Interesting Inuvik buildings

May 8, 2012
Sunrise: 5:09 am
Sunset: 12:35 am
Current temp: -5'C
Main colour: white

In the absence of anything super exciting to report at this time, I've decided to do a quick post on some of the interesting buildings around Inuvik. You've already seen the apartment buildings on stilts, but here are a couple more.

To the right you see the "Our Lady of Victory Church," more commonly known as "The Igloo church" amongst Inuvikians (Inuvikyites?). While I have not been here to confess my many sins, I did go to a concert here by Florent Vollant, apparently a well known Innu-Quebecois singer-songer writer, and the accoustics were quite good!

And here we have an example of the famous Inuvik "Smartie Box" rowhouses. This is one particularly colourful sample, but Inuvik has many, many row houses and the come in quite a mixture of colours. Considering that the town in blanketted in snow for more than half the year, it's quite a refreshing and colourful contrast!

Oh, and Mackenzie is the main street in town, named after, of course, the mighty Mackenzie River that flanks the Western edge of town.

Now this building, well, I'm not really sure what to call this one. An igloo house? It's just down the street from me, and I pass it several times per day on my way to and from work. Apparently it has several rental units in it, and clearly it has a number of skylight-ish windows. With all the light, I wonder how the residents can sleep in the summer time? However, it's probably great for viewing northern lights in the winter months.

And on a random sidenote, I have made a new friend in the last week. So far we have met 3 times on the little trail that I take to work. He's kind of shy, and hard to spot, but he knows how to make me smile. Can you spot him?

I feel he should have a name, but all that comes to mind is "Mittens" or "Boots" and that just feels inappropriate for a bunny in the Arctic. In fact, when I last saw him, I was walking with a colleague who was wearing rabbit fur mittens!

Unfortunately, aside from these bunnies, a squirrel and a few varieties of birds, I have yet to see much of the wildlife that the Arctic has to offer. I have, however, seen the prints of ptarmigan and lynx. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to spot these creatures as well!