Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Pond Inlet was our last port in the Canadian Arctic. As usual, I had signed up for the first community visit so we were off the ship at 8:30. We had to take a bus up the hill to the community center after arriving on shore. They told us that the Co-op opened early for us, nice! It was amazing that in other ports they did nothing special. 

In the community center they had refreshments and some demonstrations. One lady was cleaning a seal skin, pretty gross. Another was sewing. There was nothing for sale. We headed from there to the Coo-op which was almost across the street. Just inside the doors were a number of tables set up for selling. Most were empty. We asked if they had any art for sale in the store, they had a few pieces but nothing great. They did have a few souvenir items like shot glasses. They also had a rack w hoodies. There was a nice one that said Pond Inlet with a narwhal on it. They had one purple one, one orange and 2 yellow, that was it!!! Fortunately the purple was the smallest so I did fine. Not many people were able to get souvenir shirts. The rest were just from Canada. 

We were told that the Visitor's Center had some art for sale. It was down the hill. Mel decided not to make the walk so waited in the community center while I headed out. They had locals at almost every corner telling us where things were which was very nice. I was told to climb a mound off the main road for a great view. I decided to go up, it wasn't very high. On top was one of those signs that point how far it is to numerous places. It had been donated to the community by the Crystal Serenity last year, very nice. I was able to get good pics from there. I will try to add pictures to my posts once we are home. 

From there I headed down the hill to the Visitor's Center. It only said Library on the outside, so a bit confusing. I had to remove my boots to go inside. They had some nice displays of the local life as well as a lot to read about the history of Pond Inlet. It actually has a pretty sad history which we had learned about from a lecturer on the ship. In the late 40's or 50's, the Arctic Archipelago was not really defined as belonging to Canada. The US and even Russia were showing interest so Canada decided they needed to prove sovereignty and to do that they thought the islands had to be populated. They arranged to move some inuits to different locations to do that with the promise that they would move them back in a year if they did not like it. Well, the places they were moved to were a lot further north so they had a hard time acclimating, finding food, etc. After a year, one village was moved back as promised, another was not. Not sure the details of Pond Inlet but not a great way to start a community. 

There was a fairly nice store in the Visitor's Center where I bought a couple of items then headed back to get Mel. I had been gone quite a while and walked almost 2 miles. We went back to the Co-op to see if more sellers had shown up. They had but it was mostly knit items, not the carvings we were looking for. We went back to the Visitor's Center as I thought Mel would enjoy it, as he did. Then we headed back to the zodiacs. Near them, along the shore, was a sod house that they were building to show how they used to live. The walls were sod, the roof seal skins. It was interesting. It was shorter to get to the zodiacs by crossing a stream, so we did, then headed back to the ship. 

When we had arrived earlier, I asked one of the zodiac drivers we had met earlier if there was any way to get a patch from the Shackleton. She saw us in the Visitor's Center and said she had done one better, they set up a store in a zodiac so we were able to get patches and a pin. 

There was a dance group from town on the ship again. Their outfits were a bit different but the dances were pretty much the same. They also did some Arctic games. Those were very different! One they but heads like musk ox to see who could push the other back. Another they put their arm around the other's neck and grabbed the lips of the other guy and pulled. It looked pretty painful. Strange games. 

We went back to meet for our hike at 1. This hike was more strenuous but much better organized. We walked along the shore which was difficult in some parts because of the deep sand. I was able to look for sea glass so that was nice. On the shore we saw a narwhal carcus and a seal carcus. And they pulled out a polar bear skull to show us, gruesome. It still had one of it's eyes. Further along was a pile of blubber just sitting there. They do not seem to clean up their messes. Actually, the entire town looked pretty junky with old lumber, barrels, atv's, etc, laying everywhere. It is just too expensive to haul out of there so it just sits. It was a pretty ugly village. 

We headed up off the beach after about an hour. Just a short distance further we came to a river and some rapids. It was pretty. From there we headed up the hill to walk on the ridge going back. We had 2 or 3 locals with us, as well as several from the ship. I started talking to the young man who took the lead position. He was 19, born and raised in Pond Inlet. He goes to school and hunts. I asked what he hunts for....polar bear and narwhal. Caribou are far away and hard to find. I asked if they could just kill as many bears as they wanted. His reply was that you only need one. Later I heard that the town is issued 10 tags for bears, that is it. They generally sell the pelts and eat the meat. They also might sell a tag to hunters for thousands of dollars. I asked how many siblings he has. He had to count in his fingers. He has 5 sisters and 2 brothers. He had been to the Caribbean for volley ball training, to Greenland and to Whitehorse in the Yukon. I was impressed that he had traveled that much. Flying in the Arctic is very expensive. To go from Ulukhaktok to Yellowknife is $1500 one way! To get from Pond Inlet back to Ulukhaktok, one of the guides on the ship had to take 5 flights! And it could take several days as there are only 2 flights from Yellowknife to Ulukhaktok a week. So people, especially the young, are pretty trapped up here. They cannot afford to get out. 

After the hike we returned to the zodics and back to the ship. We had walked just over 5 miles! Mel and I were both pretty tired. It was nice to get to Pond Inlet on Baffin Island but a pretty sad community.