If the cold and wilderness of the Arctic are poisonous red apples hanging in the distance, I would also like to be the Snow White who bit him and died of poisoning. Exploring the two poles is always the ultimate dream of travelers. In their eyes, those desolate whites are not monotonous and poor, but full of magic, which makes people dream of them all the time.
If the Antarctic continent's independence can only be approached by dreams; then the Arctic Ocean is not so arrogant in comparison. Touching the Arctic can extend to the five Nordic countries within the Arctic Circle through its territory, which can be realized by the United States, Russia and Canada.
This time, I will explore the spring Arctic from Nunavut, the youngest region in Canada. Its capital Iqaluit (also known as: Iqaluit ) is close to the Arctic Circle, about 63 degrees north latitude.
Before leaving, I tried to search for information about Nunavut and Ikuit. Unfortunately, I found that except for a few simple lines of introduction in Baidu Encyclopedia, I basically couldn't find any Chinese information, let alone travel guides. This made me more interested in Nunavut, to discover, explore, and restore the original meaning of travel.
A few simple data, let you first understand the place I am going to:
Nunavut is the largest area in Canada. The 1.9 million square kilometers of land in the region has only 32,000 permanent population, and the population density is only 0.017/square kilometer. If we follow this population density, we can only live in 196 people in our huge Shanghai.
Iquette is the capital city of Nunavut, with a population of more than 7,000 and a dozen Chinese.
It is not that easy to explore the Arctic. Nunavut area , there are no expressways, and there are no railways. If you want to arrive, you can only fly. The only city leading to the outer area is the capital Iquette, where direct flights are only available from Canadian capital Ottawa, Quebec Montreal Manitoba Winnipeg /Churchill, Alberta Edmonton / Calgary , and Yellow Knife in the Northwest region, and flights often change with the weather.
So, my flight route from Shanghai is: Shanghai - Toronto - Ottawa - Yiquette; you can also choose: Shanghai - Vancouver - Calgary - Yiquette, this flight route. No matter what, it is definitely necessary to transfer three times. Long-distance flights and hardships are all the costs of going to the Arctic.
leaps through the ice and permafrost in the Arctic Ocean, and those cute little houses near Yiqute Airport are right in front of you.
As soon as I got off the plane, I felt the cold air from the North Pole penetrated into my heart. Even in the bright April, I still felt that the winter was still not gone. When we arrived on April 11, the temperature in Yiquette was -11 degrees. Robbyn, who came to pick us up, said, "It's already very warm."
The airport is very close to the city and is about a dozen minutes' drive away. I am used to seeing big cities, it is hard to imagine that the "downtown" of Ikuit is just a few small houses on the snow, and there are very few pedestrians on the road; we were 7 people, and I was the only one from Asia. The long-distance flight and jet lag made me drowsy. The others were from the United States and Canada. As soon as we got on the bus, we started talking about Nunavut with interest.
The four-wheel drive car was driving on the snow in the city. The scene of me looking out through the car window reminded me of a small town on the northeastern border.
Yiquette's first stop: Upper Base
Upper Base is 3.5 kilometers northwest of Yiquette, with a high terrain. It was once a military base of the United States during the Cold War. The missile detection systems and some abandoned military buildings or facilities at that time were unlikely to be transported elsewhere to be destroyed and buried on the spot between frozen soil and snow; so when you step on this high place that overlooks the small Yiquite, in addition to the bitter north wind, there are also military relics that cannot be buried.
From the upper base, the blue sky and white clouds are particularly pure. You will be attracted by the huge wall painting on the roadside. No one explains the meaning of the picture, the concrete characters and the abstract scenes. The general idea may be to describe the Inuit people's entanglement and helplessness about the urbanization process.
Most of the houses we see in Yiquite are like this. Although it is still a little bit before entering the Arctic Circle, there are almost 20 hours in winter and 20 hours in summer and daytime in summer. Building a house in this way, leaving a smaller window will help save energy. It is precisely because of the long winter and darkness that the residents here have more emotional depression problems. The same problem occurred in the , Finland, , which I once visited.
Walking in Ikuit, you will inadvertently find many human-shaped marks made of stones. The Inuit people call it "inukshuk" means "like a human". The Inuit people use them to convey directions, and also use it as road markings and symbols. Today, Inukshuk has become a symbol of Canadian history and culture. You can see the "Inuit Stone Man" in tourist attractions in major cities such as Vancouver and Toronto.
Remember that the emblem of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was this stone villain.
Yiquite second stop: Apex
Traveling to Yiquite, locals will recommend you to Apex in the south of the city, which is only a few minutes' drive from the city.
Apex is a military base near Frobisher Bay. It is an Inuit tribe established in 1940. Even today, you can come here to see the traditional life of the Inuit people.
On the afternoon we arrived, the sun seemed good, but it was weak, and the endless ice surface in front of Apex was blowing with the whistling wind. The thick ice layer seems to have not melted for thousands of years and is definitely the coldest symbol of the Arctic. Standing on the empty ice layer, even though I was wearing two down jackets, the one outside was still a legendary goose that could withstand the severe cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius, and was trembling in the cold wind.
At this time, it is really hard to imagine how tenacious the Inuit people must be able to stick to their homes in such a cold cold.
A lonely boat condensed into a painting on the white ice surface. It is a necessary tool for the Inuits to go fishing in the summer.
Hudson Bay Company building, which has become a ruin, is a landscape of Apex, where you can feel the changes in the sea tides.
Yiquette's third stop: They used Toonik Tyme Festival to welcome the spring
to Yiquette in mid-April, just in time to catch up with the Inuit annual event "Toonik Tyme". This year's festival lasted for 10 days from April 12 to 21. On the evening of the 12th, we attended their festival opening ceremony in the auditorium in the city.
This should be the simplest and simple festival I have ever participated in. The scene is a bit like the open-air movie venue when I was a child. Adults sat on plastic stools and laughed, while children were playing and joking with each other and sitting on the floor. In front is a stage with two vertical microphones, and behind is a projection screen. A brief introduction to the host wearing traditional costumes is followed by Inuit fashion show, singing and dancing performances, etc.
Inuit beauties and handsome guys who participated in the fashion show without makeup
The unique "Inuit Throat Singing Inuit Tortus Singing" should be the most special part. The two performers used their throats to vibrate face to face on the stage. This singing method can also be seen in nomadic peoples such as Mongolian . Two people stood facing each other, making rhythmic sounds with their "barking" breathing, and even one of them would stick the other's lips to resonate with the oral cavity until the other party stopped due to the inability to maintain the rhythmic breathing.
Later, I heard a performer's introduction that the origin of Inuit's guttural voice was sung by women to children on their backs. This way of making sounds by vibrating the throat can make children on their backs feel the mother's voice, so that they no longer fear the night. So, now in many Inuit's traditional activities, they use guttural singing as a competitive game.
Inuit singer
Children's snowmobile competition is also one of Toonik Thyme's popular activities. From the age of 7 or 8, Inuit's children can drive snowmobile very skillfully; it is really a place of land that creates people. . .
The first Toonik Tyme Festival started in 1965, and now it has developed into a week-long event in April every year to welcome the arrival of spring. Everyone in Inuit likes this festival very much, because from now on, the long winter is about to pass, and they will be greeted with a beautiful spring.
Toonik Tyme's activities also include hunting, seal peeling, Inuit traditional games, etc.
Ikuit Fourth Stop: Unikaarvik Visitor Center
To understand Inuit culture, go to the Unikkaarvik Visitor Center in downtown Ikuit, where there is a small tour of about an hour, which allows you to have a general understanding of the development of this city and the development of Inuit culture as soon as you arrive in Ikuit. The 100% marble sculpture under
makes the visitor center proud, because it was carved out by the early Inuits with simple and extensive tools. The Inuit people who are in a nomadic state like small sculptures that are easy to carry; the sculpture in front of them weighs more than 2,000 kilograms. After the carving is completed, they risk the possibility of breaking the ice and sinking ship and go through endless hardships to transport it to the Inuit community by water. Until the establishment of the Visitor Center in 1991, the sculpture was transferred to the exhibition here.
Tourists watched the video of Inuit life with interest
Beautiful tour guide displayed in the calendar introducing Inuit people
Handler's traditional Inuit clothing displayed in the Visitor Center. Their clothes are basically made of seal skin/beaver skin and caribou skin, which is especially able to resist wind and cold; there is a large and prominent place on the back of women's clothing, which is where children are placed, and then a wide hat can wrap the adults and children together.
This kind of knife is a tool used by Inuit women to peel seal skins; now when you walk into the art shop in Ikuit, you will see crafts, earrings or necklaces made of the shape of this knife.
The one I took a photo with was an Inuit beauty who could speak a few Chinese words in the visitor center. She had never been to China and learned Chinese in the southern church. On the streets of Iquette, more than 90% of the people you meet are Inuit people. They are very kind and friendly, and young people speak very well in English, so there is no need to worry about communication issues at all.
Yiquite's fifth stop: I'm wandering around the streets and discovering
Yiquite's city is very small, with a permanent population of less than 8,000, and there are only two or three hotels. I didn't see much restaurant on the street. We all had three meals a day in the hotel.
As long as you pay attention, you will find that all the signs in Iquette are in English and Inuit; Nunavut is different from other provinces in Canada. The province is a very independent administrative unit, and the region is more dependent on the federal government. All the land and houses here belong to the federal government, and even part of the salary of government departments comes from the federal.
This Inuit woman is carrying a child on her back, and there is a big bag behind her clothes, like a parenting bag, which can ensure that the children will not be cold.
Most of these stone sculptures on the streets of cities are rough and bold without carving. Some of them are covered by thick snow, while others are tall. . Indeed, Nunavut and the five Nordic countries in the Arctic region, which are also in , have fewer romantic fairy tales, more severe cold and extensive.
Of course, if you walk into the art shop on the street, you will also find some exquisite sketches that will make you excited. Most of the handicrafts sold in the store are handmade products made of ivory, antlers, animal bones or marble. They are local treasures and are good home decorations and accessories.
I bought a polar bear pendant made of antlers or ivory. These crafts are priced between 40-70 Canadian dollars. If they are all made by hand, they still feel that they are worth the money.
In the very popular Carving Nunavut store, as soon as I entered the door, I was shocked by the entire polar bear skin on the wall. In addition to selling large and small stone sculptures, this store also has many clothing accessories handmade by local Inuit elderly people. While I was shopping in the store, I saw an old lady selling the gadgets she made to the store.
Like our bold Mongolians, the Inuits are actually addicted to alcohol. However, in order to curb many public security issues caused by drinking, special procedures and permissions are required to buy and sell alcohol in Yiquette. There seems to be only one Liquor store in the city. The NuBrew brewery we went to is quite famous. Even though the brewery itself cannot promote it, there are many people who go there to have a drink every day.
As Yiquite, the capital of the region, is definitely the best in all aspects compared with other places. But can you imagine that this is actually a city without highways, asphalt roads, railways, or even no vegetation? The roads are basically like the picture below. When you push away the thick snow, the mud is below; white is the eternal color here.
Nunavut belongs to permafrost. Without the conditions for building highways and railways, vegetation cannot grow. Moreover, the current El Niño phenomenon has caused the Arctic temperature to rise year by year, and the permafrost has loosened or even "soil and rock flow", which will have a huge impact on road surfaces, buildings, etc. Speaking of these, the locals in Yiquite seemed a little worried.
The problem of global warming is talked about almost every year. It is estimated that only the people who live in the Arctic region all year round will feel it particularly profound!
Ikuit's taxi is quite interesting. No matter where you go, it costs 7 Canadian dollars per person per trip. Moreover, taxis are carpooled and parking at any time, and people will be recruited all the way (of course, it is not always full); because the city is small, it is very fast to go anywhere. Let’s learn about the following Taxi on the roadside.
Nunavut's license plate should be the most distinctive I have ever seen. I took a photo and found that the license plates are full of symbols showing the region: polar bear, northern lights, Inuit Stone Man, it's so cute.
The Frobisher In we stayed is one of the few two or three hotels in Iquette. The location is pretty good, close to the airport and the city center. As long as the weather is good, you can reach most places in the city by foot.
need to complain about the Wifi issue about Ikuit for reference for friends who are traveling to Nunavut later. The Internet card and Wifi box I brought from China were both "no service". Later, I changed it to China Mobile's card, but it was still "no service". Only in hotels can you use 500M of free stream limited wifi every day; I didn't know at first that I would have no traffic after making an Internet phone call, and I had to pay 10 Canadian dollars to buy 2G. What's more speechless is that I can only connect to one wifi device every time I go online. In short, for people like me who are used to 4G traffic in China, this wifi is too sad to use.
It is understandable to think about it later. After all, this is the Arctic region. It does not have the "network fiber" coverage we are familiar with. Communication depends on satellites, so where is there free WIFI everywhere? However, I heard from local friends that there may be Internet next year. . .
The friends from the United States and Canada who went there seemed to be only the phone card of the Roger Telephone Company in Canada, which is OK whether it is making calls or surfing the Internet, and nothing else is good.So, when you go to Nunavut next time, remember to change your Canadian mobile phone card, otherwise you will be completely "lost in contact" if you leave the hotel!
room is like this, not bad.
This hotel has a good meal. You can order breakfast, which includes a variety of eggs, European and American breakfasts, waffles, etc. Lunch and dinner can be done at midnight, Fengjian is free. I have to say that the people of the Arctic like to eat meat too much. Most of the dishes ordered are meat, but they are quite delicious. It seems that they cannot withstand the severe cold if they don’t let themselves gain weight. In addition, when you go to Iquette, you must order Arctic Char, which is delicious no matter how you make it.
(Please continue to pay attention to Xiaoyu, Nunavut's trip continues)
