Aappilattoq, Greenland, August 29, 2017: Aappilattoq is a village at the entrance to Prins Christian Sund. Prinsendam called at a few days ago to deliver pizza. Today we returned. The Captain had arranged for a limited shore visit. He set it up so that those who thought themselves physically fit enough collected tickets with a specific time window to go ashore. The idea was that we would not swamp the village. That each of us would spend just a short time there. When we arrived off of Aappilattog, fog played around the village making getting into it difficult.
The fog lifted after we had been sitting off the village for two hours and those of us who considered ourselves fit enough got to visit this small village. But when we arrived there were few people.
The captain had invited the whole village on board Prinsendam. There are fewer than 200 residents so the ship could handle it. After our walk around the town we went back to the lido deck where there was a party going on. Inuit dancing and drumming as people ate ice cream, pizza, drank cokes and ate sandwiches and fruit salad. Burgers were a particular hit. The kids loved the elevators (I remember our kids going to Mt. Edgecumbe hospital on a first-grade field trip to ride the elevators.) Those who spoke English wanted to try it out on us. It was a great experience for all of us. When the villagers left one kids said “can you come back tomorrow?” They left with bags full of sandwiches, cokes and fresh fruit that they took back to the village. The ship ended up with fresh cod, which was served at dinner that night.
