a bit interesting because we were sailing through seas with large rolling swells hitting us at an angle,

Dinner this evening was in Jacques (French) specialty restaurant.  We did have one of the more colorful sunsets this evening.

A colorful sunset from the Marina

The main entertainment tonight was a show by the production company (singers, dancers, band) titled “Our World” featuring songs from around the world.  Most of the songs were recognizable and easy to listen to and watch, so very enjoyable.  After the show the captain brought a large number of the staff & crew onto the stage to be recognized and to take a bow.

The captain and many of the crew on stage

Friday, January 9:  At Sea

Our last full day on board the Marina was another day at sea.  As usual for “at sea” days, there were many activities planned around the ship, with card games, dancing, cooking demonstrations, an enrichment presentation, and, most important for us, a final wine tasting.  But first, we did attend the final presentation, this one about the patterns of the many hot and cold cycles on the earth in its lifetime.  After lunch we headed for the wine tasting: this time the focus of the tasting was on pairing wine with foods.

Six wines and six small bites to pair with it

Arain, the sommelier hosting the tasting made it informative but also informal and fun.  She pointed out several strategies for pairing food and wine: complimentary tastes, contrasting tastes, matching the “weight” of the food with wine, and others.

Some of the wines we tried

I’ve always liked one of the guidelines she quoted: “If it grows together, it goes together”.  When I hear that, I always think of Italian food and Italian wine: somehow, they always just seem to go together well.

I had been rather surprised at the lack of shipping that we saw on this trip.  With the exception of other cruise ships, we saw essentially no other ships at all.  But in the afternoon we passed by this bulk carrier (below) and I decided that we must be getting close to normal civilization (otherwise known as Buenos Aires).

The only non-cruise ship we had seen in two weeks

Since most passengers would be packing their good clothes away in luggage to be left in the hallways by 10 PM, the entertainment schedule was different tonight.  The guest entertainer, Nicky Clark, did a show featuring songs from the “Musical Theater” before dinner, which we found easy to skip.  We packed our bags and set them out, then enjoyed a final cognac in the Horizon Lounge before calling it a night.

Saturday, January 10:  Buenos Aires

The disembarkation was a pretty standard process.  We got a quick breakfast, gathered our final belongings from our cabin, and found a comfortable place to wait until our group (Grey-3) was called.  I figured out the patterns they were using and anticipated our group being called by a few minutes, so we were just off the ship when Grey-3 was finally called.  We found our luggage, made our way through the exit maze, and got outside where I could call an Uber.  I had made reservations at a close-by Holiday Inn Express a couple of days ago, so we would have a place to go to relax during the day.  The Uber driver was supposed to show up in a couple of minutes, but we couldn’t decode the pick-up address provided by the app, so it took a few extra minutes for the driver to find us.  And, of course, there was a light rain the whole time.  We finally hooked up and it was only a 10 minute ride to the hotel, which proved to be in a good location.  We checked in, moved into our room, and relaxed for a few minutes.  Actually, it was more than a few minutes because it was raining outside and we really didn’t feel like walking in the rain.

The view from our hotel room: you can see the wet streets.

About 10:30 the rain seemed to stop, so we decided to take a walk and, hopefully, find a place to get some lunch after walking for a while.  The woman at the front desk pointed out on a map an area where she said would be some good places to eat.  I recognized the area as being where we had lunch one day a year previously when we were in Buenos Aires on a wine tour, so I felt good about that plan.

We walked north from the HI, about 4 or 5 blocks, to a medium sized park area where people were walking dogs and relaxing in a nice shady area.  This was the “Plaza General San Martin” and from it you could look out toward a tower that was the Torres Monument.

Looking toward the Torres Memorial Tower

After looking around this area for a while, we decided it was time to start looking for a place to eat lunch, so I steered us toward where I thought the better restaurants would be.  I had the right idea, they were just a little further away than I had expected and it took us about 30 minutes to get in the general area.

I knew the restaurants would be along this waterfront area.

Of course, it had started to rain again: not hard, but enough to encourage us to find some shelter, preferably in the form of a good place to eat.  We came to a restaurant named Sorrento, took a quick look at the posted menu, and went into the covered patio area where a hostess pointed us to a good table.  Without going into a lot of detail, this was one of the best meals we had all trip: the bread was warm and tasty, the wine was delicious, the calamari appetizer was huge and tasty, our entrees were perfectly done, and the service was wonderful.  Just an overall perfect meal.

We happened onto the perfect place for lunch.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, watching the on-again, off-again rain outside.  About 7 PM I called up an Uber to take us the 45 minute drive to the airport.  The airport was a madhouse!  I won’t go into all the details, but one example: after checking in at the Delta counter, you have to go upstairs for security, customs and all such processing.  There were four up-escalators, and three of them were blocked off with barricade tape, although the escalators were all running.  The line for the one escalator snaked around the lobby area with several hundred people in it.  Susan and I sort of accidently sneaked in by tagging along with an aircraft crew that got priority.  I didn’t really realize what had happened until I was riding the escalator up, looked down, and saw the huge line that we had avoided.  Looking back, I think the three escalators were blocked off to slow down the crowd, because all of the facilities upstairs were overwhelmed as it was.  Although I think we got “fast-pathed” at one point (because of our age?), the whole process was chaos with very little helpful information or staff to tell us where to go or how some of the “automated” machines functioned.  We did finally get through and found our way to the gate area where we had access to the LA-TAM lounge.  After the chaos we had been through, the wine in the lounge was very welcome.  At the appropriate time, we left the lounge, found the appropriate boarding gate (which was a bit of an adventure in itself) and finally boarded the plane home.

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