I can't believe someone would have a war over these
islands...although the penguins ARE cute.

We landed in zodiacs and hiked to a place where there was a canyon that
led down to the sea. Perched on all the rocks were Rockhopper penguins
and a constant flow of penguin groups going down to and coming up from
the sea. All the penguins going down were filthy and muddy, and the
ones coming back up were brilliantly white. It looked like penguins
were taking themselves to be dry cleaned. There is almost nothing cuter
than a baby penguin...except maybe a baby albatross. I was sitting on a
cliff taking the 4690873th photo of baby albatrosses and penguins when I
heard a slap slap slap and looked over to find a huge albatross right
next to me staring me in the face! I froze and it walked around me in
circles checking me out and twisting its head side to side to get a
better view. Then it walked down the hill and annoyed at least 40
penguins before finding its mate and chick and barfing up squid for the
chick.
- posted by Ben Salzberg @ 9:56 AM