Nanortalik | The Escapades of Pookie and Allan

This morning after breakfasting in our cabin, we tendered into the little town of Nanortalik, for a walking tour. With 1,185 inhabitants as of 2020, it is the 11th largest town in Greenland. The name means “Place Where the Polar Bears Go” and our guide said that sometimes they do come into the town, but it is rare. Crab fishing and hunting for hooded seals and fishing from small boats are the main sources of income for the area’s inhabitants.

There is not much going on in the town and we asked about where the children go to school and for how long. Our guide said the kids are schooled from first grade until the 10th and then they have to pass a test to graduate. If they don’t pass the exam, they have the option to go to another school for free tuition and they would also receive a stipend. Our guide has been to this school three times as he has not been able to pass the exam. Some of the kids who do pass the 10th grade exam will go on to high school which is for three more years and a few, after graduation from high school, will go to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, for college.

We walked through the town, (where the cars speed by you and you have to practically leap out of the way), and saw the fish market, the grocery store, the church, and the cemetery. We were supposed to visit the home of a resident and enjoy the Greenlandic tradition of kaffemik – sampling local cakes and buns, plus dried fish and seal meat, while sipping on a coffee or tea while conversing with our host. Unfortunately, that never happened. I don’t know whether our guide didn’t know that was part of the tour or whether he just forgot. He said he hadn’t done tours in awhile. To tell the truth, Allan and I could have done the tour by ourselves and saved the $99 per person. The guide didn’t have anything to impart as far as history, life of the Greenlanders, or any insight into the area. He only gave us information when someone asked him a question, and many times, he didn’t know the answer. I would have spoken up after the tour and asked him why we weren’t visiting a home, but then I was thinking…maybe I read the shore excursion blurb incorrectly. So when I had the chance on the way back to the ship, I pulled it up and realized I was in fact correct. One of the crew from our ship was stationed at the road back to the ship and she asked how our tour was. I told her what happened and I said I didn’t want to get the young tour guide in trouble, but $99 a person for basically nothing wasn’t the greatest use of our money. She agreed and apologized and took our cabin number, so we will see if we are reimbursed.

Despite it all, I think I did capture some nice pics of Nanortalik.

This afternoon we cruised through the magnificent Prince Christian Sound, enjoying the scenery as we sailed between the mountains. It truly was breath-taking. The only human habitation in this frozen landscape is the Inuit village of Aappilattoq, home to about 100 people. Aappilattoq sits perched at the edge of the water with towering mountains all around, making the village virtually inaccessible by land. These rugged individuals mostly fish and hunt the harsh terrain as they live isolated from the outside world (except for the occasional arrival of a boat or helicopter).

After dinner, we enjoyed a phenomenal performance by the cruise director Damian Sollesse. Damien has performed in theater stages across the UK including the famed West End, London’s equivalent to Broadway, and he has performed on cruise ships around the world. He performed songs from modern day pop, opera, and musical theater with favorites from Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Frankie Valli. He also sang The Prayer with a member of the crew and he did a solo performance of Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot. He is such a talented singer and the performance ended much too soon.

Tomorrow is a day at sea and we forward our clocks ahead one hour once again.