Touring Stanlely and Remembering the 1982 Falkland Islands War

Arriving at Stanley early the next morning, we anchored in the bay and waited for clearance from local authorities before going ashore.

We hit Port Stanley

Tendering to the dock, we were greeted at the visitor’s center, given a map of the city, and provided with information regarding places to shop, eat, and drink a pint.

The Anglican cathedral

Our first mission was to go to the post office to send some Antarctica post cards with the Falkland Island stamp and cancellation on it, but on our way Jane got us sidetracked into some gift shops.

Cathedral sanctuary

After we had made some purchases, we headed on our way, only to stop and see a number of landmarks. Our first stop was the beautiful Christ’s Anglican Church Cathedral which was established in 1892. We were awed by the church’s beauty and history. The cathedral plays an important role in Stanley’s prominence.

The church's organ

We learned that even though Stanley only as 2,114 residents (2006 census data- current estimates are around 3,200) it is classified as a city because it has this cathedral, and it is the southernmost cathedral in the world. Ushuaia calls itself the southernmost city, and is much larger than Stanley, based purely on population tallies.

Blue whale jawbone memorial

In any event, there will always be competition between Argentina and the Falkland Islands, because of protracted disputes between the two countries over ownership of the islands. In fact, this dispute escalated in 1982 with Argentinean occupation of the Falklands and a subsequent invasion by Great Britain to retake the islands and expel the Argentineans. But more on that later. Starting with the cathedral, and throughout the city, we found many memorials commemorating the actions and sacrifices the residents and British military personnel made during this and other conflicts. There were many commemorative plaques inside the cathedral, but outside was a large memorial that was made from two blue whale jawbones.

As we made our way toward the post office, we were delighted to find a very large number of flowering plants and shrubs, the numerous varieties of which were totally unexpected.

Blooming flowers in summer

The residents of Stanley must take immense pride in their gardens and greenhouses, because we saw so many that were very neat and finely kept.

Marine memorial

We passed a marine memorial, a shipwreck in the harbor, the governor’s house, and the police station before we finally reached the post office. Outside the post office we saw an artifact from another era, a payphone booth.

Is this the party to whom I'm speaking?

These are updated versions, however, as one can make a call with a credit card. We later learned that all calls used to be routed through Argentina via a cable link to the mainland, but since the 1982 war, calls are now made using satellites which deprive Argentina of tax revenue they used to collect.

At the post office

However, with fewer than 4,000 residents scattered over the 70 islands that make up the Falklands, it is doubtful that the tax revenue was ever very substantial, but it does further serve to sever all ties between two countries.

Everyone picks up their mail

Inside the post office we realized that there must not be any mail delivery and residents have to pick up their mail from their mailboxes. We asked the clerk if they took a credit card for postage and were told no which contradicts what we were told by the ship’s purser. However, they would gladly take U.S. dollars. We had 16 post cards and the total came $18 to mail them back to the states. Postal cancellations from the Falklands are highly sought after by philatelists around the world, because they are so rare, and we were glad that we could get our cards mailed. We also asked the clerk if she could give us a postage cancellation stamp for our national parks stamp book, and she was glad to oblige.

We were told by the expedition leader that if we showed our stateroom keycard at the museum we could get in free.

Pharmacy in the museum

We left the post office and walked a short distance to the museum which had a number of exhibits describing Stanley’s historic past. And of course, there was a major display about the Falklands war with Argentina. One display we found revealing was about the results of a referendum where Falklanders voted their choice of governance. Election results showed 92.4% of the population voted and 98.2% cast their lot to remain British.

Old dental office

With these results, these citizens started down the path toward self-determination while remaining aligned with Great Britain. To see that these results are carried out a contingent of about 1500 British soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are now continuously maintained in the islands. As we were leaving the museum there was a conspicuously large donation box that contained a large amount of U.S. dollars, and which our fellow passengers leaving with us were feverishly feeding. We made our contribution, but after walking down the block a ways and finishing the conversion to British pounds, we decided that it probably would have been less expensive to have just paid the admission price.

Walking back to Stanley’s central district we met some friends and decided to have some lunch. Capt. Larry wanted some authentic British style fish and chips, so we found a café that had that dish and accepted USD.

Yearning for a pint of bitters

We enjoyed our fish and chips and a bottled beer, but later learned back on the ship from passengers from Great Britain who had also eaten there, that the dish wasn’t really very good, although they couldn’t really convincingly tell us why.

Inside the pub,  but no pint!

The ship’s expedition team had arranged for a guided tour of Stanley and a visit to some of the 1982 conflict’s battle sites. We had about one-half hour to kill before the tour started, so we dashed into a nearby pub, hoping to have a pint of stout, bitters or whatever. The pub was classically British, but they had only bottled and no draft beer.

Weird surface rock formations

We were told that it costs too much to ship beer kegs back and forth, so bottles only- and then only Heineken, Stella Artois, and Budweiser Light!

British helicopter engine

After finishing our drinks, we boarded our bus and started our tour. The tour of Stanley was short and confined to the same street we had been on for our trip to the museum. Outside of Stanley we observed some really strange rock formations that resembled streams or tributaries that were separated by grassy patches, and were told that these formations are deep, non-volcanic, non-glacial deposits, and have geologists stumped as to how they were formed.

The spoils of war

They were everywhere and presented a difficult terrain for fighting troops to traverse. The battle site tour shortly became pretty boring, and with lunch, a couple of drinks, and a droning guide, it wasn’t too long before we and many others on the bus were bobble heading ourselves asleep. Our take on war is that it was short and the British troops prevailed convincingly. We tendered back to the ship and learned that we were way ahead of schedule and would likely be returning to Ushuaia a day early. All of these decisions are based on the weather forecasts, and it looked like we were going to be in an area with 50-60 kt. winds and 20+ ft. seas, if we lingered. Since we learned that we would be having two landings tomorrow, we had dinner and went to bed early.