We started early. After breakfast, we donned our Arctic gear, ready for the Special Operations Boat tour of Itilleq Fjord. It was a lovely day in the early morning, balmy to those who live here, freezing to the rest of us. I’m worried about my hands already and see that 5 pair of gloves was not enough!

The bay gave us many views in silhouette of the curvaceous land and one distant peek at the tiny town of 90 people. One zoom out, around, and back at full speed gave us the full Arctic blast of a summer’s day. Our guide told us that culture does exist in subsistence populations, so the fact that there is art and song and story-telling here means that these people live comfortably and with leisure time. More on that story soon!

After a short rest and clothing change, we headed back out, this time on a zodiac for a landing in town. Itilleq (It al chaq) There are only 97 people living in this town (up from 88 a few weeks ago), and many of them are children.  Our destination this day was to visit one of the families and have a cofeemik or coffee party, with them. Arron for the Viking told us that our family spoke English, the truth was, not much. There were 7 of us who walked by the fish processessing plant, the only business in town, to the dirt soccer field and onto the Main Street, which was a dirt road, just wide enough for an ATV. 

Our Coffeemik, was at the first house on the left. We were instructed to remove our shoes and file in to the living room. No photos allowed without permission. We walked through a small laundry/mud room with small black and white linoleum tiles, into the living room, which everyone agreed was just like their grandmother’s house—cozy couches with throws, family photos on all the walls and a giant clock on the wall. 

Our hostess was a grandmother who was also the town doctor, retired, we think. Her granddaughter was there to translate, but understood more when we used Google translate into Danish. We were each served a small amount of coffee and a very small slice of delicious cake. Just right. The highlight was when the darling great granddaughters came in, ages 7 and 8. They were smiling, curious, and shy with light brown skin, dark hair and wearing summer play wear. I asked Grandma if I could take a picture of the pictures on her wall. She said yes, but looked downward—which means “no.” So the only photo I have is out the window and of the house. We saw grandma and the two GG kids down by the dock on our way out all having ice cream, provided by a couple of guys from the crew. The guys had recruited three local boys into helping them serve, a job that they loved. One tried to smuggle onboard our Zodiac, but was asked to leave.

Really lovely day! The talk tonight was “When Norsemen Went West,” the beginnings of the Leif Erickson story. Good night.