Tue 02/06/18 - Falkland Islands

The Emerald Princess captain reported yesterday that he was anticipating high tides for today which may impact tender services in later part of the day.  And he decided yesterday to arrive Falkland Islands 2 hours earlier to avoid the potential tendering services issues.  It placed a cloud on the feasibility of completing our excursion of seeing King penguins which was the main focus of this South America Trip.  

Luckily, we got to Port Stanley earlier and the local tour guide company Patrick Watts’ Tour was prepared to take us to Volunteer Point right after we arrived.  It took a full 2 1/2 hours 4X4 truck driving over non-paved terrain to reach the Volunteer Point.  It was fun and a new experiences for us by just riding on the 4X4 over this terrain.  

After we arrived, it only took us about 5 minutes to walk and we were amazed by seeing such wonderful King Penguins Sanctuary with over 1300 King penguins.  They are about 3 feet tall and are gathering and standing around.  We were able to walk all the way in less than few feet from them.  Sometimes, they just walked and wondered around and getting very close to us.   We were definitely in heaven with our cameras shooting away.  

We learned King Penguins are taking turns parenting chicks and hatching eggs.  We could even see some of the eggs and some of the chicks next to their parents.  The scene was just wonderful.  We spend a solid 1 1/2 hours there just admiring these wonderful creatures.  

There also have some Gentoo Penguins colony nearby and some Magellanic Penguins.  We were also able to walk close to the beach to witness some of the penguins coming up from the ocean.  It was just wonderful.  

After we got back to Port Stanley, we have to wait in a long line to ride tender back to our ship.  However, everyone got back without any issues.  And it marked a very successful day for everyone.

Wed 02/07/18 - Cape Horn (scenic cruising)

Another at sea day with scenic cruising around Cape Horn in the late afternoon.  Since we had the opportunity of landing on Cape Horn last time we visited Magellan Channel, therefore we did not pay too much attention of the scenic cruising.  We just did our workout and also found out that sauna and steam room services are complimentary, so we did both which were very enjoyable. 

We also attended the Enrichment Lecture offered by Angela Kelly and the Argentina Tango dance lesson offered by Fernando and Cecilia. 

This is the 2nd formal night.  We had another opportunity for more photos.

Thu 02/08/18 - Ushuaia

We did most of the touring when we visited Ushuaia last time.  Therefore, we decided to just wondering around this most southern Argentina town by ourselves.  We had a wonderful time walking around the town.  Did souvenir shopping and witnessed the Martial Glacier just a few miles north of the town.  

Fri 02/09/18 Punta Arenas, Chile

This is the first port of call in Chile.  In the morning, we got a chance to walk around the town and it brought back our memories when we visited here a few years ago.  In the main square, we revisited the Magellan Statue.  One of the person on the statue has a very shiny toe which the legend says that one day one will return to Punta Arenas if you kissing and rubbing his toe.  We did that a few years ago when we were here.  And it still attracts a lot of tourists to touch it while they were taking photos.  We did the same again.  

In the afternoon, we attended Princess excursion 'Magdalena Island Penguin Reserve'.  Princess offers 3 different excursions to the Magdalena Island to watch the Magellanic penguins.  Since we heard about the story of bad experience of going with smaller vessel, we booked the one with a ferry boat.  Sha’s family booked the one with catamaran which is a smaller vessel. 

The wave was pretty high on that afternoon.  It took us 2 and 1/2 hour ferry ride to get to the Magdalena Island.  There was a ramp on this ferry boat and they just lowered the ramp and put a stair bridge on top of it.  It made easier for us to walk on the stair bridge and landed on the Magdalena Island.  There is a pathway from sea shore to the top of the island where there is a light tower.  On our way to the light tower, we saw all sort of Magellanic penguins.  The only difference between these penguins from the ones we saw in Punta Tombo Reserve is they lived on the hill top with no shade at all.  They were very active of making all kinds of noises which is the way they are calling for their mates.  We only had one hour on the island and guides were rushing us back to ferry in order to get us back to ship on time.  As we found out later that the catamaran tried to land without success and Sha's family did about 6 hours riding without landing.