Lions and TIgers and .....

OH MY!
So I wrote part of this yesterday, and my internet connection pooped and I hadn’t saved it. Sorry! But my story got better this morning, and here it goes:
We arrived last night in Katmai National Park, home to some 3,000 grizzly bears. In fact this is where the famous Grizzly Man film, with Timothy Treadwell was made. But enough about him, because if you haven’t seen the movie, he was a total nutter!
So we get into the zodiac for low tide, when the bears come to the beach and feed on clams. Luckily, the production company had to pay booku bucks to have a filming permit for this park, but the upside was that they provided a Ranger to accompany us in our boat. She was awesome! He name is Wendy, and she has been a national parks ranger since 1985, serving in just about every park that we have in this vast country and she had the stories to prove it. She directed us to all the right places last night and we saw 4 different bear. Things got even better this morning. I woke up feeling horrible, because I have acquired a wretched cold, and our producer told me, that if I wasn't feeling well, I should stay behind and they would just get footage of the bears.
I am soooo glad that I didn’t. We picked up Wendy in the ranger hut, zoomed past the other passengers that were out in their zodiacs already and found a mama bear and her 2-3 year old cub down on the beach. They were the same cute pair that we had seen the night before. So we cut the engine, and we pulled out the oars and started to row the boat in. We ended up being 10 Feet from them! Now, the best way to put this in perspective is the fact that you are supposed to be 50 feet from the bears, but since we were on the water, and the bears were not even acknowledging our presence, Wendy let up creep all the way in. The water was getting pretty shallow, and the mom could easily have reached us within 10 seconds. It was AMAZING. We stayed there for awhile filming and watching and just feeling in awe of the moment. We then cruised on to find another guy down at the beach, and he was so animated. He would dig up the clams, and then pounce on them to crack them open. Imagine weighing enough to crack a clam with you hands just by landing on it. Wow

Time to make the donuts

Time to make the donuts
Yesterday, the captain and our pilot decided that they had a hankering for donuts. So unbeknownst to us, the rerouted the ship early in the morning, put out a phone call and ordered for the entire ship! We weighed anchor, and lucky for us the film crew was privy to the plan so the went ashore to get the donuts, which were being made fresh by a woman, and her two daughters who come up to Alaska every summer to make donuts and coffee for the fisherman….let me just say that I have never had a yummier donut. And if that wasn’t enough, last night for dinner we had halibut. Halibut that the captain, the pilot, and one of our philipino staff guys went out and caught themselves. 70 lbs of it. I will never believe another “fresh fish” sign again because it doesn’t get any fresher than this! Oh, and to finish it all out, we stopped by a salmon processing boat, and we are having fresh salmon at an on deck BBQ tonight. Yum!

Whale Tail

A Whale Tail
I really can’t go on enough about whales right now. Yesterday, I saw about 7 humpback whales, as well as a fin whale, and some Dall porpoise. One of the humpbacks was up to some shenanigans, and entertained us for about a half hour, by Tail Lobbing. Basically, he was hanging out at the surface, blowing air, and taking over half of his backside out of the water and thrumming the surface with it. I can’t even fathom how they do this because anytime I get both hands up out of the water I sink. But , He or it could have been a she, I can’t really tell! He hit the water over and over with his tail, did a half belly flop, and then began to smack the surface with his fin. We were so close to all of this that we could hear him hitting the water. Nobody knows why they do this, but they think that maybe it’s a form of communication, or the whale is just having a bit of fun. Whatever it was, it was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen!

Dutch Harbor

Dutch Harbor
We arrived bright and early today in Dutch Harbor, which is most famous for the Discovery show Deadliest Catch. Our tour today was to consist of a WWII Museum, a Russian Orthodox church, a Memorial, an Aleut museum, and the local 4 star resort/hotel. So we got to the first museum which was small but interesting, and we only had 20 minutes there which was quite brief. The we got to the church and we had 45minutes there, which I popped my head inside the door, thought to myself “YAWN” and then wandered around. There were about 30 bald eagles flying about and I decided to capture them with my camera. They were magnificent, and they are soooooo large. Then the eagles took off, because there seemed to be a school of fish just out in the water. They were diving and picking up fish and swirling in the air, the whole lot of them. Breathtaking.
So they flew off with their lunch, and I still had plenty of time to kill at the church. Again, Yawn, so I decided to ask our wonderful host, a local girl who had grown up on the Island, where the next stop was. She reported that it was quite a ways down the road, at the end of the little bay that we were on. I looked out over the water where she was pointing, and I said “Where the flags are?”. “Yep” she replied. “Um, yeah… I’ll see you down there”. She was shocked that I wanted to walk that far, meanwhile it was about 15 NY blocks, basically nothing to me.
Yeah, no film crew, a day off and so I set off on my own little adventure. I saw a few more eagles, stopped and talked with a few locals and when I arrived at the park, I saw something in the distance trotting across the street. Could it be? I thought to myself, it seems big enough. So I ran to where I had seen the creature, and sure enough it darted back across the street and I caught a good look at it.
Now a brief aside, for those of you who don’t know my spiritual history, I personally believe in a blend of Buddhism and Native American Spirituality, with a healthy dose of skepticism mixed in. Now in brief, the natives of our country believe that there are spirits, and spirit animals that help guide us along the path of life. And my spirit animal was determined to be a fox, I even have a beautiful shield that a friend created for me, that shows a red fox with blue eyes.
So, what I had found was my Red Fox and I was determined to get up as close to her as I could. She crossed the street a second time, and when she got to the lawn of the community center where I was standing I yelled out to her. And to my astonishment, she stopped. So I snapped a few pictures, and emboldened by the fact that she hadn’t run away yet. I creeped a bit closer. She sniffed the air, looking at me intently, occasionally twitching her ears and giving a little start at the noises around us. I started talking to her, and she crept a little closer, and I crept a little closer and we ended up about 3 feet from each other. I thought to myself how cool would it be to touch her or pet her. Then the other voice in my head (there are plenty of them) said “Fool, you can’t pet a wild fox!”. So I satisfied myself by crouching down on the ground so that I was right up next to her. I even forgot to continue taking pictures because it was such a wonderful moment that I was having, talking to her and she seemed to be listening. I was moved.
So, for all of you who want to poo-poo my story by pointing out that the locals sometimes feed the foxes scraps, and they become quite approachable. I want to say, that even having that knowledge doesn’t take away even a scrap of how magical I felt in the moment of meeting her, and having the discourse that took place.

Pribilof Islands

The Pribilof Islands
Well, most of you have never heard of this place, so I will give you a brief overview of it’s position in History. The fur seal, which is more of a sea lion than seal, does 80% of it’s breeding on the shores of the Pribilof Islands. The Russians sailors discovered this gold mine of fur in the 1700’s and basically killed indiscriminately, harvesting every seal that they could find….which was 80% of all the fur seals in the world. The seals all come ashore for the breeding season, thousands of them, and the Russian took everything they could get. In fact, they were so lazy about it, they took a village of Aleut Natives and relocated them to live year round on the islands, and harvest the seals for them, and they would just show up once a year to collect the goods. Lazy!!
America purchased Alaska, and with it the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands, and when the surveyors arrived, they immediately called for a limit on harvesting these magnificent creatures. They would harvest only a very specific amount of seals, and only the young males that were not big enough to breed, then sell the pelt to London. You see, fur seal coats were all the rage at the time, and only the folks at the London tannery knew how to process this tough leathery skin. Finally, people began to see that this was also a huge mistake and a moratorium was placed on harvesting the seals, Allowing for what I saw today. An entire island ringed with seals. They were everywhere. As you approach the shore you can see the playing in the water, and from a distance what looks like rocks, are actually hundreds of seals camped out on the rocks! The pups are so tiny, and they can’t even swim yet, and they hang out with their moms and with each other rolling around and playing together of the rocky shore.
We took a bus out to a Rookery, a breeding beach for the seals. I stood there in awe, we were standing no less than 10 feet from the closest one. And he yelled at me as I got off of the bus. Their yells sound something like a large loud belch, very throaty and load. Imagine what comes up when you let loose after drinking a whole rootbeer. He was yelling because he had gotten away from the main group of seals in order to catch a nap and we obviously woke his cranky butt up!
I had to laugh because he was so lazy that all he did was lift his head and yell, he couldn’t even be bothered by sitting up all of the way. So about another 20 feet down the beach were the rest of the crowd. The huge bulls who come out of the sea in May, and don’t return to the water until the end of July or August. They are about 700 pounds of big bully. They bully each other, they bully the girls, they are just to bully to be imagined. They don’t eat or drink this entire time, and live off of their blubber stores, so basically they a big cranky buggers. Then the female are these beautiful light chocolate creatures, dainty next to the men. Playful with their pups, and fun to see swimming around in the kelp eating fish. Finally, the pups, are like little puppys squirming about on the rock, bleating like sheep, rolling all over each other paying no mind to anything around them. They were so cute I wanted to squish em….or take em home with me.

St Matthew

St Mathew and Hall Island
Well, it was rise and shine, sooooooo early this morning, 5am. I looked out of the window and thought, “how horrible it is outside, I can’t see a thing”. I’ve been spoiled by the amount of daylight that we get here, so I had assumed that the sun was already over the horizon and that the din and fog was due to a storm out there. Not the case! The sun was rising at 6:30am this morning instead of 2:45am, and we were going to climb a cliff to enjoy the view. We got onto the island and made short work of it, in time for a beautiful sunrise, and a few sightings of the very rare McKay’s Bunting, a bird which only exists on that island. The basically look like super white little balls of fluff, and are about the same size, so you had to hurry to get a glimpse before they skittered off.
Then back to the ship for a short move to visit Hall Island, a birders Paradise. If you’re into birds you would be over the moon at visiting this place. The birds of this region quickly figured out, that living here was perfect, you had tons of fish from the sea, and no predators. I saw literally thousands of birds on the cliffs as we toured around the side of the island inside the zodiac boats. Puffin, and tufted puffins, which look like penguins but are interestingly enough not related to them. They have both evolved the same way, to become similar birds, on opposite ends of the globe. Except the puffin can fly, quite clumsily. They look like bumblebees flapping their stubby little wings so hard, trying to escape gravity.
We were also lucky enough to get Cheli out excursion director as our zodiac driver for this foray into nature. She is an amazing New Zealander from Queenstown, tough as nails and very, very funny. The cliffs were spectacular, and covered every inch with birds. Parts of the island jetted out into the ocean to connect with thin, very tall rock faces, and a series of caves and archway. Cheli got us right up next to a few puffins, and she also had no qualms gunning the engine and taking us through narrow openings in the rocks next to the cliff in order to see birds, nesting in little cracks and ledges in the rocks. It was natures amusement park, and no disney ride could ever compare to this experience.

St Lawrence

Gambell
St Lawrence Island.
Sorry I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday, being that the sun never really sets, I lost a day, gained a day and then lost a few hours….I am a bit foggy at times out here on the sea. St Lawrence was quite a neat place, we arrived by zodiac boats from the ship and arrived on a rocky beach, that seemed to extend all the way through town. The whole place was nothing but smooth tiny pebbles, several feet deep and the best way to get around on these rocks, was Quads. It seems that every household there owns a Honda 450 quad, and a Suzuki Snowmobile! Interesting brand loyalty, but I saw nary a Quad that wasn’t a Honda, although it’s probably easier if everyone owns the same machine, because then it’s easier to swap parts!
So they cruise around on the ATV’s in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. They also have a world class marathon runner, who is from Gambell, the northern town on the island, and he has run many races around the world. He trains by running on these rocks…can you imagine the quad strength that that requires, and in fact they have a race there each year. Picture running on the beach times 100, the rocks soak up every bit of effort that you put into them.
We had a chance to toddle around town and see another cultural performance while we were there before hopping back on the quads for a ride back to the beach. I of course on the return trip encouraged my dirver to get it up to at least 40, but since there was him, me and the excursion director piled onto this motorcycle, he could only get it up to 38, but he assured me that he got it going much faster when he was without cargo.

Strange Brew

Strange Brew
So today, we rolled into Providenya, a small town that used to be a Soviet Military base, but is now occupied by a motley mix of Eskimos and Russian. They used to have a population of over 4,000 and now are down to 2,000. We disembarked, and had our passports stamped and headed off to see this little town. We were greeted by two young Eskimo girls performing traditional dances, as well as a girl dressed in traditional Russian dress, with a loaf of bread and a bowl of salt. You eat the bread with salt for health and prosperity. Well, we were quite conspicuous being a film crew in a city that gets NO visitors, and I guess I stood out more than the others. As soon as we turned the corner from leaving the dock area, and into the tiny town there was a playground nearby and the local kids were hovering all about us. We filmed me walking though the streets, and playing on the playground. One of them stood out as her English was better than the others. She introduced herself to us, and said a few phrases in English, then we played on the playground a bit, and she kept following us. Next thing you know as we were walking down the street, two more locals come up to me and introduce themselves, and try to talk to me completely incoherently. They were bombed! It was Sunday afternoon and these two native looking locals were three sheets to the wind! They were older, although being that the conditions there are quite harsh it’s hard to say if they were 40 or 70. They were definitely missing a few teeth, and only a few drops shy of being pickled. I talked to them for a short time, before encouraging them to continue on their way. The guy insisted that I get a picture of the two of us together, before I walked away so I obliged
Then another woman, who seemed to be related in someway to the young girl that I was now friends with, came along and told me about her daughter who lived in Alaska. And she was also bombed. Her English was much better than anyone else’s although she was still hard to understand. She took my hand in hers, commented on how cold I was and then tried to bum a cigarette off of me. I don’t smoke, so she asked if I could buy cigarettes, and I informed her flippantly that smoking kills.
She then asked me for money and I lied saying I have no money to give you. Well, with that statement, the young girl eyed me up and down, paying special note to my expensive camera, grabbed onto my other arm and began to cry. Oh why no money, and I turned to look at her, crying there on my arm. I stopped walking for a moment, and said “you need to truly improve your acting skills if you think your gonna roll me!” “you’re not even really crying! Go find another mark.” She stopped her crocodile tears, which were more fake sobs then any moisture at all, and then she let go of my arm and skipped off to annoy another passenger approaching the dock area, yes she really skipped away.
The older lady was not about to give up on me yet, probably because the amazing amount of booze pouring out of her pores had overtaken the little sense that she had. She saw that I was in front of a TV camera earlier, therefore I must have something for her. She decided to take the gift approach, I have something for you, here. And she pulls some lint, a few coins and a broken necklace out of her pocket. She picks the necklace up and offers it to me, at this point I am feeling really bad for her. Mostly because she was entertaining me quite a bit, and I told her to put it away. I asked what her daughter in Alaska did, to change the conversation. She said, in a drunken slur that her daughter had sent her money and it was waiting for her at the post office. I told her, well, go to the post office, it‘s right down the street! It was hard not to give these guys my remaining rubles, because I only had about $3 worth, but I couldn’t really allow myself to be the one that teaches them that their really bad gypsy act, had worked.

Thar she blows

In Russia.
Ok, so we pulled up to Lorino today, and we expected to go ashore and see the local Eskimo/Chukchi people. Try their food, see them dance, the usual touristy things. Oh no, it was to be so much more!
We hopped into the Zodiac boats, and from the ship you could see the villagers lining the shore. Our arrival was a spectacle of great proportions. They don’t get many visitors……Ever.
So we arrive on shore, and the local kids are all laughing and grinning and running around. Everyone who had a traditional outfit was wearing it, and everyone who lived there was with us on the beach. I’ve never seen more miss matched clothes, except maybe in my own wardrobe. There was a long table of food prepared for us.
Main ingredient=Whale. I had boiled whale intestines (tasted like pork), I had raw whale skin with blubber (tasted like really fishy ham…sort of), and smoked whale meat Yummy (Jack Link’s got nothing on this stuff). Then, we had a presentation, of a ceremonial dance.
Well, I had just recently broken the language barrier with the local children, by playing a few hot games of rock, paper, scissors with them (it doesn’t matter where you go, Everyone plays that game), when all of a sudden, I looked down the beach and some of the locals where hopping into canoes and Umiaks (kinda like big canoes but made of walrus skin!), and were going out to sea.
So I asked my new little friends “What’s up with that“, and the response was smiles and giggling at me because they still had no clue what I was saying to them. “Where are they going?” This time, I accompanied the question with some gestures and pointing to get my message across. “Baidarkas” was the response, which is the name for the big canoe, what are they doing, “Whale“.
The locals had caught a 10 year old grey whale and had been waiting for our arrival, before bringing it in for the celebration. They struggled in their 3 boats for some time paddling this 17 foot whale in to shore.
It was amazing, the tail fin had been lopped off and the fins pinned to the side to reduce drag. They threw the tow line to shore, and then this really, really, really, old rusty bulldozer was brought down the hill. I thought the thing a relic, it was so covered in rust and clunked along! They attached the tow line to the tractor, and pulled the whale in enough, to keep it from floating away, but still in a bit of surf to keep it wet. Another dance was performed and then the “mother” came out in her traditional clothes, and blessed the spirit of the whale and thanked it for giving it’s life. She gave it a drink of fresh water, by throwing a bowl of water at it, and the chanting ended with a round of applause from everyone.
Then the kids swarmed around poking, and playing about it. One boy decided to play king of the mountain by standing on the tail, and his friends kept trying to push him off. I tentatively approached the body, I was really in awe. We’ve all been to Sea World but this was the real deal. People carrying on a traditional lifestyle, in a modern world. I touched it’s skin, which was smooth and cold and then started to examine the surface. There were several barnacle, and some tiny crustaceans on the skin, I made the brilliant comment that our whale had lice, because that’s is what these crustaceans look like. Ick.
Then announcements were made in Russian and the girls started to perform more traditional dances. Most of which included throat breathing. For those of you who don’t recall the Steven Segall, in Alaska shoot em up movie… where he has the vision quest with the half naked Eskimo chick, it is a heavy throaty sound, almost like an emphysema rattle, mixed with a hum. The whole sight was spectacular. I know I keep saying this but, Amazing.

Whalebones and Walrus

Whalebones and Walrus
Yesterday we has the opportunity to climb into the Zodiac boats and head to Whalebone Alley. It is know as the Stonehedge of the Artic, Whale jaw bones and skeleton litter the beach and little is know as to why the Eskimos left them there, and what significance the arrangements were. It was truly a magical place, and the sun had decided that it would grace us with it’s company. Unfortunate for me, since we were informed it would be as chilly as the day before and with all of my layers on, and miked up already, I couldn’t change my wardrobe or strip down because of filming continuity. I was drenched in sweat, and it was really warm. The place was really spectacular, it smelled like a someone was crushing and herb garden because all of the tundra was in bloom, and we were trampling all over it! But the smell was sage, and cow parsnip (kinda like mums) and very refreshing. The other unfortunate part of this excursion, was the fact that we were there in the summer, and the blooming tundra has overgrown most of the whalebones that you normally see in the pictures of this place. I trip over many a vertebrae, or two, while trying to pick through the rocks in order to find the bones! Peter, one of our Russian crew, informed me that the Shaman lived at the top of the hill, and once we were through filming I took of in search of that elusive vantage point above the beach. As I climbed the slope I caught up to a few other passengers, searching for the same thing, after some toil we made it up the ridge, only to find an empty plateau and not much of a view. Oh well, at least I worked off that ravioli lunch! We quickly descended, and hopped into the boats to go back to the ship. Being the last group back onboard, as we stepped out of our boat we heard the “Announcement”. Our excursion leader had located a Haul Out on Aremechechen Island. We were going to see Walrus, up close and personal!!
The sun, which had previously shone gloriously down on us, had decided it was tired for the day, leaving us in a gray haze of clouds and fog, and the wind was really starting to kick up. I had properly layered in my outerwear, but sitting still in a boat while everyone got loaded up and then slowly, ever so slowly we made our way towards the beach, I couldn‘t help but shiver….and shiver. I can’t even begin to express how slow we were creeping in the water, I probably could have paddled much faster, but the idea was to approach from downwind, and to be a silent and sneaky as possible. We didn’t want to alert the Walrus to our presence, because they would bail, and leave us shivering in the cold with nothing to show for it, and also they are know for freaking out completely like a Hollywood B movie when the Blob comes out of the movie screen. They begin to Trample each other, if they are scared and trying to get to the water. We got within 150 feet of them, enough for my zoom lens, and we all reveled in the fact that we were watching these big blobby creatures, cuddle and occasional poke each other with their tusks. We could hear the barking at each other,and one of them ran for the surf. It was a fluid tons of fun ballet, as he maneuvered himself into the surf and took off in search of food. It is hard to believe that they can get around the way that they do, Amazing. By the end, I was a solid ice cube, my face was a frozen rictus, and the camera man turned the camera on me, and asked me to give a comment on what I was seeing. We still had to whisper, and I could barely pronounce anything, so I said the most honest thing possible, “I can smell them from here!”
I won’t regal you with the details of that scent!

Little Diomede

I am currently able to see into the future, because I am one day ahead of all of you. I literally just crossed the international dateline and am currently floating in Russian waters. This morning we cruised past the deserted King Island, where the remnants of a stilt village can still be seen. Most of the islands this close to the artic circle are inhospitable, rocky and steep. This one was no exception, but the people choose to live there in the winter, no less, because the hunting was good! It is abandoned now because they didn’t have enough children attending the local school there, so the Alaskan government, said we won’t pay for it anymore, bring the kids over to the mainland schools.
Next we moved onto Little Diomede. And island named after St Diomede, because Bering sailed past it on his saint day. It is small, steep and inhabited by about 140 brave people, 95% Eskimo. There have their houses shored up, by stilts, and rocks to keep the floors level on the side of the island. They have walrus and seal hanging out to dry, and dogs everywhere. There are whale bones littering the ground, and burnt out snowmobiles littering the other side of the helicopter landing site. These people were captivating, and a first hand look at how modern culture and traditional ways clash, and clash hard. They still subsist mainly off of the sea, but a young girl walked past me with a plastic bottle of Mug root beer.
The don’t have cable tv, but they do have internet, two computers worth at the community center. The whole village is dry, meaning no alcohol of any kind. Every Sunday they get together for the Eskimo dances. It was interesting to watch how the older villagers embraced the dancing as they performed for us, and how the kids dress in their sneakers and sweater shirts, giggled and shyly looked away as they followed along, looking over their shoulder occasionally to remember what move came next. Of course, in my typical fashion, when the elder invited us to participate in the Community dance, I jumped right up and joined in waving my hands about in rhythm with the drums.
It is obviously a tight knit community, with only 140 and limited contact from the outside world. Our guide, Robert Sookooks, was a local hero of sorts, since he had gotten out and traveled around the world, he had been to New York and Leningrad, yet he choose to come back to his family and live on the island. He looked kinda like an Eskimo leprechaun.( and yes those are walrus tusks behind him!) Oh and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that St Petersburg hasn’t been Leningrad for quite some time;)
The whole experience was surreal, seeing a boat full of walrus tails and blubber (not pictured because it began to Rain!), a polar bear pelt, and a walrus skin boat, all next to houses with aluminum siding.
Next stop Russia!

I am currently able to see into the future, because I am one day ahead of all of you. I literally just crossed the international dateline and am currently floating in Russian waters. Well, I lost one day and gained three hours. Go firgure!This morning we cruised past the deserted King Island, where the remnants of a stilt village can still be seen. Most of the islands this close to the artic circle are inhospitable, rocky and steep. This one was no exception, but the people choose to live there in the winter, no less, because the hunting was good! It is abandoned now because they didn’t have enough children attending the local school there, so the Alaskan government, said we won’t pay for it anymore, bring the kids over to the mainland schools.

Next we moved onto Little Diomede. And island named after St Diomede, because Bering sailed past it on his saint day. It is small, steep and inhabited by about 140 brave people, 95% Eskimo. There have their houses shored up, by stilts, and rocks to keep the floors level on the side of the island. They have walrus and seal hanging out to dry, and dogs everywhere. There are whale bones littering the ground, and burnt out snowmobiles littering the other side of the helicopter landing site. These people were captivating, and a first hand look at how modern culture and traditional ways clash, and clash hard. They still subsist mainly off of the sea, but a young girl walked past me with a plastic bottle of Mug root beer.
The don’t have cable tv, but they do have internet, two computers worth at the community center. The whole village is dry, meaning no alcohol of any kind. Every Sunday they get together for the Eskimo dances. It was interesting to watch how the older villagers embraced the dancing as they performed for us, and how the kids dress in their sneakers and sweater shirts, giggled and shyly looked away as they followed along, looking over their shoulder occasionally to remember what move came next. Of course, in my typical fashion, when the elder invited us to participate in the Community dance, I jumped right up and joined in waving my hands about in rhythm with the drums.
It is obviously a tight knit community, with only 140 and limited contact from the outside world. Our guide, Robert Sookooks, was a local hero of sorts, since he had gotten out and traveled around the world, he had been to New York and Leningrad, yet he choose to come back to his family and live on the island. He looked kinda like an Eskimo leprechaun.( and yes those are walrus tusks behind him!) Oh and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that St Petersburg hasn’t been Leningrad for quite some time;)


The whole experience was surreal, seeing a boat full of walrus tails and blubber (not pictured because it began to Rain!), a polar bear pelt, and a walrus skin boat, all next to houses with aluminum siding.
Next stop Russia!

Iditarod and Nome(pictures to come)

Well, today we arrived in Nome, about 100 miles south of the artic circle. Rainy, and a bit cold the day was turning out to be not too exciting. We didn’t do the local tour, as we had some filming to cover before the passengers arrived, so I have nothing too exciting to report for today.
So, instead I will fill you in on the rest of yesterday. We had a meet and greet with the other cruise passengers, and a special guest presentation by Martin Buser, 5 time Iditarod champion. This guy was captivating, he has been running the race, for the past 25 years. For those of you who don’t know what the Iditarod is, you should check it out. Originally inspired by a dog sled relay, that delivered Diphtheria vaccine to the local inhabitants of Nome, thus saving thousands of lives, it is now a race of one person and their team of dogs, over 1100+miles of frozen land. I had never really considered the race before last night, I mean I knew about it and I thought it seemed interesting, but I had never followed it or researched it. A grueling test of man against nature, and a great equalizer, just as many women have won it as men. You start out with a team of 16 dogs, but never finish with all of them. At every checkpoint there are veterinarians who thoroughly inspect every dog, if they are over fatigued, injured, anything at all they get sent home, and you move on with what you’ve got. The record (held by Martin) is just over 8 day, although most people finish it around 12 or so.
So, meeting someone who has made it their life, was fascinating. He cares so much about the dogs, and the message of environmental impact that he has won several humanitarian awards, and is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. He gave testimony to how Alaska, once being such an untouched wilderness, is a good litmus for how our environment is changing and being affected by our social and economic choices. Even though he makes probably, close to half of his living from the race itself(the purse can be quite large) he always errs of the side of caution when it comes to the heath and welfare of his animals. Inspiring…Oh, and did I mention, he brought puppies! As you can see they were unbelievably cute, and complete show stoppers. He carries them around in his shirt after they are born, the entire litter, so that they get used to his scent, his voice, his mannerisms. They eventually learn up to 15 commands to execute during a sled run. All of this made me want a kennel and team of my own to drive around in the snow with!

Day one Alaska

Well my day is far from finished but I figured, I would write this down while I had the chance. After a grueling day of travel yesterday , I awoke this morning ready for Alaska. The air is crisp and fresh here, and after a yummy smoked salmon breakfast, I took off for a walk. Well, I realized when I left the hotel that I should probably change my shoes, but I figured that I wouldn't go too far before getting a phone call that would reel me back in. But, as I progressed up the mountain, the hiking path grew steeper and steeper, and I was quite proud of my Teva flip flops for hanging in there, and when I realized that after only 20 minutes I was halfway to the top of the mountain, I figured why not?
Well, that changed a bit when I hit the mud, slipping and sliding up the path. I wondered if this was the point where I should turn around, due to my poor shoe choice. Then I turned around and saw, just how far I had come, and how trecherous it would be to attempt a decent of that slip and slide. Turning again, I saw that I had reached the snow line. Yes, Snow line. I would have to continue my flip flop journey in the snow. Temperature was no problem at this point, as I was dripping in sweat. Interestingly enough, admonishments that I have given in the past to friends who have braved the wild, ill prepared, flash through my mind, and I think, wow I'm the silly one now!
Onward through the snow, I realized the path was taking quite a steep turn, and the snow was a few inches deep, so I did what I had to, I dug in. I turned my feet to the side and pressed on, I was going to prove just what flip flops were for! After a few more turns, and a final steep climb, I reached the 2300 feet summit. I walked over to the lookout platform where all of the tourist who had taken the tram up where standing, turned around and smiled. Who needs a lift when I've got two good feet. (But I did take the free ride back down;)

Fur and Irony

I had another interesting NY moment the other day. While walking through the garment district, I noticed a sign in a window. "Dear smokers, the second hand smoke that comes thru our door is killing us... Please be considerate and don't smoke in front of our shop. Thank You"
Now the reason I found this to be ironic, is the fact that this sign is posted in the window of the Norhern Fur Ltd store. A Wholsale provider of fur goods, hats coats, stoles, basically things that people really shouldn't be wearing anymore. We now possess the technology to make clothing 100x warmer and fashion has provided us with beautiful alternatives to the real deal. But here, hundred of animals are still killed for no other reason other than having great hair. The workers are concerned about their inhallation of second hand smoke coming through their door. They continue to peddle these wares, most new, but some under the gentle guise of "antiques" or "slightly worn". These can't be bad, right, the animal died and was purchased awhile ago...but by purchasing it again ,it creates a continued demand for these pelts, creating a market for poachers. I find it also interesting that they are concerned with second hand smoke, but not concerned about the constant exposure to caustic chemicals that are used to preserve the furs, not to mention the old basement smell of slowly rotting leather inside the store. What are they thinking?