Gypsy Cove

Well I failed miserably trying to upload photos of the glacier & other recent pics, so am abandoning those photos for now , & moving ahead to yesterday's shots taken at a place called "Gypsy Cove" on the Falklands main Island,(The town is called Stanley). I had signed up for a tour with passengers from the ship , & as that didn't happen , I had sort of given up hope of much in the way of bird photos. However, during the mailing of a number of parcels from the post office,(including some first day covers for the collection-replete with extra stamps !), I saw Bobby Milton,(our Guitarist), trying to make change to use in a payphone.There was some haggling about exchange etc with him amidst my stamp collecting , wrapping up of packages etc & Rob's joking about single women, gay bars on the island etc."Please dont come back" quipped the cool lady when we were finally done. (And she had refunded Rob's american money from the Falkland change; the phones don't take coins, but cards.) Note: The Stanley post office rocks !So we went for some coffee at the Stanley syore , which has lots of everything like any general store on a remote island should,(albiet expensive)! We did find some Cayenne pepper , & a few interesting sundries not always found elsewhere , such as treacle , which seems to be a type of mineral loaded mollasses. It was still probably morning , but just barely , & I decided to try & take a shuttle bus to a place I had heard of called "Gypsy Cove", where there was supposed to be some penguins around on the beach. Mr. Milton begged off in pursuit of Carrot soup. Soup shmoup I figured , & was glad I did. It was only $10.oo to take the shuttle after flshing my crew card, (Half price); & it left pretty much right away. It wasn't that long a drive (15 minutes thereabouts), & before we even came very close I was seeing some new & interesting sights & birds ! It was a great three hours or so I spent wandering the trails , hanging with many,many birds including maggellin penguins , rock shags, turkey vultures, strange geese & other waterfowl as of yet undefined. The land is covered with the most amzing & colourfull moss , shrubs, rocks, sand & various forms of life. This place really is a birdwatchers paradise ! There is also some remnants of the Battle there ( in 1982) , & warnings to be aware that there still may be landmines present off the trails. I wandered around nearer the shore a bit for photo ops , & didn't get blowed up. (obviously). I took 1101 photos , which I am currently tyring to upload on Colin's computer while he is fast asleep ! It takes way too long to upload these things from here on the ship, but I will try & get a few on now. Stay tooned for more & better ones , when I eventually make it home to Beautifull B.C. !