Blogs from West Greenland, Greenland, North America

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The coastal ferry took us from Qaqortoq in Greenland to Aassiat in four days. Every day we stopped at small settlements of multu-coloured houses where the ferry's arrival once a week means children coming home from school, husbands returning from work, wives returning with new born babies. The ship has a canteen where, three times a day, most of us meet to eat, drink and chat. We meet a small group of tourists from Italy, a pair of German tourists complaining that their guidebook is ten years out-of-date and two Austrians who are worried about flight cancellations. Most of the people on board were Greenlanders, often just making short hops between one town and the next. There were groups of school children on their way home, all sleeping in dormitories low down in the ship. Children ... read more
Few roads so it's the only way
... or we could wake up the sled dogs
Me?. In my seal skin suit I'm ready for anything

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Nuuk August 26th 2019

Our first port call in Greenland was Nuuk, the capital. Formerly named Godthåb, the city is the largest town in Greenland with a population of about 18,000. Nuuk is also the world's northernmost capital city, just below the Arctic Circle. The city is spread out and the landscape quite austere looking. There is little vegetation, even in summer, and no trees or shrubs. Housing is primarily in the form of apartment blocks, most of new construction, although there are townhouses and scattered individual homes. The cityscape of Nuuk presents many contrasts. There is the older area, with its colonial era wooden buildings painted red in the Scandinavian style. Then, there is the newer construction downtown and towards the port and beyond. Caribbean Princess was able to dock at the Port of Nuuk. It is a busy ... read more
Inuit Mask
Statue of Hans Egede Overlooking Nuuk
Nuuk Harbor

North America » Greenland » West Greenland August 26th 2019

After sailing from Nuuk, the ship headed back down the Nuup Kangerlua fjord out to the Labrador Sea. It was once known as the Godhåb Fjord and is 99.4 miles (160 km) long. Nuuk is situated at about 6.2 Miles (10 km) from the mouth of the fjord. The scenery along the fjord is dramatic and with rugged mountains rising sharply from the sea. A fog kept trying to close in, but we were treated to amazing landscapes. We saw icebergs, too! They were small ones, but icebergs nonetheless. The peak of Sermitsiaq overlooks Nuuk. The 1,210 foot (3970 m) mountain remains visible for a distance as the ship proceeds down the fjord. Small lighthouses and foghorns dot the path. They look very lonely against the stark landscape. Kingittorsuaq, another peak comes into view. At 1,184 ... read more
Icebergs in the Nuup Kangerlua Fjord
Nuup Kangerlua Fjord Landscape
Nuup Kangerlua Fjord Landscape

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Ilulissat August 22nd 2019

Today Jan gave us a walking tour of Ilulissat. It drizzled for awhile but stopped after about an hour. First we went to the harbor. Ilulissat exports supposedly 75% of the world's market for shrimp. They also hunt whales here, but tourism seems to be a large industry. Temperature today low to mid 40's. From Wikipedia: Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland, located approximately 350 km (220 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. With the ... read more
Notice harpoon gun
Walk to Open Air Museum
Sledges

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Ilulissat August 21st 2019

Today we had to leave Eqi Glacier camp. The boat does a round trip: it picks up people in Ilulissat and brings them here, spends about 1-2 hours viewing the glacier calving, then comes to the dock to drop people off at Eqi Glacier camp. The people that are leaving Eqi Glacier Camp get on board and travel back to Ilulissat. Our pickup time was approximately 3 p.m. The boat also supplies the staff there with food, beer, wine, soda, alcohol, and whatever else they need to run the place. I talked to one of the staff today and he said they arrived May 21 to do some work on the place, and the first visitors were June 21. They continue to get guests till early September, then they winterize the place and leave. He said ... read more
Greenland bird prints
Feather in the tundra
Mushroom

North America » Greenland » West Greenland August 20th 2019

After breakfast we hiked to the lateral moraine where there is an excellent viewing area of the glacier. The roundtrip distance is about 7.5 miles. Two of the researchers passed me on the way up and they had a drone. More on this later. I was able to sit in front of the glacier for 2 hours just watching pieces calving off. It was difficult to take a video because by the time I turned the video on the piece had already fallen into the fjord. The pieces just kept falling off and the location moved around so you could never guess where the next one would happen. The boat we came out on yesterday showed up today to give their passengers a view of the calving and the boat looked so small. Good to have ... read more
Eqi Glacier in morning sun
Hike to the lateral moraine
Trail

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Ilulissat August 19th 2019

Last night I went to an amazing concert at the Cultural Center. An orchestra from Denmark had been here a week doing friendship teaching with musicians in Nuuk. The frustrating part about the concert was not understanding a word that was said. A woman introduced each piece of music and also 2 special guests (mayor of Nuuk and mayor of city in Denmark). The conductor spoke in Danish about something, then back to the woman speaking in Greenlandic. The first 2 pieces had the interns playing with the orchestra, then the rest of the concert was by the Danish orchestra. There was also a male and female singer. I can't upload the video to this blog because I have the basic version of the blog and they don't allow uploads of videos. Today we left Nuuk ... read more
Our plane
Helicopter that Prime Minister of Denmark arrived on
Woman in native outfit

North America » Greenland » West Greenland August 19th 2019

I haven't had Wi-Fi or cell phone service for a few days. We were in a remote camp. https://goo.gl/maps/ucvyVQ48DPQXxDVP7 Today we left Ilulissat to go on the boat that would take us to Eqi Glacier. The boat was quite full of people, some just out for the day and some like us who will stay at the Ice Camp. The boat trip took 3 ½ hours and we traveled up the fjord towards the Glacier. We passed so many icebergs – all sizes, all shapes, all textures. I took so many pictures and videos of the icebergs. As we approached the Glaciers the icebergs got bigger – I mean huge, as big as an aircraft carrier. At one point we went through this ice mush to get further up the fjord. There are 2 glaciers at ... read more
Map of route boat took
Too many iceberg photos
20190819_094733

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Nuuk August 17th 2019

Our little group had different things to do today. John and Sheila had prebooked a boat trip that would go up the fjord, catch fish, go to a country restaurant and cook the fish they caught. Nick, Angela, and I did not sign up for that trip because it was expensive. Nick and Angela are amazing hikers and decided to hike the high peak behind town. My knee is still a little sore from the fall I took a few days ago, so I only want to do a short hike. Jan suggested we take the #1 bus which would give us a good overview of how Nuuk had expanded drastically since the 90's. We all took the bus, and Nick & Angela got off to do their hike. The rest of us did the loop, ... read more
The lake
The peak Nick & Angela are hiking to
Area near the lake

North America » Greenland » West Greenland » Nuuk August 16th 2019

Greenland is not for sale no matter what Trump thinks. The Danes got a good laugh out of that one. This morning our ship arrived in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. From Wikipedia: Nuuk (Greenlandic pronunciation: , Danish: ; Danish: Godthåb) is the capital and largest city of Greenland. It is the seat of url=https://en.wi... read more
Whale meat
Blubber
Reindeer meat




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