The daily blog of a tourist visiting the USA: Day 5 Ketchikan, Alaska

The daily blog of a tourist visiting the USA: Day 5

Today we docked at Ketchikan, the third largest city in Alaska and the salmon capital of the world. We arrived there by 7 am and we were ready, standing at gangplank just as it was going to touch the ground. We were greeted by a plaque which said we had officially entered Ketchikan. We met our driver guide who sowed us the way to the local lumberjack show. It was just across the street and since we were early we got some time in the souvenir shop. Over there I so many plaques with funny stuff written on it like:

·         If idiots could fly, this place would be an airport

·         Forget the dog. Beware of the owner!

·         I say we fish five days and work two

·         Hand over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt!

·         No trespassing! Violators will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.

·         My windows are not dirty. That’s just my dog’s nose art.

And many more!

And then finally we were allowed to go inside the arena. There were large stands for the fans to sit and to kill time they got some spectators to throw axes on a dartboard. The lumberjack show was made to teach people what a lumberjack had to do and what weapons he would have to use. So they were having a competition between some Canadian lumberjacks and American ones with a series of events that determine who were better lumberjacks. The Spruce Mill camp housed the Americans while the Dawson Creek camp housed the Canadians. Every test needed a different skill. Some of the tests were climbing up trees while others were climbing branches and chopping down trees. Some were where they had to jump on logs on water and the final one was where one from each team would be balancing on the same log and couldn’t touch each other. In the end it was Canada who won.

  

After the show we were taken on a coach to the Tlinkit tribe house. They were one of the fist tribes in Alaska. There were many groups like the bears and frogs but ultimately they fell into two groups: The Ravens and The Eagles. We were introduced to this whole tribe with a presentation on it. We learnt to say some words in their language. The tribe still exists. They totem poles and each totem pole had some significance to the tribe or an ancient tribal story. We were then taken to a Tlinkit house where there was a performance by members of the tribe. They wore capes and on the back of the capes there was a picture of the tribe they were a part of. They sang songs and danced for us and in the end we were asked to join them on stage and I went. We had Tlinkit Dancing 101 and the then we actually danced with the others. This all took place in one of their houses.

After that we were shown how a totem pole was made and what materials and tools were used. To put up a totem pole they had to dig a hole in which they would then put the pole while the maker had to dance. Okay.

After this we were taken back to our ship but we chose to stay in the city and look at it. After lunch at Subway we saw the famous Creek Street and some other buildings but then it was time to board the ship. On the ship I think you know what we heard first.

Washy Washy.