Qaqortoq, Greenland, 2024

Qaqortoq, Greenland, has about 3229 inhabitants. It is a large town by Greenlandic standards. Qaqortoq means “white” in the Greenlandic language and Qaqotoq is the only town in Greenland with a fountain in the main square.

Since the town was small, it was a tender port. Seeing how the ship disappeared in the fog once we got on shore was like it was straight out of a horror movie.

In Qaqortog, I took another RC-sponsored excursion. It was a town walk and tasting with a local chef. The city was tiny, so it was a short walk from the port and the exploration of the charming streets of Qaqortoq. The food was tasty, but it was hard to hear what the chef said. I didn’t try the seal (I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

There is a long story about the faces on the rock, but basically, the artist wanted to put faces on the voices she would hear from the rocks when she passed them on her way to school as a child. It was also intriguing to hear about the Arctic people who live there and how they have passed on their traditions and family rituals from generation to generation.

Before the tasting event, we walked around town and visited a meat market. There, we saw a musk oxe being deboned. This was both traumatizing and intriguing at the same time. I guess I had never seen an entire animal deboned before. I would have to say, I don’t want to see that again. At that moment, I said to myself I would never eat meat again. That thought only lasted about 10 minutes because later, I tasted the musk oxen, which was so delicious…better than beef! Musk oxen are popular animals in Greenland and can be found everywhere on the island. The scientific name of the musk ox is Ovibos Moschatus. In Greenlandic, their name is Umimmak, which means “long-bearded.” Also, the meat looks much like beef, but it is not closely related to cattle. Their name derives from thei musky odor and from their superficial resemblance to the ox.