Kugluktuk

On Thursday the weather finally cleared enough for the airport to reopen. It had been shut down for four days due to bad weather and blizzard conditions.

I shut down the clinic and prepared to leave for my next destination. I was a little sad leaving Cambridge, mostly because I like working with Jana so much. We hugged goodbye and hopefully we will see each other in January.

Our plane landed about 45 minutes late, but everyone was happy and relieved that it was able to land. Unfortunately, the winds began to pick up and visibility was poor again so we had to wait for the weather to clear a little in order to take off. After waiting another hour or so, we were able to board. It is only a 50 minute flight from Cambridge Bay to Kugluktuk, and before I knew it we were finally in our last community.

The taxi picked us up at the airport to bring us to the Coppermine Inn. It was a large old van with cracks in the window and seemed to be on it's last legs, but it was going to get us where we needed to go, so I can't complain. We were told that it would be $15, I was a little shocked and checked if the price was per person. Yep, it was. It's only a five minute drive! We dropped the first passenger home, only to get stuck in the snow when we tried to turn around. Thankfully a man with a big truck was driving by and noticed we needed help. He tied a sling between each vehicle and was able to pull the van out of the snow.

The Coppermine Inn is a quaint two story hotel. There is a wood stove in the lobby and a huge polar bear hide and head as decoration on the wall. As soon as we walked in we could smell something delicious cooking, they were making pork chops for supper. I usually hate pork chops, but after two weeks of freeze dried food and tuna, a home-cooked meal would be nice. We were informed that dinner would be $50 dollars if we were interested, breakfasts were $30 and lunches $35.