AMT Blog

Views from Port Elizabeth

We arrived in Port Stanley at 10:00 a.m. on Monday 10 Nov. All of us tired and weary with the prospect of still having to pack our boxes of equipment into the containers. We eventually unloaded everything in the early evening which then gave us sometime to explore the town. It is spring in the Falklands and equivalent to May in the UK. My first impressions were it is windy, cold and barren place with low lying hills next to sweeping bays; something akin to the western isles of Scotland but colder. Stanley is a scattering of multi-coloured roofs sputtered against the shores of Port Elizabeth. There are just under 3000 people on the Falklands, 1800 of which live in Stanley. In the interior-countryside, people make a living from sheep farming. In Stanley there are 5 pubs, 1 restaurant, a couple of cafes, a couple of supermarkets, gift shops selling loads of tourist penguin memorabilia, a church, government building and swimming pool. My second impression is that most people in Stanley work in the service industry; the tourist trade must bring in a lot of revenue. Stanley is a small compact place. The people are very friendly and very patriotic; there are Union Jacks everywhere as a constant reminder of the Islands heritage and recent history.