This is the last photo essay contributed by David Stybr from his trip to Latin America. We hope it is not the last essay contributed to Infohub. Bravo Maestro!
Stanley, Falkland Islands. Population city 1650, islands 2500. Capital of the Falkland Islands, founded 1845. Latitude 52°S, longitude 58°W (analogous to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan or London, England at 52°N). Late December sunrise 4:31 AM, sunset 9:12 PM. Average temperatures 7-14°C (44-57°F).
Stanley was founded in 1845 as a supply and repair port for ships on the Cape Horn route, and to replace Port Louis as the seat of government. With a population of 1600, Stanley is the capital and largest town in the colony and home to 2/3 of the people in the Falkland Islands. It is also one of the smallest and remotest capitals on Earth. Stanley is a town of metal-clad houses with brightly-painted corrugated metal roofs and large kitchen gardens which contrast with the surrounding moorland. The town is built on a north-facing slope to catch the sunshine throughout the year and it looks across Stanley Harbour with its numerous sea birds and ships.
FK-PTW1.JPG Port William, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Menguera Point and Kidney Island.
FK-PTW2.JPG Port William, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Tumbledown Mountain.
The geography of the islands can perhaps be best described by British naturalist Charles Darwin. He visited the Falkland Islands in March 1833 and wrote: "The theatre is worthy of the scenes acted on it. An undulating land, with a desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry grass, of one monotonous brown colour. Here and there a peak or ridge of grey quartz rock breaks through the smooth surface." ... "In many parts of the island the bottoms of the valleys are covered in an extraordinary manner by myriads of great loose angular fragments of the quartz rock, forming 'streams of stones.' The blocks are not water-worn, their angles being only a little blunted; they vary in size from one or two feet in diameter to ten, or even more than twenty times as much. They are not thrown together in irregular piles, but are spread out into level sheets or great streams."
FK-STA1.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Stanley Harbour.
FK-STA2.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Ross Road, Christ Church Cathedral, Whalebone Arch.
Christ Church Cathedral is a stone and brick building completed in 1892. The Whalebone Arch of 1933 commemorates the centenary of British rule.
FK-STA3.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Jubilee Villas, 1887.
FK-STA4.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Christ Church Cathedral, Whalebone Arch.
Christ Church Cathedral is a stone and brick building completed in 1892. The Whalebone Arch of 1933 commemorates the centenary of British rule.
FK-STA5.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Government House.
Government House is the home of governors who are appointed by the British Parliament in London.
FK-STA6.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Liberation Monument: In Memory of Those Who Liberated Us, 14 June 1982.
In April 1982 the Argentine military government of General Leopoldo Galtieri ordered a military force to seize the islands. The British government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched a combined British Task Force, and the well-trained British forces routed the Argentine conscripts in June.
FK-STA7.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Battle of the Falklands Monument, 1914.
In December 1914 the British Naval Squadron commanded by Admiral Doveton Sturdee sailed from Stanley and defeated the German Fleet commanded by Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.
FK-STA8.JPG Stanley, East Falkland, Falkland Islands: Ross Road and Stanley Harbour.
The photo essay was contributed by David Stybr.
MaestroDJS@aol.com