Our hotel: the “Top of the World”
It was extremely interesting though, and unlike anything we have ever experienced before. Our guide was a delightful young Native lady who has lived here all her life. Three quarters of the population of 30,000 are native Alaskan Indians, or Eskimo if you like. Not sure what is politically correct nowadays. We were shown around town having the most significant buildings pointed out, including schools, churches, sporting complexes and stores. We spent an hour at the Heritage Centre learning all about the whaling tradition, paddled in the Arctic Ocean and looked over a couple of archaeological sites.
Alan says it wasnt as cold as he expected it to be, he thinks it was because his feet were almost numb before he even reached the water, so the cold didnt really register!
That’s me by the way in one of their “parka’s”, the fur trimming is wolverine.
We didnt have to queue for anything on this tour! This little girl “Georgia” belonged to our small party of 6 (5 if you dont count her little baby brother).
Our guide is wearing the hoodie, and Georgia’s mum was carrying her 3 month old baby under her coat.
An unexpected part of the tour was dropping into a small youth centre where students performed some traditional songs and dances.
This is the favourite mode of transport around here.
One of the whaling ships that was the foundation of the town of Barrow. Nowadays they are only allowed to use their traditional skin lined canoes for whaling. They are permitted to kill 21 whales each year. This year they caught 11. Only because after that number they run out of storage space for any more meat! Most of their protein is hunted and fished: including caribou and ducks.
No trees in this part of the world, so they create their own!
What a tough place to live.
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