Years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). An interesting place, with a strange history, but mostly a remote and extremely beautiful, and isolated part of the world.

While on the island, I had the opportunity to visit a colony of penguins. It was an organised tour, where you go to the area close to where they habitat and get to observe them from afar, or so I was told. It is an interesting process, for ecological reasons, it’s not like a zoo or some sort of constructed viewing habitat, it’s a natural space - basically a big open field, a fair distance from their feeding and nesting area.

When you arrive, you can see the penguins in the distance, they've ventured well beyond where they usually nest and feed, and they are wandering around in groups, in the field you are approaching. You are greeted by conservation officers, who explain to you the rules - they lay this big thick rope down on the ground and you aren’t allowed to cross the rope, but what they can’t control, is the penguins themselves - so if the penguins cross over the rope to you, that’s when the magic happens.

Of course you can’t pick them up, or proactively engage with them, as per the direction of the conservation officers, and you couldn’t even if you tried. If you’ve ever seen the documentary movie March of the Penguins,, they are as portrayed, awkwardly clumsy, easily startled, skittish and what not; so what you're hoping for is for them to come close enough to get some great pictures.

So there I am, crouched down by this rope on the ground against this backdrop of a beautiful blue and clear sky, and an ocean nestled along these small rolling hills - time seemed to simply stop - as I looked out on this army of penguins, out before me.

It’s in those moments, where you remember every detail so vividly - there was this slight breeze, and with it, you could see small tufts of penguin fuzz fluttering through the field, as the sound of the penguins picked up and was carried throughout the area. As the penguins gradually came closer and closer to me at the rope line, I just let the moment fill me, stayed as quiet as I could, did not move a muscle, controlled every breath I took.

I eventually caught the eye of one of them, who grabbed a few of his/her friends, and who started to form a line and waddle their way towards me. They kept coming closer and closer, and eventually they even crossed the rope. They all came within less than a foot of me, and maybe they caught my nervousness, my sense of wonder, but they got startled and scampered away, as quickly as they came - just like that breeze in the field, the moment came and went.

A deep connected moment, to say the least.