We spent two glorious days in the Falklands where the weather hovered between 50 and 60 degrees, the skies were blue and the seas were calm. That's three great days on the roughest seas in the world and we are poised for two more calm ones before hitting South Georgia.

We were all ready for our first excursion on the morning on the 15th like children on Christmas morning who can't wait to open our presents. We had to be ready at 6:30am and we were all ready bright eyed and early, many of us overdressed ready for our zodiac ride.

The first thing we saw upon coming ashore was a giant jellyfish - the largest in the world, the lions mane jellyfish, this was a small one measuring only three feet across, but many are the size of blue whales, with 8 clusters of tentacles that can add up to 1200.

We hiked up to a ledge where we caught our first glimpse of penguins. These were the little punk looking rockhopper penguins with their red eyes and yellow Albert Einstein styled hair. They were small...about a foot tall but feisty, picking fights with another species of bird, the cormorant. It bears un uncanny resemblance to the penguins but it has the ability to fly. While it was interesting to see these two different species getting along, there was quite a bit of bickering about homesteads. The cormorant is known for it's ability to build terrific nests and there is a fair amount of interspecies thievery being committed.

This was also our first close up of an albatross. It is a beautiful bird who only comes ashore for breeding purposes so there was a fair amount of preening and flirting going on. They had come on land in October to lay eggs (only one) and they rear their chicks for 17 weeks. Chicks don't breed until they are 10 years old so it's a good thing that their average age is 40 to 60, with some even living to 72.

We left at 10:30 knowing more than we ever thought we'd know about birds since we were told that there would be a second excursion at 2pm at another location 28 miles away.

About 1:30, the ship stopped, the zodiacs dropped and the scouts went out. A few minutes later an announcement came over the speaker to tell us that the water was too choppy for a safe landing here but we would go to another location and would depart at 4.

We were surprised at how warm it still was outside. This location was beautiful. The beach appeared miles long and was very, very wide with green craggy hills in the back. The beach was riddled with penguins running in and out of the waves and the hills were literally covered with penguins and a few sheep.

As we walked, we realized that there were little ghettos. While interspecies live together, penguin colonies live in their own housing developments. They are allowed to use the same beaches, playgrounds , eat the same foods, but not always at the same time or at the same location.

First we passed the Magellanic penguins, who must have had the afternoon shift at the beach. These little guys are pretty cute, mostly black, with a white chest, a white bulls eye around their face and a long tail. They waddle pretty fast side to side running right up to you on the beach without a care in the world. They are about 18 inches tall and live way up in the hills in burrows which we'll talk about later.

As we all walked further, there were some king penguins hanging about who are really pretty. They didn't really move about much as did the other penguins, but just kind of stood quietly as though they were in a wedding receiving line. They were dressed to kill in an white shirt with a blush of orange and yellow around the neck and a coat of elegant silvery grey instead of pedestrian waiter black.

Farther up the hill, there was a very crowded rookery of gentoo penguins. These fellows look a lot like Magellanic penguins only their beaks have a slash of red lipstick, their feet are orange and they have a white eyebrow. They were characters chasing one another, falling flat on their faces, walking right up to us and staring us down and screaming bloody murder.

Next to them, there was the king penguin colony. So separate and distinct, yet a stone's throw away.

All of the Silverseas red coats plopped themselves down in various areas, taking pictures, watching the behaviors only to be watched right back! The penguins would walk right up to a lens and stare right in.

At 6pm, there was a walk to a magellanic and rockhopper rookery and an albatross rookery. I was by the king penguins when I saw Doug start walking up a hill with a group. The hill was a rocky, steep incline, riddled with Magellanic penguin burrows every couple of feet which you had to navigate so you wouldn't fall in. I huffed and puffed my way up, being careful with my footing, and each time a penguin would pop up like "whack a mole" scaring the crap out of me. In addition, I had to negotiate around the sheep. I finally got to the fence with sweat pouring down me and 30 pairs of eyes staring at me because they had to wait. My poor, short little legs were so tired and my rubber boots were so heavy. I had to somehow get them over the wire fence. I lifted them with my best Rockettes kick and they kind of did a third Reich lift not very high off the ground. I felt that poor Doug wanted to disown me. Finally, the leader manually lifted my legs for me and I fell over the fence. I looked over the hill at the happy, content people waaaay down and realized I would have to do this again in reverse. What an idiot.


We had a nice time up top until it came time to go down. It took forever, Doug said "hurry up" and I said "@#%!?"

The wind picked up and it became harder to walk. I didn't want be the last ones back and felt hopeful as there were many others behind us. Soon though, they started to pass and I thought we'd never reach those zodiacs. I would end up living on the beach with the penguins. Poor Doug being stuck with the likes of me.

We did make it back. I had a bath, washed off all the sand and made it to dinner and marveled at how much new information now fills my brain.

Today, we awoke to a very warm day in the capital, Stanley. Here we learned that if you can make something, it can have a penguin on it. It was a great day for a walk and we found a wonderful and unusual gnome garden. There were gnomes of every size and shape...bride gnomes, golf gnomes, gardening gnomes....about 50-100 of them. We also took in a museum along the way. We topped off the afternoon with lectures and will now have two restful days at sea before reaching South Georgia.

Life is tough. But someone's gotta do it.