Day 1 With THE Bears!

Before I start with the happenings of polar bear watching on the tundra, I have to share my spectacular experience last night. Ready for bed, exhausted from the day that started at 4:30 AM in Winnipeg, and included all of the above mentioned activities including shopping, I had a frantic knock at the door. One of my new friends shouted out that the lights were out! 'The Lights' here refers to the spectacular aurora borealis, the northern lights, a phenomenon I had yet to see but hoped to this trip. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to put on so many clothes! And the sight, well I'm not sure there words to describe the dancing lights. How lucky we were to be able to just stand down the street from our hotel for the light show. Streaks of greenish white lights wove around in curves in the sky above us. A stunning sight! The colors weren't as vivid to the naked eye as they showed up in photos. Bright streaks of green were waving in people''s photos, my camera was unable to capture the sight, but I doubt my mind will ever forget it! The Inuit people believe it is the spirits of their ancestors dancing in the sky, a belief that feels so possible as you see the lights gently weave their colorful magic across the sky. Maybe it was close to an hour that we stood outside watching, but as with the torch, nothing else seemed important. I'm sure I was cold, but I don't have any memory of that. I was, however, aware that the trucks marked 'polar bear alert patrol' kept passing us. Not sure if it was a comforting sight or not. Apparently this has been a big year for bears in town. Thank goodness there were no bear sightings while on foot! What an amazing job of keeping people safe they do here! And so finally the lights faded and one of the most extraordinary days of my life came to an end!

This morning after a quick breakfast we headed out to get on the Great White Bear tundra vehicles for a day that was filled with bear sightings! What magnificent creatures these bears are! Most were not doing anything but napping. A couple came to our vehicle and I believe I did get some nice shots. I believe my new camera did great and I loved the 10x zoom. The people counting said we saw over 30 bears! My favorite was the bear who walked towards us but stopped several feet back and stood in one place for quite a long time with his head hanging down and his eyes shutting. Finally he carefully and gracefully laid down right there on our path, covered his eyes with his paws and went to sleep. We are told to be silent so as not to scare them away, but when we were leaving I decided I just had to talk to the big guy and I .said "bye handsome". Surprisingly his great head lifted, he looked right at me and smiled. Okay I did make up the smiled part, but the eye contact was amazing, just the two of us looking at each other. What incredible creatures they are!

My day ended with dinner with Shari, the friend I met here last year. She has spent the year working with Polar Bears International and what interesting stories she had to tell! Today she got to help with a polar bear airlift from the 'polar bear jail' and actually got to touch the bear before it woke up in it's new location. So many dreams come true here for people like me, whose passion is the bears.

And hopefully tonight I will dream of my bears.