Seabourn 2021 - 2022

GREENLAND & THE CANADIAN ARCTIC 15 DAYS | REYKJAVÍK TO ST. JOHN’S | SEP 17, 2021 V155 | SEABOURN VENTURE NARWHAL, BAFFIN BAY Included charter flight DAY 0 | REYKJAVÍK Arrive at Iceland’s capital and transfer to the Radisson Blu 1919 hotel for an overnight stay. DAY 1 | KANGERLUSSUAQ Transfer to the airport for your included flight to Kangerlussuaq , Greenland’s largest commercial airport. Transfer to the pier to embark Seabourn Venture and begin your Arctic adventure. In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Force constructed an airbase on the flat glacial moraine at Kangerlussuaq to refuel aircraft being ferried to Britain. The leading edge of the vast Greenland Ice Sheet looms just a short way along a dirt road outside town. DAY 2 | SISIMIUT With 5,600 inhabitants, picturesque Sisimiut is the second-largest city in Greenland, with a reputation as a ‘rough, remote and real’ outdoor adventure hub. The descendants of Inuit Thule people form the majority of the population, whose brightly painted, colorful houses of red, yellow, green and blue stand out against a gray and white landscape. The Sisimiut Museum exhibits a traditional Greenlandic peat house and the remains of an 18th-century kayak. DAY 3 | ILULISSAT Ilulissat is Greenlandic for ‘icebergs,’ and that pretty much says it all. The immense Jacobshavn Glacier produces about ten percent of all icebergs on earth. Ilulissat Icefjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site and icebergs dominate the senses with their austere white beauty, the rumblings and booms of their births, and the subtle scent of fresh melting ice flowing from the glacier. The polar explorer Knud Rasmussen’s house is a museum and an adjacent small art museum has exhibits of art and photography, including indigenous soapstone carvings. DAY 4 | EQI GLACIER The grandeur of Greenland’s natural landscape is epitomized at the three-mile (5 km)-wide face of Eqi Glacier . From the center of the island, it descends steadily to become one of Greenland’s most active calving glaciers. Hundreds of bergs shear from its ice cliffs daily and debris, including some the size of an apartment building, fill the bay downstream from the face. The largest events generate tsunami waves that reach 14 feet (4m) in height. Meltwater below the glacier’s tongue attracts seals, seabirds and sometimes whales. DAY 5 | QILAKITSOQ & UUMMANNAQ At Qilakitsoq in 1972, hunters uncovered human remains identified as eight Thule women and children mummified in the dry, sub-freezing climate over 500 years earlier. Along with clothing made from skins and feathers, they are now displayed in Nuuk. Your archaeologist will also explain other remains from Thule and earlier Dorset cultures. The town of Uummannaq sits under a pyramidal peak across the fjord, where a turf hut built for a Danish television show remains ‘Santa’s home’ in the imaginations of Greenlandic and Danish children. Most of Uummannaq Island’s inhabitants make their living from halibut fishing. DAY 6 | UPERNAVIK The picturesque and colorful town of Upernavik in the 100-island Upernavik Archipelago marks the most northerly point of our Greenland voyage. Officially founded in 1772, it was certainly the site of much earlier Inuit occupation. Greenlandic sled dogs power winter transport here and spend summer days staked out in the yards of homes. The important wooden “qamutiq (sleds)” are stacked awaiting the first late autumn snows. A Viking runestone found in 1824 among three rock cairns on nearby Kingittorsuaq Island is the most northerly Norse artifact discovery to date. DAY 7 | POND INLET Cruising ice-speckled Eclipse Sound against the backdrop of tall, glaciated peaks, we approach the Inuit town of Pond Inlet in Canada’s Nunavut territory. This is one of the most interesting, culturally rich and welcoming Arctic communities, immersing infrequent visitors into the living modern Inuit culture. Private homes display caribou antlers and skulls. The hides of seals, caribou and possibly polar bears dry in the sun. The local market sells seal, whale and caribou meat and a wide variety of fish. Wooden sleds lying in the yards here are now more often towed by snowmobiles than dogs. Join your Expedition Team to further explore this welcoming Inuit community. DAY 8 | DUNDAS HARBOUR & CROKER BAY An abandoned RCMP post marks Dundas Harbour as a ghost town where people simply will not live. Established in 1924, it was bought by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1933. Inuits came here from Cape Dorset in 1934, but left 13 years later. Amongst a landscape aglow in Arctic autumn colors is a memento of a few who stayed: the white crosses and picket fence of one of the world’s most northerly cemeteries. Nearby are