Greenland Passage

Imagine a frontier town set by the sea. That's Rigolet and the other isolated communities found along the coast of the Labrador Sea, whether in Greenland on the east or its namesake lands to the west. None of the Labrador villages we have visited so far have road access to the rest of Canada: sea and air are the only means of ingress and egress. Small towns and villages make for tight-knit communities, and proud ones. Maybe Rigolet's boardwalk isn't the world's longest, but the people of this northern town are as proud of theirs as any Atlantic City booster. Some photos of the town:

Rigolet's boardwalk was filled with tourists yesterday, but no salt water taffy could be found. Rigolet, the southernmost Inuit community in the world, built an 5.2 mile (8.4 km) boardwalk over the course of six years, claiming it's the world's longest. (Though at only a meter and a half wide, much less wood was required than Atlantic City's wide boardwalk, and the combined AC-Ventor boards beat it.) I didn't walk the full length, but at one spot along the route one local resident demonstrated how the grasses along the shore could be used for basket-weaving. A little further along, a couple offered local baked goods to taste, including potato biscuits. The gathering at the school the community organized for us in the afternoon was to feature other foods, including seal, but they weren't able to catch one. In the old days, that would have been a disaster. Yesterday, a supply ship was preparing to leave the harbor when we arrived, and the local store was fi...