Maybe we could start a crazy prospector's society (The Falkland Islands) - 9 February 2009

We're both prone to sunburns, so the must-have fashion accessory for this journey is the sun hat.  While it is theoretically possible to have a stylish sun hat, we're both sporting the practical variety, meaning that we look goofy under the best circumstances.  When it's windy, though, there's a tendency for the front of the hat to flip up, giving us the "crazy prospector" look.

I've just spent the last 30 minutes online trying to understand why we immediately associate this look with crazy prospector, but all I've come up with is the character of Stinky Pete from Toy Story II.

All of this preamble to lead up to a picture of our tour guide for the Stanley on the Falkland Islands:

All of a sudden I'm not sure we really do look like crazy prospectors.

Stanley is basically a little slice of England, off the coast of Argentina.  



I knew that the Falklands war happened in my lifetime, but didn't really know much about it.  What surprises me most is how raw the emotions about it still are 27 years later.  There are several anti-argentine banners in town, and later when we visit Argentina we'll see bumper stickers proclaiming that the Falklands (which the Argentines call Isla Malvinas) are, always have been, and always will be part of Argentina.  All of the hubub can be traced back to the age of colonial Spain, which makes for a nice lesson on how the past effects the present.

We toured the town of Stanley, including the museum, and ate lunch at a little cafe in town.  During our lunch some of the locals were sitting nearby discussing Futurama and other geek culture.  It felt like a little slice of home - except for the English accents of course.

One picture from the museum - evidently they had night vision goggles during the Falklands war - very Silence of the Lambs: