Next stop was Sisimiut which is located above the Arctic Circle; it is Greenland’s second largest town. There seemed to be a lot of building development happening here also. We had a bus tour of the town and that included a visit to ‘Dog town’ on the outskirts of town where the local people keep over 1000 Greenland huskies including some adorable puppies which kept us entertained.
Once back on board we were entertained by a local kayaker, an Olympian evidently. He holds the record for the largest number of rolls in his kayak. It was interesting to watch - for a while!
I’ve been trying to learn more about the Innuits of the region and it seems that approx 4,500 years ago, the Saqqaq culture arrived from Canada and settled in the area. They lived here for approx 2,000 years, but then mysteriously disappeared. This was followed by successive waves of people from the Dorset and Thule cultures. Today, most of the population of Sisimiut are descendants of the Thule culture. The origin of the name of the town comes from the Inuit inhabitants: they were called Sisimiut or ‘people who live in fox holes because of the style of their houses which had long entrance tunnels similar to fox dens.
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