Travel Advisors of Los Gatos – Winter 2016

WINTER 2016 EDITION
CST 1002864-10
www.traveladvisorsoflosgatos.com
56 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos, CA 95030 • (408) 354-6531 • (800) 446-8644 • FAX: (408) 354-3871 • E-mail: info@tadvisor.com
THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE: MY ARCTIC CIRCLE ODYSSEY
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
by Ed Stahl
Rarely does anyone book a vacation not knowing if they’ll actually get where they’re hoping to go, but my latest trip was just that.
On August 21, I took a charter flight from Montreal to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where I boarded Abercrombie & Kent’s luxury
expedition ship “le Boreal.” This was the first-ever passenger expedition through the famed Northwest Passage. (The few cruises which visit the passage generally go part-way, then turn around and come back out.) This sea route that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans lies 500 miles north
of the Arctic Circle and is usually impassable because of ice. Although explorers tried for more than 400 years, the Northwest Passage was only first successfully traversed in 1906, after a 3-year expedition by Norwegian Roald Amundsen.
This cruise was a nature lover’s paradise, a geologist’s dream, and a unique opportunity to go where only a few hundred people have gone and to visit with the natives of those remote places.
We set off along the West Coast of Greenland, where we hiked to glaciers, walked the tundra, visited a town with as many sled dogs as people (4,500+), and visited Illulisat, the iceberg-cluttered fjord which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We also visited Upernavik, the northern- most town in the world, still a traditional hunting and fishing village.
After crossing Baffin Bay, we explored Nunavut and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. After a Zodiac ride to land, we spotted groups of shaggy, long-horned muskoxen on Devon Island, where we were accompanied
by several “guards,” who were to watch for polar bears. Over the next
few days, we saw polar bears several times. Other Zodiac outings led to
Polar bears on ice floe.
Ed with caribou antler.
additional sightings, and we spotted grizzly bears, Arctic hares and foxes, bearded seals, tundra swans, sandhill cranes and many other Arctic birds. We also got to see several kinds of whales along the way, including Beluga and Bowhead.
Although we eventually sailed into the Bering Sea, the cruise did not end (as originally proposed) in the Far East of Russia. For political reasons, our adventure concluded in Nome, Alaska.
Ready for a Northwest Passage adventure of your own? Abercrombie & Kent’s 2016 version of this trip is available now, and with only
199 passengers, it will sell out. Or, for the slightly less adventurous, consider Crystal’s brand-new cruise. This one seeks to guarantee a successful crossing with a helicopter onboard to find open water and an ice-breaker to accompany the ship. Call today (408) 354-6531 to get your next travel adventure under way.
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How to move an iceberg.