POLAR BEAR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD - CHURCHILL, CANADA

Churchill, Manitoba

My friends and I departed from Calgary, Canada for a two hour charter flight to Churchill, Manitoba - a town on the west shore of Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba.

It is most

 famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" that has helped its growing tourism industry. 

Classic Tours provided a wonderful,  turn around, professional tour from Calgary. (And they called ahead and had the bears pose for us on the tundra!!)

A variety of nomadic Arctic people lived and hunted in this region. Europeans first arrived in the area in 1619 when a Danish expedition led by Jens Munk wintered where Churchill would later stand. In 1717 the Hudson's Bay Company built the first permanent settlement, Churchill River Post, a log fort a few miles upstream from the south of the Churchill River. 

Between the years of decline in the fur trade and surfacing of western agricultural success, Churchill phased into and then back out of obsolecence. This area was the site of the Churchill Rocket Research Range, part of Canadian - American atmospheric research until closing in 1984.

Churchill is situated at the estuary of the Churchill River at Hudson Bay. The small community stands at an ecotone, on the Hudson Plains, at the juncture of three ecoregions: the boreal forest to the south, the Arctic tundra to the northwest, and the Hudson Bay to the North. 

Hanging out with friends on the tundra......

Starting in the 1980's, the town developed a sizable tourism industry focused on the migration habits of the polar bear. Tourists can safely view polar bears from speciallly modified buses known as tundra buggies.

Use of the buggies helps sustain local tourism. October and early November are the most feasible times to see polar bears, thousand of which wait on the vast peninsula until the water freezes on the Hudson Bay so that they can return to hunt their primary food source, ringed seals.  Many locals leave their cars unlocked in case someone needs to make a quick escape from the polar bears in the area. 

There  are no roads from Churchill leading to the rest of Canada. There is a railroad , and two airlines. 

Saving the Polar Bears

Global warming is the greatest long-term problem for polar bears. Hunting, industrial pressures like shipping and offshore oil development , human-bear conflicts, and a larger human presence in polar bear country. 

Ice is critically important to polar bears, but all ice in the Arctic is not the same.

Two basic varieties of arctic ice - freshwater and sea ice. All that matters to the polar bear is whether the ice is suitable for hunting seals - the polar bear's favored prey.  Sea-ice must also be the right thickness to provide good habitat for polar bears. 

Polar bears are fastidious about keepin g their white fur clean. One of the ways they do this is by  sliding on their belllies and rolling around in the snow. 

Polar bear moms spend two  and a half years teaching their cubs how to live and hunt in the Arctic. Very important - needed to survive  in a challenging environment. 

Polar bears can be food - deprived for longer than any other mammal. The pregnant females in Hudson Bay region ome ashoe in summer and don't feed again until the following February - 8 months without feeding. they give birth and nurse new cubs during this time. 

I can come on the tundra buggy if you want me????

The Tundra Buggy Hotel......

Polar bears have an exceptionally powerful sense of smell. They can find a seal's breathing hole under three feet of snow....

Another friend on the tundra - The Arctic Fox!!

Our tundra buggie driver.......

Time to leave.............may I go with you...........

This was an incredible wonderful adventure..........

GOOD BYE......

EASTER ISLAND - OUR FINAL DESTINATION

Far - flung Rapa Nui considered by many to be the world's most remote island, Rapa Nui was granted world heritage status by UNESCO in 1995.

Three million years ago, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of almost 9,800 feet , a huge volcano began to rise up.

This was the birth of Poike, the first of the big volcanos, which now forms the eastern edge of the island. Five hundred thousand years later, a second eruption southeast of the first gave rise to Rano Kau

. Finally , 300,000 years ago Maunga Terevaka rose up, ceating the far northern tip of Rapa Nui, which has a surface are of 64 square miles and a maximum width of 7.5 miles.

Rapa Nui's first human inhabitants arrived 1,400 years ago, from Polynesia. This period saw some noteworth developments such as rongo rongo - hieroglyphic script which experts have been unable to decipher, and the veneration of ancestors, centered around the moai,

enormous statues made out of volcanic rock. Over 900 moai were built in total.

Hundreds of years passed before new exployers reached the island;

this time they were European travelers. The first to arrive was the Dutch mariner Jacob Rogeveen, who gave the island the name Isla de Pascua or Easter Island in 1722. 

A REMOTE AREA

Rapa Nui is the world's most remote inhabited island. It is separated by 2,300 miles from the American continent at its nearest point: the Chilean coast, Pitcairn Island, the nearest inhabited place is almost 1,250 miles to the southwest.

ANCIENT CULTURE

The culture of Rapa Nui still thrives today and retains many of its original forms. The island's inhabitants are very proud of their culture, which they have preserved and passed down from one generation to the next.

Vananga, the language of Rapa Nui, contines to be actively used; dances such as the Sau-Sau and the Tamure, together with musical traditions, contine to bring life to festivites and ceremonies.

The cuisine also safeguards some ancient recipes, such as Tunuahi (fish cooked on volanic rocks heated by burning firewood).

There are 150 species of marine wildlife belonging to more tha 60 different families.

About 25% of all species can only be found in this corner of the planet.   The Pacific Ocean bordering the island has an excellent visibility of to a dept of 165 feet. 

Meeting another friend along the way......hiking together......we hiked down this hilll.....

a moai hidden under a ceremonial altar

The ladies hiking together.....

ORONGO - THE BIRDMAN CEREMONIAL VILLAGE

A ceremonial village comprised by 54 houses, related to Make-Make

cult and the "birdman" competition. It was an annual ceremony where chiefs of different tribes competed to obtain the first egg of he Manatara.

Participants went down through the cliff and swam to Motu Nui to wait for the bird to nest.

Participants returned to the village and was endowed as langata-manu or birdman or the chief - considered sacred. 

Friends on the Island....

Staying at Explora.......

The day's activities....and the bar.....

A view from my room.......

GOOD BYE TO A WONDERFUL PLACE.....