August 15 -- Start the trip home

We had the morning to ourselves before our helicopter flight around 1pm to Kulusuk and our 2-hour flight back to Reykjavik. Tuesday we leave for San Francisco.

We decided to hike around the hills behind the hotel, rather than walk DOWN to the harbor because of the nasty walk back up again. We found a route down to the reservoir where we had seen the moon rise and then over to the remnants of a ski hill and a high point above town. After we checked out and stowed our luggage, we had time left, and I had $20 of Danish Kroner burning a hole in my pocket and no souvenir of Greenland, so we walked down the hill after all to the tourist shop we had visited yesterday. With fewer people there it was possible to find something reasonably priced. Everything in the $20 range was unappealing, but I did find a nice bone necklace of a ptarmigan for a bit more than that. I ended up getting 9DKK in change (darn!) and then noticed that the 3 coins (a 5 and 2-2s) were actually quite attractive and have holes in the middle. I kept them, with the idea of making a necklace and earrings when I get home.

At the reservoir behind the hotel

Tasiilaq from the top of the ski hill

This dog near our hotel got into a howling contest with a bunch of other dogs in the village below.

On our way back up we saw the garbage trucks and the 'honey bucket' collectors -- they just enter houses as needed and have keys if the doors are locked. We also saw a lot of items like strollers just left outside and think maybe its a society where nobody has a lot, and as a tightknit community, the worst that might happen is someone would borrow and return something vs. steal it. There are also no roads that connect communities -- the only way in or out is helicopter and boat in the summer and snow mobile or dog sled in the winter. Winter actually makes travel easier because many of the fjords freeze over.

When we got back, we learned that there was a delay in our flight to Reykjavik, which also delayed our helicopter. We were in the second group of travelers to Kulusuk. When we finally got to the heliport, we learned that the schedule was majorly munged up. Only 4 of the first 8 had been able to fit onto the first helicopter. Since there was only room for 9, that meant 3 of us were not going to make this flight. Lucky us, Jim and I and Joan were tagged to be it and instead took photos of our bird flying away without us. When the next one finally came, we got our pick of seats and it got filled with a bunch of German tourists. Joan ended up sharing a tight side seat with one and questioned their bathing habits. I got the window seat I wanted, next to Jim and was not affected. When we landed, our Reykjavik flight was still on the ground, but as soon as we got into the airport, we boarded within 5 minutes and left 30 minutes behind schedule, arriving only 15 minutes late.

There goes the 1pm chopper without us!

Back at the Hilton, we are getting ready for tomorrow's return home. Our flight is not til 4:30, so we leave here at 1. That should give us time to go to the supermarket in the local mall and pick out food for the flight. Icelandic Air is one of the few international flights that does not provide meals.... We are looking forward to getting home and doing laundry, but the trip has really flown by, and I can see why we shoot for 5 week trips when we can manage them.