Described by some as more English than the British there is never any doubt that the Falkland Islanders are indeed a chip off the old block. It feels most strange for an Englishman to visit this most distant remnant of an empire that once proudly could proclaim that "the sun never sets on the British Empire". At first you could be mistaken for thinking that you were indeed walking along the seashore of a small south coast English seaside town, certainly the brick houses with their signs of B+B were familiar as was the local accent and the Pub signs hanging outside the "Colony Bar" and the "Globe".
The small "conflict" that happened between these Islands and the Argentine forces that escalated into the well-known Falklands War is still ever present in the minds and hearts off the residents. Large areas are still off-limits due to having any number of the 9 different types of mines left after the conflict and are as deadly today as the day they were buried, over 18 years ago.
Nature has healed faster and with more resolution than its human counterparts, the penguins were too light to trigger the land mines and so actually found refuge within the sealed off areas. Time heals many wounds, so maybe over the next 18 years the process that begun in 1982 will finally be complete.
