Page:The Future of the Falkland Islands and Its People.pdf/12

 The islands are surrounded by the South Atlantic Ocean, and separated from Antarctica by the Scotia Sea to the south. Most of their territory is covered by grass and peat, with no natural forest. The weather is cool and wet in summer, colder and windy in winter. It is very similar to the marine British climate, different from our continental Bulgarian climate that has both real warm summers and real cold winters. Not to be forgotten, the seasons in the Falklands are the reverse of those in the Northern Hemisphere; also the sun travels right to left through the northern part of the sky.

Our flight from Punta Arenas to the capital of the Falklands, Stanley lasted one and a half hours. One of the most important connections of the islands is Punta Arenas in southern Chile, with regular flights once a week only. There are also weekly flights to England via the British island of Ascension in the Central Atlantic.

The Falkland Islanders were liberated from a brief alien occupation that lasted ten weeks and was terminated on 14 June 1982, at the end of the war between Britain and Argentina. Today the people in the islands are working very hard in the name of their country’s development. They owe their prosperity mainly to their fishing and squid industry. The islands have become a popular tourist destination as well, visited by tens of thousands of tourists each year.

Stanley is a very small town with population of about 2,000 inhabitants. Most prominent in the city centre is the historical Christ Church Cathedral with its high bell tower, colourful tinted glass windows, and wall inscriptions inside. Unlike the Bulgarian churches, it has no icons though. Nearby in the churchyard is the Whalebone Arch erected in 1933 to commemorate the country’s centenary. Most of the Stanley houses are brightly painted and two-storied with small tidy gardens. Every family has its own car or two, mostly jeeps as befitting a predominantly off-road country, while there are taxi vans available to the tourists.

Our host Robert, who had invited us to the Falklands, lived together with his daughter Jane in a house located not far from the centre of Stanley. Jane was 15 years old, attending the modern Falkland Islands Community School which boasts science laboratories, Internet rooms, large library, sports hall, and swimming pool. After graduating from that school at the age of 16, Falklands students usually leave to have their college education in England.

Of all the places that we have visited during my journey with my father, the Falklands were the only one where I had the opportunity to meet and mix up with students of my age. Every evening together with Jane and her friends Elane, Isla, Kate, Ashley, Matthew and Patrick we