Sleepy sled dogs and buildingsSisimiut was our first official stop in Greenland after our journey down the Sondre Stromfjord. The community has been around for 4,500 years. From the Saqqaq culture, we saw additions of the Dorset people, the Thule, and then from Canada and Denmark. Sisimiut means “the inhabitants at the foxhole” and remains ice free all year. These conditions, coupled with some of Greenland’s deepest fjords, make the bay home to some of the areas many whales and seals. Sisimiut is known largely for its fishing industry and is a busy port! We saw many families leaving by boat with food and goods for their home.
Sisimiut was also our first view of the bright colored homes that are so iconic to the Arctic. When Denmark colonized Greenland back in 1721, the arrival marked the new colonial style of wooden homes sent over from Denmark in timber kits. They also found that it was easier to paint the homes with colors for what was in the building while the locals were still learning to speak Danish. Commercial homes were red; hospitals were yellow; police stations black; the telephone company was green and fish factories were blue.
Nowadays, you’ll also find orange, pink and purple scattered about the village. I think this is a wonderful contrast to the tundra brown.
We had a lovely time walking the village with our guide. We visited the local heritage museum, saw the many sled dogs resting in the summer sun, and visited the grocery store to stock up on my favorite Scandinavian chocolate bar: Daim med melk sjkolade.
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
4 days ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.
Mary Warren
5 days ago
Jess was very easy going and answered all our questions. It’s not easy dealing with 6 people at once but she did an outstanding job!
Diane Foster
1 week ago
Kassandra and the Adventure Life team have been incredible! Kassandra was very knowledgeable and attentive to our asks while making sure we kept within our budget. This was our first experience with a travel agent and we were blown away by the booking/initial exploration service. We will use Adventure Life again.