Tourists

The tourist season is in full swing now. The majority come on cruise ships and just visit Stanley for a day. Some of these ships are huge, carrying up to 3000 passengers and can not enter the harbour. They anchor outside The Narrows in Port William and have their own fleet of launches which ferry people in to the jetty in town. From there some people go on tours either locally or further afield to see the wildlife or historic sites while many wander round town. If a big ship is in there can be as many visitors as residents in Stanley and it can be quite hard to get about as they tend to wander in the road or block the pavements. Obviously these are the days when all the gift shops do plenty of business.

There are also smaller ships with between 40 and 150 passengers. These come into the harbour and either tie up at the floating dock outside town or have small inflatable boats to ferry passengers ashore. These ships also usually visit one or more of the smaller islands to see the wildlife and their passengers usually seem more purposeful and energetic. These often go on to South Georgia and/or Antarctica.


Most of the cruises depart from Argentina or sometimes Chile. Sometimes when there is a big ship in the military put on quite a show of air power with tornados flying past and helicopters circling overhead. I have been told that this is particularly when there are alot of Argentinian passengers aboard.


Quite a lot of local people take leave from their usual jobs to drive tourists or work in gift shops when a big ship is in.