As previously noted, Mark and I are not cruise people. Yet here we are again, on a cruise! In this case it makes more sense though insofar as we are on the Great Austral Loop, an 18-day voyage from Ushuaia to the Falkland Islands, on to the South Georgia Islands, and continuing to Antarctica before crossing the Drake Passage back to Ushuaia. These are, after all, places you can’t really see except on an expedition cruise like this. A very different experience from our Caribbean cruise in December.

First up was the departure from Ushuaia, several hours through the Beagle Channel. The Channel, of course, is named for the HMS Beagle, the famed ship that took Charles Darwin around the world and led to his development of the theory of evolution. He did indeed sail down the east coast of South America, out to the Falklands, and through this very channel on his way around to the Galapagos and ultimately across the Pacific.

One of the things I learned from a lecture onboard was that the captain of the Beagle, Robert FitzRoy, was an interesting guy in his own way. FitzRoy later became Governor of New Zealand, and, on his return to England built a system of barometers at ports around England. Those barometers enabled him to begin the first weather forecasting, and in fact he coined the phrase “weather forecast.” And then he had a religious conversion, became a devout fundamentalist, argued bitterly against Darwin’s theory of evolution, and eventually committed suicide. Strange story.

Back to our trip. We set off from Ushuaia in the evening and then had a full day at sea before anchoring the next morning off New Island in the Falklands. It’s been a long time – nearly 50 years! – since I spent extended days at sea and so far at least I still like it. Back then of course I was working and now I’m not so this is definitely an improvement. The food and accommodations here are better too. But it still has a similar feel of just being in the middle of nothing, where nothing happens. We have several days at sea on this cruise so Mark & I both have a bunch of books, there’s a small gym onboard, and there will be some hopefully interesting lectures to attend. We’ll see how much we enjoy this forced inactivity after a few more days.

Our first stops then were a couple islands in the Falklands on Day 3 of the cruise. We anchored off New Island on the western edge of the Falklands and took a zodiac ride maybe 10 minutes onto the island, getting a LOT of water on the way; there’s a reason they require you to have waterproof gear. Then it was a 15- or 20-minute walk across to a colony of southern rockhopper penguins. Thousands and thousands of penguins, along with soaring albatrosses and imperial cormorants. As we’d been warned the smell of all those penguins can be overwhelming but it’s fun to watch them … well, do pretty much nothing but stand around most of the time.

Back onboard we then sailed up to the northern part of the Islands and in the late afternoon made another landing to see more penguins, this time gentoo penguins. Now there were waves of penguins coming ashore. It was great fun to watch them swimming together, leaping out of the water like dolphins, and then coming in. The little description the ship gives us says that “with some luck” we might see a sea lion waiting for his next meal. Well, we missed it by maybe 30 minutes: a big sea lion had hung around until an unfortunate penguin got closer than it should have and *Bang!* the sea lion grabbed it and ate it. All the excitement was over though by the time we got there. What I didn’t know until we were back onboard was that an Australian Mark & I had met the first day actually captured the whole thing on video. It was just like watching a National Geographic film. Certainly the “graphic” part showing the sea lion walking around with parts of the penguin hanging out of its mouth.

What did I learn about the Falklands? There was an interesting 20- or 30-minute lecture the day before we went ashore (purely voluntary) about the war and its aftermath. During the colonial period there was a lot of back-and-forth between the French, Spanish, English, and Argentinians as to who would control the Falklands and its central position in managing the fisheries in the area. Ultimately the British won and it’s been an overseas possession since the mid-19th century. The population of under 4,000 people is mostly descendants of British settlers and strongly support British sovereignty over the islands.

Argentina though has never accepted British rule and considers the islands – Las Malvinas – illegally occupied territory. So in the early 1980s a U.S.-supported military dictatorship in Argentina wasn’t doing well and in a classic “Wag the Dog” scenario to distract from the “Dirty War” and economic chaos decided to go take the islands back. The Argentine people would love it and the dictator would survive to continue ruling.

After all, would Britain even bother with defending an island with just a couple thousand people 8,000 miles away? Even if they wanted to could they support supply lines at that distance? Reagan had supported the military dictatorship and suggested maybe it was OK to let Argentina take it. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, though, Iron Lady that she was, not so much. It took a couple months but she sent an armada down and kicked a little butt. Argentina’s loss led directly to the collapse of the military regime and the development of a democratic government. The cause, though – recovering Las Malvinas – remains a powerful political issue in Argentina to this day.

Now, as to our experience on the ship? The cruise is run by Ponant, a French luxury cruise line. And while it’s probably way better than a lot of cruise lines, and a guy at our hotel in Buenos Aires who had just been on a Ponant cruise to Antarctica had raved about it … well, this is no Ritz-Carlton. Not to complain too much but the food just hasn’t been as great as we’d hoped on a French boat. Some has been really good, and the wines are pretty good, but some of it has been unimpressive. I mean one day they had steak tartare on the menu and it just wasn’t very good. On a French ship!

And here’s a great little story. On the evening of the first full day onboard the schedule included the Captain’s Gala Evening, welcome cocktails with the Captain and staff. We were annoyed that first there was a long reception line to have your picture taken with the Captain – that we’re never going to see because I’m sure you have to buy the photo package to get it – and then … there were no cocktails! They had champagne, good champagne, but there were no cocktails at a cocktail reception for goodness sakes. Very strange indeed.

Next up, after a few days at sea, the South Georgia Islands.