Greenland is a place I honestly never imagined I would visit. But after exchanging a two week Indonesia trip for Eastern Europe, I thought it might make the perfect adventurous add on to an otherwise more traditional vacation for us. I also feel a sense of urgency when it comes to visiting the glacial destinations of the globe due to the quickly changing conditions caused by global warming. Our trip to Greenland began in Reykjavik, Iceland with a flight to Kulusuk. From here we took a chopper to Tasiilaq where we spent three nights exploring Eastern Greenland.

EXPERIENCE

We came to Greenland to experience snow, glaciers and icebergs! Our adventure began with a flight to Kulusuk via Reykjavik’s smaller airport. From here we hopped a ten minute helicopter ride to Tasiilaq on Greenland Air where we stayed for three nights. The chopper ride was our first and we really loved it. It’s an incredible way to take in the vastness of the land and see the depth of the floating icebergs from above. From above you can get a sense of how isolated and remote these communities truly are.

We filled the first day with a walk into town of 2000 mostly indigenous people in Tasiilaq. From here we did a self-guided hike called the Flower Valley Hike. We did not see many flowers here but it is apparently named this after the arctic thyme, arctic bluebell, arctic dandelion, and broad-leafed willow herb. We then continued on to do the Somandsfjeldet Hike up the mountain. This area has several mountain lakes and small waterfalls to see. We also took a peak at the Skaeven Cemetery. The community here is very poor and living mostly on aid from the Danish government. Alcoholism, smoking, obesity, depression and all of the problems that cascade from those things are extremely prevalent here. Couple these issues with days of total darkness and total light and the reality that the people of East Greenland speak only a very local dialect that does not allow them to communicate with those speaking Danish, English or even “West Greenlandic” and the disaster recipe starts to make sense here. Most people here only complete education until before high school, at which time they would have to move across the country to the west side and attend school in Nuuk. While their transportation and accommodations to do this are covered by the government, very few students choose to do this. Another option is to attend boarding school in Denmark, which was apparently mandatory at some point in history, but is now also not popular. Communication challenges with the language, comparison to the outside world from modern media  and isolation seem to be strong contributing factors to the issues here in Greenland.

The next day we set out on a Boat Excursion with Lars’ crew at Arctic Dream. A Danish school teacher was our guide for the day. He seemed as out of place as we did in the community, as did most of the Danish travel workers we met here. We did the Sermilik Icefjord trip and saw many icebergs and then stopped for lunch in an even smaller, more economically depressed settlement of only 80 people called Tiniteqillaq. This settlement is a half day’s boat ride from Tasiilaq and accessible only by helicopter for ten months of the year. Here there are some seals left to be hunted, but not many of them. We saw two killed and skinned. The seal skins are sold to the Greenlandic government for the equivalent of $60 each. This is  not much in a place where even a beer is about $15. On this boat trip we saw many large icebergs which were stunning to witness so close. We also made a stop at see some old abandon turf house remains. The straight was still blocked up with ice from winter (in mid-July) so we were unable to complete out intended route and needed to double back the way we came which was a bit disappointing, though not entirely unexpected. The Knud Rasmussen Glacier Tour was our choice for the next day but we opted to skip it since the island was still more iced in than we had hoped. Everything is incredibly expensive in Greenland so we decided to hold off on a second boat tour.

As far as animals go, Huskies and a few birds were our only sightings though we were told polar bears are around and often coming into the town as a side effect of global warming. The sled dogs are kept chained very close together in not very nice conditions for the summer months which was a little hard to witness. On the boat tour we actually came upon an island of dogs, which seemed like a nicer way to house them for the summer with frequent food deliveries.

It seems important to share an accurate and balanced impression of this  place since drama of Greenland hangs in such a silent way here. this place is beautiful and yet terribly ugly. A stunning landscape and a forgotten community of struggling indigenous people with the highest suicide rate in the entire world. The icebergs are stunning yet there are WAY too many of them, a glaring indication of the warming planet and melting glaciers. This feels like the perfect place to soak in the book I am reading- the most informative of my year. rising sea levels, declining biodiversity in sea life and amphibians, mass extinctions and ocean acidification are well underway. the evidence here is overwhelming to witness:

“By burning through coal and oil deposits, humans are putting carbon back into the air that has been sequestered for tens—in most cases hundreds—of millions of years. In the process, we are running geologic history not only in reverse but at warp speed…calculations show that to keep pace with the present rate of temperature change, plants and animals would have to migrate poleward by thirty feet a day, and that a molecule of CO2 generated by burning fossil fuels will, in the course of its lifetime in the atmosphere, trap a hundred thousand times more heat than was released in producing it… having freed ourselves from the constraints of evolution, humans nevertheless remain dependent on the earth’s biological and geochemical systems. By disrupting these systems—cutting down tropical rainforests, altering the composition of the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans—we’re putting our own survival in danger.”  ― Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

EAT

As far as food goes, there are not many options in Tasiilaq. We had dinner at our hotel each night for lack of any other options. The food at Hotel Ammassalik was suprisingly good for the circumstances and we enjoyed fish, soup and boiled vegetables each night. Everything is hot, tasty and served buffet style. The local diet seems heavy in sweets and candy, though there is a new large grocery store that has just opened in town. There is very little fresh food available. There is a small restaurant that apparently just opened in the town a few weeks ago. This was our go to for ice cream daily though the hot dogs and fries didn’t look quite enticing enough to return for at mealtime. The Red House is another hotel and seemed to be the only restaurant I could find information about on the Internet.

While on our boat adventure we were served some of the local meats like smoked whale and reindeer sausage. We did not have any seal, polar bear or musk ox, though these animals are also hunted for their meat, hides and blubber in this region to this day. Fishing is surprisingly limited here, for reasons we could not entirely understand. The seas are clean and cold, but there seems to be very little life left in them and fishing is limited to some very small fish by which the Ammassalik Fjord is named after which spawn here.

We took breakfast each day at the hotel which was much better than expected. Each meal was buffet style with two meat options and free coffee and tea were available all day in the lobby. The town has one small and one large grocery, mostly stocked with packaged foods and some limited produce (apples, onions, citrus and potatoes… tons of potatoes). The is also a small but suitable local bar set up as well as a “Klub”. Both of these establishments are quite dodgy but worth a look for the experience.

STAY

In Tasiilaq, there are very few options when it comes to accommodations. The Red House was my first choice, but when it was booked, I went with a room at the Hotel Ammassalik. This hotel is a steep walk up the hill, creating a built in workout every time you leave the hotel. The upside of this is the incredible view of the town and bay from the patios—simply spectacular. Our room here was composed of two twin bunk beds and had a shared bathroom with other units. The rooms were super simple but had sinks and were adequate for sleeping. I should also note, the curtains are very thin, which is important when living with 22 hours of full daylight and 2 hour of twilight. We hung towels over the windows to help dark it out and get some rest.

While we considered the room to be more of a sleep box—the hotel lobby and common area is wonderful. There is wifi available for purchase which is frustrating and a blessing in this town that seems completely disconnected. The meals and free refreshments make this comfortable space at the top of the hill a great place to read, study, edit photos or write. If you’re looking for a little retreat or respite from a hectic tour of Europe, this is a great place to let time slow down and enjoy just being here in this moment watching millions of years of ice float by.

In some ways Greenland met my expectations and in other ways it caught me totally off guard and surprised me. I was as impressed with the icebergs, as I assumed, but the struggling local Inuit culture took center stage in a way I never predicted. This place is so desolate, isolated and troubled in so many senses of the word. This place will hold a place in my conscious for a long time after leaving and is a place I will now think of when I read about global warming and the struggles of indigenous people. While I don’t imagine prioritizing a return trip to East Iceland. I leave here wanting to explore more Arctic areas. I would very much like to make a winter visit to Svalbard or perhaps explore Nuuk and the West Coast of Greenland in the future to witness glacier calving and the Northern Lights. I feel very fortunate to have had the experience of coming here before tourism has developed, it is a very unique place.