The Rainbow Town of Sisimiut

Today was a special day. Besides it being my 22^nd birthday, we visited an adorable, colorful town called Sisimiut. The town is the southernmost town still within the Arctic Circle. The boundaries of the Arctic are defined in various ways. The most common includes all areas north of the Arctic Circle. If defined by other criteria, however, the region extends south of the confines of the Arctic circle. If the climatic and biological criteria were to be combined, the Arctic is divded into three sections… sub-Arctic, High Arctic and Low Arctic. The sub-Arctic is in the South, High Arctic in the north, and the Low Arctic is between the two. Despite how the borders are classified, the land masses within the Arctic only consist of 5% of the total land surface on Earth and the Arctic represents only 4% of the world’s ocean area.

Colorful buildings in Sisimiut, Greenland

Sisimiut is the northernmost town in Greenland where the port remains free of ice in the winter but the southernmost town in Greenland where it is possible to drive a dogsled in both winter and spring. The town’s name means “the inhabitants at the foxholes” and it was founded in 1756.

Sisimiut is the southernmost Greenland town where people are allowed to breed Arctic dogs

Colorful houses reflected in the water

Old boats are laid to rest in this field

In the old quarter, buildings from the first 100 years of the colonial period still stand, such as the museum area with an archway built of whale jawbones.

Underneath the whale bones

This town is Greenland’s second largest, with 6,000 people living in the town and the settlements of Kangerlussuaq, Sarfannguaq, and Itilleq. Don’t ask me how to pronounce those names!! Due to the town’s proximity to the sea, it is no surprise that the main industry is fishing (where mainly prawns and crabs are processed in a high-tech factory).

One of the churches in Sisimiut

Our time in the town was spent on a long city walk, approximately 1.5 miles with a 200-foot elevation gain. We walked around the harbor, crafts market, a lake, the commercial district, and more. One of the things I love about this town is the fact that all the buildings are color coded and the entire town looks like a rainbow. For instance, one color would represent a post office and another color would represent a school. Another thing I loved about this town was the landscape!

Getting low always provides interesting perspective!

We arrived back on board in the afternoon and saw a short kayaking performance where a local literally flipped around in circles in the cold, Arctic water. The Sisimiut local was demonstrating how prepared you have to be to kayak these waters and the variety of maneuvers to flip the kayak back upright if it tips over. But to top the day off, we began setting sail for the High Arctic when our captain spotted fin whales by the bow. Fin whales are the second largest animal on the planet (blue whales are the largest) and they can reach 85 feet in length. The dorsal and lateral sides of the body are dark grey or black and the belly is white. The whale didn’t stick around for very long, but we saw it popping up for air. I was hoping it would breach but unfortunately we weren’t that lucky…

I promise it's a whale ;)

Panoramic Greenland

This evening, the captain invited us to a special dinner with a few other guests. It was great learning more about his experience as a captain in the Arctic and Antarctic waters. After a very heavy meal with many courses (they feed us well!) the crew came out to sing happy birthday. What a special birthday this was! 

Mom and I at the captain's dinner with my birthday cake 

The crew sang me the most hilarious birthday song... and proceeded to give me hugs and kisses! Mousse dessert with ice cream and white chocolate

That's all for now... Stay tuned for more Greenland/Iceland/Canadian High Arctic adventures. Also, be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts, as there is sometimes unreliable internet! Follow my instagram @elissatitle for more photography posts.