East Greenland: Final Day and Return

On the morning of August 19th the members of our NatHab group had a choice between a long, fast hike and a town-visit walk. Having done a long hike yesterday, Joan and I opted for the town visit.

We all started together, headed down the road towards Kulusuk. After passing the new cemetery, visited yesterday, we could see the town ahead.

Closer to town there was a fork in the road and the ambitious hikers veered off to the left. Taking the right-hand way we soon came to the old cemetery at the outskirts of town.

It was adjacent to the road.

The view towards town.

This house was on the other side of the road. Love the shade of blue.

Strings of seal carcasses were being kept nearby in the Arctic water for preservation.

First we visited a grocery store, and then a compact crafts store operated by the Danish couple that had accompanied us to the Inuit drum dance yesterday. There I took a photo of this explanation of the tupilak/tupilaq. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Next, we began to climb the hill above town.

Our chosen path took us by some young dogs, and of course we had to stop.

Here's a view from the top. Behind us is a communications tower, while the photo is looking out to sea.

After admiring the panorama we continued on, reaching a promontory close to the water.

Note the bust facing the water. It is of the famous preserver of Inuit tradition, Milka "Miilikka" Kûitse,

and was donated to Kulusuk in 2009. Miilikka was the mother of Anna and Anda, both of whom continued her efforts in drum dancing. Anda was the performer we admired yesterday. Note that Miilikka's hair is done with the traditional "heart" bun, which she was one of the last to wear.

My photo of the plaque didn't turn out well.

Then it was time to return to the hotel for lunch, and the short drive to the airport. The terminal was crowded -- it's not large -- but everything there went smoothly enough. We spent our last Danish kroner on headband for Joan, featuring a musk-ox, before we boarded the turboprop for Reykjavik.

Still blessed by the weather, I was able to get a few pictures through the airplane's window before Greenland faded behind us.

In Reykjavik the van first dropped off those staying at the Reykjavik Marina hotel. The drive through the city was congested, with activities going in virtually every open space. Today, it turned out, was the Reykjavik Marathon.

This has grown into an international event; on the plane back to JFK we overheard several marathoners chatting about their experiences.

After a forty-five minute drive the van dropped the rest of us off at the Park Inn, near the international airport (Keflavik).

When Joan and I were checking in for our flight home the next morning, the Delta agent had difficulties with the first terminal, and transferred her processing of Joan's reservation to another one. It was only some minutes after leaving the line that Joan discovered that her boarding pass didn't have the TSA PreCheck designation she was entitled to. This was worrisome because our connection in JFK was not generous, but we hoped that, with our Global Entry cards, we'd be OK.

Then, when boarding the plane, Joan was chosen for secondary screening. This was a random selection, but it didn't seem auspicious. We've learned that there's almost always something in Joan's duffel, or possibly because we always check in very early, that causes her luggage to get an inspection by TSA, with the obligatory search letter inserted.

After we boarded the plane the captain mentioned that he hoped to get away from the gate a few minutes early, to offset stronger than usual headwinds. However, Reykjavik ground operations didn't cooperate, and we were late pushing off. (Side note: Delta had two flights to JFK from Reykjavik within half an hour of each other. Go figure.)

We arrived at JFK 25 minutes late on a 2 hour, 10 minute connection. The long tromp down to immigration was shared with a flood of people who had just arrived from Paris. We nervously used Global Entry kiosks for the first time, but that worked well, although JFK needs more machines and more accessible machines. In general JFK is overwhelmed by traffic.

It took a while for our luggage to arrive, and we were anxious over two bags on the carousel that looked just like Joan's -- would anybody try to take these? I had one false alarm wherein I waved to Joan that she should check a fellow leaving the luggage area. His bag was much like ours, but not ours.

Then baggage recheck and through security again. More time was lost because we couldn't tell that the security cordon on this level had no TSA Precheck line. An attendant redirected us two floors higher up. At that security line, even though Global Entry automatically qualifies the passenger for TSA PreCheck, the personnel refused to let Joan enter PreCheck because there was no such stamp on her boarding pass. Fortunately we had sprung for business class and there was a short line for that.

Then we ran to gate B18 to hop onto the Delta jitney to Terminal 2, and dashed to gate C69. Joan and I arrived 5 minutes before boarding started. Without Global Entry we might not have made it.

We and our luggage both made it to Columbus on our original flight, but I hope to never use JFK for international arrival again! Even so, our Greenland Base Camp expedition with Natural Habitat Adventures was a highlight of the year.