the top of the world, barrow alaska. it's as far north as you can go on the american continent. so far, this was the most amazing experience i had in my trip. this post has an especially large number of pictures - i just couldn't resist. read on for some exceptional stories.

barrow is the northmost village in the north slope of alaska. the majority of the population is native eskimo, also known as inupiat. the village counts about 4500 people. there are about 2 months of constant light and 3 months of constant dark during the year.

the weather is unbelievably cold. for tourists at least. the locals are either accustomed to it or have thicker skin. while i was freezing my butt off, some of the locals were walking around with t-shirts, shorts and sandals. i looked at them speechless.

the area inhabits polar bears, wolfs, caribou, ducks, whales, walrus and many more. the polar bears are very dangerous and will attack you if they are hungry. they usually are. polar bears sometimes walk straight into the village and are shot or scared off by the alert locals. many of the animals are hunted and fully exploited; the meat, skin and blubber are eaten, the fur is made into coats, the bones are used for construction or art.

an old saying claims that there is a beautiful woman behind every tree in barrow. but guess what? there are no trees.

the only wood in barrow is drift wood that comes through the arctic ocean from russia. in the picture above, one of the locals erected drift wood and nailed on top baleen (whale filtering teeth). those are the only three trees barrow has. that's the reason construction is done with animal bones. well, that's how it used to have been. today wood is shipped up via air and sea.

the only way to get around outside the village is with a hummer. else, you will get stuck in the tundra. there are no roads outside the village. there are no real roads inside the village either; just packed gravel. i was driven out to barrow's point - the real northmost point in the american continent.

on the way i could see a few boats and many whale bones. it was windy and cold. just so you'll get an idea of the climate, image this: you take a very cold shower, run naked into the freezer, and turn on a heavy duty fan inside. that's how cold i felt fully dressed out by the sea.

above you can see a whale's skull. that's actually a very small portion of it - the rest is buried under the sand.

selling alcohol is forbidden in barrow. according to one of the locals, the natives do not react well to alcohol. they are unable to disassemble the alcohol in their blood, what causes them to handle it poorly and become somewhat addictive to it. you must acquire a drinking permit from the local police, order it from fairbanks, receive it at the distribution center and drink it at home. no more than 24 cans of beer and 6 bottles of wine a month are allowed per person.

the water of the artic ocean is probably the coldest in the world. nobody goes in for a swim, any time of the year. whoever dips in the ocean fully, head to toe, becomes part of the national polar bear club. and guess who's dumb enough to join the club? yup. yours truly.

the second i hit the water my body started feeling numb. i assume that if i'd have stayed in for a few minutes longer, my body would have grown stiff and i would have drifted out into the ocean like an iceberg. once i was fully dipped in the water, enough to join the national polar bear club, i ran hysterically out of the water screaming like a little girl...

.. straight to my hotel room and into a warm shower.

***

one good thing about the arctic weather is that you don't have to worry whether your ice cream is dripping.

it isn't.

***

(the following story is not recommended for animal lovers and people who are uneasy with blood)

i got very lucky just a few hours before my flight back to fairbanks. i was walking on beach to kill some time, and apparently somebody was killing a walrus at that exact same time. say hi to the walrus.

mr. walrus there can't respond at the moment. he is busy being chopped up by some of the locals with the help of yours truly. and according to the eskimo tradition, whoever helps kill and chop an animal, joins the circle of distribution. in others words, gets some meat!

one guy pulls some meat with a hook while the other cuts the slice off with a very sharp knife. this is repeated until all of the skin, blubber and meat taken off. the head is given to the hunter.

since walrus eat clam, the gut is searched for digested clam. we ate the clam straight from mr. walrus's gut, since his body already cooked it for us. from one gut to another.

you can see the gut in the bottom part of the picture above. you can also see clams spilling out of it. this photo was taken when we finished chopping up the walrus. it took about an hour. the leftovers above were immediately spotted by a large flock of seagulls, which were drooling above waiting for us to leave.

that night i returned to the hostel in fairbanks, and guess what we had for dinner?

it was time to leave fairbanks. i spent almost two weeks in a city-sized town which doesn't offer much to do. i probably would have found a program to join up at the north slope if i would have stayed a little longer, but i was beginning to get frustrated from the dullness. so to keep myself happy, i rented a truck and went fishing.

i went with a british bloke name thomas. he had some experience so he taught me the works. you must purchase a government license in order to fish in alaska. $10 a day for non-residents like myself. you know what the funny thing is? you need a permit to fish or hunt, renting a car is absurdly difficult for non-us residents, you can't buy alcohol anywhere after midnight - but anyone can walk in a store and buy a shotgun. 100 bucks. it's right by the milk and cheese. i swear. if you're over 21, you can buy a gun on the spot at the local convenience store. they run a quick FBI check on you (30 minutes) and you're armed. i guess they didn't hear about terror around here.

i now understand why americans can become so fat. the reason? simple. the foods sold in supermarkets, gas stations, convenient stores, street stands, are loaded with cholesterol. it's all junk food. it's cheap, yummy and very accessable junk food. a cucumber costs $1.30; that's for only one cucumber. tomatos? prices sky high. you want to make a fresh salad? get a mortgage. so the healthy foods are expensive and inaccessable. you can't get anything healthy at a gas station's convenient store. anything! i looked.

in addition to this, stuff is far away. the stores and domestic neighborhood are spread out. so you must drive every where. people get no exercise.

take me for instance. i'm healthy, slim, and have a fast metabolism rate. i grew a beer belly over the last two weeks - despite the fact that i've been walking around and riding a bike! the food is horrible. i mean, it's delicious and cheap! but horribly unhealthy. and i must use the bus to get around because the distances are too far to walk or for a bike.

so as i said, it was time to leave fairbanks. i caught a flight this morning to barrow. the northmost village in alaska. it's damn freezing up here. but i'm fascanated by it. wait for the next post for pictures and stories from the top of the world!

the UAF, university of alaska in fairbanks, became my second home. i am seeking a research mission up on the north slope, by the arctic ocean, which i could volunteer and join. this way i'll have a chance to tour the arctic terrain in an academic environment. it is important to be part of a group when heading above the arctic circle; there isn't much up there when it comes to civilization. the lack of roads, electricity, running water and convenient weather are only part of the hardship up there. i met with several professors and faculty staff members and offered myself as a volunteer. now i am waiting for an answer.



as i wait, i spend my time reading books and learning japanese. (hmm?). yup. japanese.

Kumiko Ishida San, the lovely woman who teaches me, is a japanese teacher at the university. by fortunate luck, we share the same roof at Billie's backpacker's hostel. i spend the evenings practicing my japanese with her.

say ha-gee-me mash-te, ishida san:

besides the university, books and japanese, i wander around town. due to the poor number of things to do around here, the saturday market is a great thrill.

the locals come out to sell their homemade bread, own grown fruit, self made jam, art work, manual massage, what have you. one of the older locals allowed me to take her photo, after i purchased an apple roll for brunch.

not far from fairbanks is a small town named North Pole. it is not really the north pole. far from it. but still, the 1600 residents of this town chose their towns name along with a decision to hold a christmas theme in the town all year round. the christmas decorations across the town are nothing compared to their main attraction: santa claus house. this is probably the most chichi tourist attraction i've ever been to. santa claus house, north pole, alaska, receives every year thousands of letters from kids all over the world asking for christmas gifts from santa. darn materialistic capitalists.

the santa claus house is a store that sells clothes and souvenirs to remind you... of the santa claus house. (selling souvenirs that remind you of the souvenir shop? only in america). this could be a good lesson in mathematical recursive functions.

i'd like to end this blog with a sunset picture in the chena river. (though the photo above was taken at noon). until next time, ma-ta-ne!

meet my new friends.

that's hotcake on the left. he lives in Minto, Alaska; a real typical village which contains some 300 people. fifty of the locals (the young strong ones) are all fire fighters since the long sunny summers bring on massive fires in the bush (unsettled wild areas of alaska). hotcake is an indian native. he got his name from his grandfather when he was 13, because he was making hot cakes.

on my right is sunny. he's 34 years old and has 7 children from 7 different women. he lives on the streets alone. he calls himself "the baddest mother fucker in town" and then laughs like a looney maniac. he repeats that line from time to time.

sunny is half indian half eskimo. he hitchhikes around and really doesn't do anything. except get drunk or high. all the natives i met were either drunk or high or busy getting there. but not all natives are like this; many of them live like the rest of the american population working at a job and driving a car.

these guys are very friendly.

although it doesn't always seem so.

some of these guys are especially quiet.

they just sit around and drink their whiskey.

and one of them - a mother of 2 named terry - tried to grab my johnson!!

AAAGGGHHHHH!!!!

these are the northern lights. i took the pictures a couple of nights ago, when i was staying at Denali park. the lights would come and go constantly, dancing in different colors, moving around and lighting up the whole sky. it's magnificent!! i was lucky to be out on a clear sky - no clouds to interfere with the show.

at times, the green or purple light would cover the whole sky, creating various shapes and formations. the shape usually lasted 3-5 minutes before fading away or transforming to a different shape and color. what actually happens is pretty similar to the way a fluorescent light works; high boosts of energy from the sun collide with chemicals in the atmosphere causing a release of energy, which is translated to color to the human eye. green, red, blue and purple are the most frequently sighted colors.

rewind. stop. play. a day earlier i was hitch hiking from anchorage up north. three rides took my a while up, but the forth one was when i struck gold. these excellent people (tim - where are you?) picked me up and took me in like family for the next 20 hours. we drove up together, had lunch, dinner, camped. they spoiled me like nobody's business. originated from all over the states, they grouped up for some time together in alaska. we camped in Denali, a national park which contains the highest mountain in north america - mount McKinley (20,320 ft).

the ride up to denali was gorgeous. (by the way, denali is mt. McKinley's native name, and the name of the national park.)

the night was very cold and the night was rough. therefore, i decided to hitch up to fairbanks instead of spending a day of hiking the park.

i'm currently in fairbanks (little red dot in the center). i think i'll spend a few days here. it's a nice little city. i looked into the university here - this is a bit unexpected at this time but i'm getting really excited about getting back to school. i'm considering taking a few classes at schools i find along the way.

ok. enough writing for one day. mom, dad - i'm warm don't worry. and i'm eating well (avoiding the junk food). i meet good people along the way that help me with every thing.

and as eskimo's say, Tautugniagmigikpiñ! (goodbye . no, i have no clue how to pronounce that)

remember learning in school about navigating using the sun? "before noon, your shadow falls in the west, and after noon it falls in the east". well, they don't teach that here. you know why? because it doesn't work!

i learned it the hard way. i was navagating through town until i noticed something doesn't make sense. in the picture above (taken after noon), i was actually heading north. damn polar sun.

anchorage is like any other american city. it isn't very alaska-typical (so they say). that's why i'm planning to spend here only another couple of days before heading north - to fairbanks. despite not being a typical alaska experience, it's beautiful up here. i'm glad i came here.

the weather today was gorgeous. i rented a bike and road 20 miles (36 km) by the ocean and across the city. i even saw a moose by the bike track (but i didn't pull out the camera quick enough). so i biked for 4 hours, and then had my chicken salad by a beautifully quiet pond.


their bus system has an orignal name - people mover. heheh - and who said american's aren't sophisticated? plus, they have special rules of their own:

i'm staying at this warm and cozy hostel. it has a home feeling to it. all of the facilities are available, including kitchen (with some free food), washing machine, internet, etc. good poeple also. many people come up here for research. one japanese girl is doing a research on one of the eskimo languages, another guy is researching fish anatomy, a third is doing archioliegy. interesting people.

meet pablo. he's a great guy. he rents bikes during summer time, and lives in california during winter. he's a very warm guy, on contrary to the general culture here. he helped me out get information and ideas for stuff to do around anchorage.

i checked out the local museum. i tell you, these eskimos were pretty crazy. killing whales and stuff.

apparantly countries aren't too expensive. if you had a bit over 7 million dollars a couple of centuries ago, you could have bought alaska yourself.

that's it for now! i'm going to travel up north tomorrow with a guy i met in the hostel. we're probably going to hitch hike up.

by the way, regarding the mailing list. don't worry; you will not get spam. it's just me. and another thing, you do not need a yahoo ID in order to sign up. simply reply to the confirmation email and send. that'll do.

love you all!