Starting Our Pond Inlet Adventure
It was a warm, bright and sunny day in Ottawa this morning when we arrived at the Ottawa International Airport to begin our travels to Pond Inlet. We arrived at the airport eager and a little bit nervous about starting our trip. At 8:00am we approached the desk to check-in, drop off our bags and pick up our boarding passes – our first flight to Iqaluit would leave at 9:15am. We approached the desk, heaved our luggage onto the scale and were stunned to realize that we had packed one of our bags 25lbs over the weight limit! (Our first problem less than 5 minutes into our trip – this doesn’t seem to be a good sign) With a 70lb luggage weight limit, we managed to fill a suitcase with 95lbs of food. We pulled our bags off of the scale and began the stressful task of moving our food from one bag to another, just trying to make this weight limit. We’re moving 95lbs bags onto scales and dragging them around the airport, while wearing heavy sweaters and winter boots (trying to make room in our bags) in the 30oC Ottawa weather – boy were we sweatin’! About 15 minutes later, we worked everything out and were on our way to our gate. The first win for Lindsay and Jon!The flight to Iqaluit took about 3.5 hours and we had a 2-hour stopover before our next flight to Clyde River. When we got off the plane, we decided to take a walk around the area and see what we could find in our short time in Iqaluit. In our brief 2-hour stopover, we visited the provincial legislative chamber and two museums. Check out our pictures!
We are now in Pond Inlet after our flight from Clyde River. Landing in Pond Inlet was something quite surreal. The community is surrounded on one side by sheets of ice and snow as far as the eye can see while the other side is lined with massive snow-covered mountains. We can’t wait to meet members of the community and to learn more about the land (More pictures of the incredible scenery to follow – stay tuned). We were graciously welcomed at the airport and have settled into our new home for the next five weeks. We are just in the process of unpacking all of our food and clothes but we are motivated and excited to meet with community leaders and to plan lessons in the coming days. Although it has only been less than 15 hours into our Pond Inlet adventure, we have already had some awesome experiences and cannot wait to have more!
Peace!Jon and Lindsay