{"id":395,"date":"2014-12-15T15:55:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T20:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/?p=395"},"modified":"2024-02-22T11:07:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:07:10","slug":"an-experience-in-the-polar-bear-capitol-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/an-experience-in-the-polar-bear-capitol-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"An Experience in the Polar Bear Capitol of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

by an AFAR Ambassador<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

I arrived to Manitoba, Canada, for my polar bear expedition with Tauck<\/a>, and within my first thirty minutes at the Inn at the Forks in Winnipeg, I knew that I was not only in another country: I had entered another world.\u00a0 Words like Inuit<\/i>, mushing<\/i>, ptarmigan<\/i>, grouse<\/i>, dainty<\/i> and Inukshuk<\/i> were mingled into my conversation with a young woman named Dene who welcomed me from Travel Manitoba<\/a>, and I tried to decipher with context clues what these words actually meant.<\/p>\n

Our group hopped a chartered flight the next morning to Churchill, the polar bear capitol of the world.\u00a0 Churchill is accessible only by plane or train, but plane is definitely the way to go: it\u2019s a forty hour train ride from Winnipeg, due to environment factors and land conditions.\u00a0 We arrived to the warm Lazy Bear Lodge, our outpost over the next few days as we explored this remote Canadian town and searched for its most famous inhabitants.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Lazy Bear Lodge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I felt very far from New York City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The culture of Churchill is a microcosm of Manitoba, as its year-round inhabitants have had to become resourceful and inventive in order to live here with its harsh weather conditions.<\/p>\n

There is an open-car-door policy in this town: everyone is required to leave the doors of their cars unlocked, in the case that a resident is walking around and gets approached by a bear.\u00a0 Colin, our local guide for the trip, as well as Dale, our Tauck guide and also a Canadian, explained the protocol to us: \u201cIf you\u2019re walking around and you see a polar bear, just jump into the closest vehicle and start honking the horn to scare it off– or at least, to notify people close by of the situation.\u201d\u00a0 This was definitely a different kind<\/i> of street awareness from what I deal with in New York City.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
A majestic polar bear, spotted on our Tauck expedition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this place, polar bears are equally feared and respected.\u00a0 All Churchillians, as they fondly call themselves, know that the bears ruled this land way before they ever got here, and every effort is made to keep humans and bears living in harmony with one another.\u00a0 There is a polar bear alert team that stands watch on the town\u2019s borders in the effort to minimize any bear-to-human contact.\u00a0 If that contact cannot be diverted and a bear engages in behaviors like coming in to town, attempting to break into homes or if it does anything that could potentially threaten the safety of Churchill\u2019s residents, it is deemed a \u201cbad bear\u201d and put into \u201cbear jail.\u201d\u00a0 Formally known as the Polar Bear Holding Facility (but called bear jail by all of the locals), this is a holding facility for up to eight \u201cinmates\u201d who are detained and then released out on to the Bay as soon as the ice forms.\u00a0 The polar bear is the only bear that will actually stalk people and is extremely stealthy; people have learned to adapt, but a great reverence for nature is at the forefront of life in Churchill.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Polar Bear Holding Facility. Humans cannot enter, as the goal is to keep the bears from becoming desensitized to human interaction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The people here have all adjusted to a different way of life: the shipping season is incredibly short, as summer just lasts for a few months.\u00a0 A ship isn\u2019t insured if it is in these arctic waters past October 31st, so in Churchill, Christmas in July really does exist.\u00a0 If you have ordered something at any point in the year and are waiting for it to come via ship (as most heavy items do for the sake of cost), it comes in July.\u00a0 Everyone in the town goes down to the docks and there is a huge celebration– that t.v. or snowmobile you ordered six months ago, has finally arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Life<\/a>
Life in Churchill at Dave Daley\u2019s Wapusk Adventures, where you can discover the culture of dogsledding and experience it for yourself.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tauck seeks to make every experience incredibly special, with unique and customized glimpses into a place and its culture.\u00a0 One evening, we went to meet a Maite woman in her seventies named Myrtle, who uses storytelling to conserve her culture.\u00a0 She has built a museum in Churchill full of personal and familial belongings, a museum that she has gifted to the city with the hopes that it will carry on the the legacy of her life and her people, long after she is gone.<\/p>\n

\"Learning<\/a>
Learning from Myrtle, a native Maite storyteller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We gather around as Myrtle tells stories of her childhood, of styling her hair with bear grease and of what it was like growing up as a trapper\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 \u201cNobody wants a skinny woman,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cThe worst thing about a skinny woman is she wasn\u2019t that cuddly.\u00a0 The men went for the biggest, hottest woman they could find to keep them warm in the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued on and had us all laughing and wide-eyed about her life here, and how it could be so incredibly different from our own– and even from the lives of people in her same country.\u00a0 Anything or anyone below<\/i> Churchill is referred to as the \u201csouth\u201d or as \u201csoutherners,\u201d and\u00a0 rightfully so: only true people of the north have been able to adapt and carve out a life here over the past several thousand years.<\/p>\n

\"Dogsledding<\/a>
Dogsledding with Wapusk Adventures.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We returned back to the Lazy Bear Lodge and Cafe, and I ordered a bison steak, mashed potatoes and some steaming hot tomato soup.\u00a0 I figured I needed to put a little more meat on my bones– to keep me warm, and because skinny women don\u2019t belong in these parts.\u00a0 With a full belly and a happy heart that evening, I drifted off to sleep.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The delicious food served at the Lazy Bear Cafe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For highlights from this tour through Manitoba, please\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by an AFAR Ambassador I arrived to Manitoba, Canada, for my polar bear expedition with Tauck, and within my first thirty minutes at the Inn at the Forks in Winnipeg, I knew that I was not only in another country: I had entered another world.\u00a0 Words like Inuit, mushing, ptarmigan, grouse, dainty and Inukshuk were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[109],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manitoba","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Experience in the Polar Bear Capitol of the World - USTOA Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Experiential travel writer Ashley Castle takes us on a polar bear expedition through Manitoba with USTOA member Tauck Tours.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/an-experience-in-the-polar-bear-capitol-of-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Experience in the Polar Bear Capitol of the World - 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