Monday, June 1, 2009

Nunavut

I think I have just found what would manage to simultaneously be the most awesome, and more than likely boring, vacation site possible. Nunavut. The most northern providence in Canada. I knew it existed, but the shear vastness and emptiness is mind boggling. Even Alaska cannot compete as it has around twenty times the population, in a land area that is nearly two hundred thousand square miles smaller(if Alaska was a country it would be the 18th largest in the world, if Nunavut was a country it would be 15th):
Nunavut is both the least populated and the geographically largest of the provinces and territories of Canada. It has a population of 29,474 spread over an area the size of Western Europe.

The population density is 0.015 persons per square kilometre, one of the lowest in the world. By comparison, Greenland, to the east, has approximately the same area and nearly twice the population.
The largest city in this massive land area is just over 6000 people!

The book Kabloona was written about the area as it was something like eighty years ago. Even today more than 80% of the population is Inuit. It just isn't an environment that many people wish to learn to survive. Still, a few summer weeks would probably be about as surreal an experience as can be found anywhere in the world.

Looking online, it is clear they are trying to draw tourists, but it also doesn't give the impression that this is actually that common. The webpage is full of warnings that just wouldn't exist in a more populous part of the world like how you may find yourself unable to exchange foreign currency so it should be done before the trip.




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