Today is a day we have been looking forward to because we have a full day trip to see Eqi Glacier (but when they say it, it seems like there is an R in there, like eck-ree and say it all in the back of your mouth). Eqi Glacier is a huge glacier farther up north that is supposed to calve a lot.

We started off on the boat at 9am, after taking an overpriced taxi to the meeting point because the City Bus runs on a different schedule on the weekends. I always forget about weekends when I travel. It was kind of drizzly and foggy out, so we were hopeful that there was no fog up at the glacier because that would obstruct our whole view and reason for being there. 

Our boat was divided up into 4 booths and there were 4 groups of people, so we didn’t have to share with any strangers–which was a good thing. It also had a ladder up to the roof, which we could go up on when the boat was stopped. It even had a little bathroom downstairs, which is also a good thing to have on a 6 hour tour. The interesting thing about boat trips in Greenland is that in addition to life vests, they also have to carry safety suits, which I guess are like dry suits to keep you warm in the heart-stopping, hypothermia-inducing, cold water–if only Jack had had a safety suit, we wouldn’t have to wonder if there was room on that door for him with Rose. Speaking of The Door, the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was from Greenland and probably from Ilulissat, where we are staying. The people of Ilulissat will tell you it absolutely, unequivocally, 100% was from Ilulissat. 

Anyways, the schedule was drive for 2 hours to the glacier, bask in the glory of the glacier for 2 hours while eating lunch, and then drive back for 2 hours with a couple of little pit stops along the way. First stop was a cool waterfall because everyone, and thetwinsontour are no exception, loves a good waterfall. We also made a quick stop to see some more cliff-nesting birds.

The Eqi Glacier is supposedly massive, but it looks quite small. It’s a glacier that comes right up to the water, and moves at a speed of 11 meters per day. Whoa! That’s fast for a giant piece of ice! I think.  It does extend 4 km back on land. It makes sounds like thunder as it moves, shifts, and breaks. I think most of the calving was happening on the inside of the glacier (if that’s possible). I heard lots of explosive, rumbling thunder, but only saw some small bits calve once. I kept trying to video just in case though. A wall of ice makes for extremely riveting video. If you are lucky, we will share some to our multiple social media accounts. This is an ideal time to remind you to like and follow thetwinsontour on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WordPress.

Unfortunately, it did start to rain while we were there. Just a light rain, but it was enough precipitation that I felt the need to dig out my rain coat. Not just any raincoat, my Antarctica raincoat! Look at me using supplies I already owned! So, really it was a great economical decision to come to Greenland since I already have the raincoat! I also brought my waterproof Antarctica pants. Luckily, the weather has been lovely, and the pants have been unnecessary. 

The trip did include a lunch. I have no idea what it was, but it was tasty. I wish I was better at identifying grains. It was either couscous or quinoa, I can never remember which is which, with some veggies mixed in and some bread thing that tasted suspiciously like tuna. They also scooped a block of “black ice” which is super clear ice with no air bubbles out of the water. Then they broke it up with an ice pick and hammer so we could have glacier ice in our Coke! I don’t usually like ice, but no way I was passing up Glacier Ice!

While we ate, our driver told us about how he comes up to Eqi Glacier to seal hunt with his sled dogs. Needless to say, after lunch we cornered him so we could get real information about sled dogs from a real Greenlandic person from Ilulissat, instead of getting it from Danish tour guides that are just here for the summer. It turns out, most of the information we shared the other day was only partially correct. Here is what he told us in no particular order:
*In the summer, they feed the dogs every other day because they are just laying around and sleeping, so they don’t need much. So this is not twice a week like we were told previously.
*His dogs are more like pets, so he feeds them every day.
*His dogs are getting some leftover seal tonight, so they will be very excited.
*Normally, they just get regular old kibble dog food.
*In the summer, he mixes the kibble with water. Dry kibble makes them thirsty, and he needs to make sure they have enough water to last the day. Wet kibble keeps them from getting thirsty, especially if they splash their water out of their bowls like my Lucy Baby used to do.
*He has taught his dogs to sit, roll over, and shake. Everyone teases him about this because apparently you are not supposed to teach your sled dogs tricks.
*I begged him to get coats and clothes for his dogs. I told him he would be Instagram famous if he did. Can you imagine sled dogs in matching coats or banana split costumes racing across the ice and snow? It would be AMAZING!
*There are only 2 “Danish” dogs in Ilulissat. They are drug sniffing dogs that work at the airport.
*North of some settlement that I don’t remember, they are only allowed to have Greenlandic dogs.
*If you take your Greenlandic dogs south, you will be forced to put them down. This happened recently, and it was on the news.
*South of that settlement, there are only “Danish” dogs. Danish seems to refer to every other type of dog. My sweet Artichoke is a Danish dog, or she would be if she lived in Greenland. He said his friend in Nuuk had a small Danish dog that barks a lot–a chihuahua.
*He pays 300 kroner (with the current exchange rate, about $47) per year to the city for his plot of land where he keeps his dogs.  (There is only one backyard in all of Ilulissat or maybe Greenland./ It’s the church parish where the priest lives. So the dogs live just wherever, but not in your yard since there are no yards.You don’t own land in Greenland, just your house.)
*It doesn’t matter if it’s a rocky plot or a grassy plot. All the dog plots cost the same.
*He prefers the stone plots with no grass because that way they aren’t getting dirty rolling around in the mud. The stones also help to file their nails.

That is all of the pertinent dog facts for now because we are going to ignore the unsavory, compassionless side of only keeping the best puppies and sled dogs.

So, as you can guess, I just kept taking pictures of the glacier. We were stopped about 800 meters (just shy of a kilometer) from it for safety. And, that way we could get the whole glacier in without using panorama mode.

Evidently, in the winter the whole area freezes. Boats can’t get up to the glacier because all the hunks of icebergs freeze– and it is solid enough that you can take dog sleds out on it to hunt seals. They can hook the dogs up fan style instead of kindergarteners-holding-a-rope-on-a-field trip style because there are no trees to circumnavigate. They just come to an island as close as they can, park the boat, unload the dogs, and start hunting. (This is a way of life, so we must respect it even if we don’t like it.)

Anyways, after taking a million identical photos, it was time to head back to town. Not gonna lie, the inside of the boat was nice and cozy and my eyes refused to stay open. That is, until the tour guide said the magical word–Whale! We were out that door as quickly as we could go. They even stopped and let us up on the roof for a while. As this appeared to be a single, lone wolf humpback, I stood back and let others get their photos. After a few minutes, it was back downstairs so the boat could speed again. Safety first! If you fell off the roof into the water, in addition to being all wet, you would be dead in 3 minutes. It is that cold– think of all the ice. Think of Jack and The Door.

We were back in town right on schedule at 3pm.  We had planned to do a bit of souvenir shopping at the 2 shops in the city center, but they were closed! And it was another cruise ship day. Imagine being closed with a huge influx of cruisers wandering around town. It just does not make good business sense. 

Walking back to the hotel, we walked past the Fish & Chips food truck and decided that would be the perfect dinner even though we don’t eat fish. However, it was far too early to eat dinner. Do you know what we did? We stopped and asked what time he closed. What great planning! That way we could properly coordinate our hotel departure time with the hours of the Fish & Chips truck. Brilliant! The answer is 7pm, he was open until 7pm.

That gave us a few hours to go back to our hotel.  At this point in our trip, we’ve tried to give up taking a taxi to and from town because that costs about 74 kroner ($12) each time even though its just a 3-4 minute drive. So, we made the 20 minute walk back up that dreaded hill to our hotel, so that we could walk back down it a few hours later.

We made it back to the food truck with plenty of time to spare. This was our most economical meal so far! We decided that we could split the large portion instead of getting two smalls (which would still have been one of our cheaper meals). It was 190 kroner for the meal deal that came with a Coke. Unfortunately, the credit card machine was down and we have not pulled any money out of the ATM because 1. we haven’t really seen an ATM anywhere and 2. we’ve been able to pay with card for everything. Luckily, our German friend that we met had tagged along with us and she had kroner and paid for our dinner.

Back to Fish & Chips, I did confirm that it was fresh Greenlandic Cod caught by the local fisherman that morning. Yes, that fresh! But it, of course, was not caught by the guy working there. We got 4 giant pieces of it. It was quite mild and tasty. However, there was no malt vinegar, just some tarter sauce stuff which was kind of plain and boring. So maybe if you are planning a trip to the food truck you should go to Long John Silvers and grab a few extra packets of malt vinegar. 

After stuffing ourselves on freshly caught and freshly fried cod, we went to find the ATM he told us about. It may be the only one in town? At least its the only one on the map. We knew we were in the right spot because there was a line of about 20 people.  After waiting a while, some people started talking Greenlandic,and the guy in front of us gave up and left. Then someone walked away with no money. Then a lady got some money out and she did a little celebration dance. Finally, it was our turn. I put in my PIN and completed my transaction, but then it was just clocking until it said it could not communicate with my bank. No big deal because stuff like that happens sometimes depending on ATM brand, time of day etc. So we tried my sister’s ATM card, and got the same result. Travel pro-tip: always travel with different ATM and credit card accounts than your travel partner in case of issues like this or lost/stolen cards. You should not both bring cards from the exact same account because if you have to put a stop on the account, what will you do with no working card? Who even knows how or where to Western Union money anymore? It’s also a good idea to have a debit account with a small amount of money that you use only for travel, that way if you lose the card, the bad people don’t have access to your life savings. It’s best to get a debit card that does not have transaction fees like Schwab because those fees can add up quickly, especially if the bank/ATM limits the amount of money per withdrawal. Great tips, even if they did not help me this time. I later found out that the credit network used in Greenland, Denmark, and most of Scandinavia was down. It was a huge issue impacting millions of people.

On that long winded note, I am going to call this enough for one day. Have a good night!

Love,
thetwinsontour