day 4 -- caribou, fox, and tourists, oh my!

The high light of the day -- this gorgeous arctic fox trotted ahead of us on the road for a few hundred feet, then sauntered off toward the river. Our amazement left us fumbling for cameras, so the photo doesn't do the sighting much justice.


Today was the first day we split up. Meredith and Laura headed out near Eric Post's site to sample boulders along moraines, and Xiahong, Ross, and I went to Vulgaris Valley (see previous post) to do a vegetation survey and collect soil across the east-west running valley. Before we headed out, we managed to do a little cultural exploration -- a trip to the local grocery store! See below for photos of some of our exciting finds, but please note that this is the only store in town, so besides food there are most of the items you'd expect at a five-and-dime: clothing (Puma is in high fashion), shoes, kitchen appliances, fishing poles, glass seed beads for traditional regalia, linens, etc.


This garlic is great! Xiahong put some in our vegetable stir fry dinner. Keep in mind that Greenlandic and Danish are the primary languages. Supporting a vegetarian diet has proven difficult, veganism is impossible if relying on the cafeteria, so we splurged ($60 for 5 people on rice, veggies, and a bottle of soy sauce) to get some fresh vegetables into our diet. Most 'freshies' are imported from Denmark, altough potatoes are grown in southern Greenland, and the KISS staff grow their own personal stash of tomatoes in the windows of the field station.


The fresh vegetable section.


Muskox


Smoked seal meat


Seal blubber? Our dictionary lacks 'puisip orsua,' but puisi means seal in Greenlandic.



The subsistence hunting season starts tomorrow, and we fear this young male caribou won't last long. He was unafraid of the five of us on the shore of the lake, and equally unafraid of the two tour buses and large hiking group that came by as he meandered across the road.


This morning on our way out into the field, there was no blue ice. This large piece crumbled into the Watson river below while we were out and about.


For those of you who think we're in the middle of nowhere, check out the crowd we came upon. Greenland ecotourism is expanding quickly. Thursdays mark the arrival of the Fram, a tourist cruise ship that makes weekly cycles along the coast, and Kangerlussuaq, the only international airport in Greenland, is the point of embarcation. Four tourist buses were blocking the road as we headed out of the field. This is the more people than we've seen in 'Kanger,' a town of 490.

Tomorrow morning we head to the ice margin, where we will camp for two nights. We'll post about that leg of the journey when we return on Sunday. I'm still hoping to see an arctic hare! The subspecies found here stays white all year long and is known for it's fondness for standing on its hind feet to scan the landscape, then staying upright as it hops about!