It's been another busy day. We visited the old whaling station Grytviken which has been preserved a bit and now has a museum, post office and a bunch of scientists. The remains of the station itself were fascinating and gruesome at the same time. I could see the insides of the factories where the whale parts were separated and processed. They seemed to do it with brutal efficiency and processed 175,250 whales in the 50 or so years the station operated. It only closed down the sixties when there were literally no more whales to catch.
In the afternoon we went ashore on St. Andrew's Bay and visited a penguin colony. There were about 250,000 birds within about a square mile or so. It was loud and smelly but somehow peaceful. Most visitors just found a rock to sit on in the middle and observed. I must have spent a couple of hours with penguins walking all around me. We also found a Great Petrel nest that even had the guides excited. The chicks were quite young and could not fly. Amazing that they nest right on the ground.
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