Page:The Future of the Falkland Islands and Its People.pdf/13

 used to meet at a billiard hall chatting till late in the night, playing billiard or cards. During the summer vacation most of the students in Stanley use to work as baby-sitters or shop sellers. There aren’t many discos and cafés but there are lots of other interesting pastimes. Not so far from Stanley is the Mount Pleasant Airport built after the war, and one day we even drove to the military base there to play bowling.

In a large shop near the cathedral, Matthew showed me some books by his grandfather Ian Strange; they were full of beautiful pictures of penguins and other birds. There is a wide diversity of wildlife species on the Falkland Islands including the largest breeding population of Black-browed Albatrosses, and several penguin species: Rockhopper, Magellanic, Papua, King and Macaroni. However, I failed to see any Falklands penguins, as I preferred to spend the time with my friends in Stanley rather than join my father going to the nearest penguin colony at Gypsy Cove. I was fascinated to see some Falklands flightless Logger Ducks right on the city waterfront, and the Upland Geese were to be encountered everywhere. While travelling on the airport road I saw some of the sheep that abounded in large numbers and had been the main source of living for many Falklands generations in the past.

The Islanders are very kind and hospitable people. There is nothing like visiting a Stanley house where you would be met with a smile, and drink some hot chocolate on a terrace looking down over the city at the Atlantic Ocean waters splashing in the Stanley harbour.