Day 11

Finally, a day without driving!

We got to know Inuvik today with a visit to the Western Arctic Visitors Center (where we picked up our "Order of the Arctic" certificates, testimony to our having made it across the Arctic Circle, but without flip-flop endorsement, alas). Outide, you can walk a trail through a boreal forest, see mock-ups of hunting and whaling camps, and see one of the most unique wind vanes ever: a real Cessna 70 mounted on a 30-foot pole.

We also stopped by Our Lady of Victory Church, aka the "Igloo Church." (I'll get a picture up here later, but I figure you can guess what it looks like.) The church was built without plans in the late 50s and is one of the few strutures not built on piles driven into permafrost (it rests on the edge of a circular concrete slab). There's some great artwork inside, most of which was done by an 18-year-old artist nearly 40 years ago. There were also framed copies of the building specifications, drawn after construction had begun. (Guess they figured if one support worked, all of them would.)

Inuvik itself is really a happenin' kind of town. Our hotel is quite comfortable, and there's a small mix of touristy shops, restaurants, and crafts stores. Amazingly, most of them close up around 6:00 pm. And like other end of the road places, Inuvik has an interesting collection of people. Aong with what you'd expect (i.e., Indians and Anglos), we've seen Asians, Middle Easterners, and Europeans. People have come from all over to Inuvik. Our idea for a trek up here is not as unique as we'd thought.

And everybody here seems to have a dog, with huskies (or mixes) naturally being the most numerous. One thing I haven't seen many of are cats. Survival of the fittest, perhaps, or no inclination to be up here in the first place?

Speaking of critters, I had a delicious caribou burger for lunch (very tasty!) and an Arctic Char filet for dinner (not bad, but not too different from salmon). I hope to try musk ox, another local taste treat, before we leave.

But the most exciting and unique part about Inuvik is...yep, you guessed it: TV bingo! Locals can buy cards and play at home via the cable system. It's pretty low-tech (a fixed camera is focused on a large playing board and a mysterious hand shows the ball and number before setting it in place), but people must do it. The ads boast $800 payouts. Imagine living in a fishing hut hundreds of kilometers away, watching the numbers roll up on your satellite dish, and using your radio phone to call in "BINGO"! Who says technology hasn ruined our native cultures?

Speaking of satellite dishes, most of them are aimed just above the horizon, another reminder of just how far north we are. We've also spotted a couple of ham antennas in town and may try to have an "eyeball QSO."