The Town off Ketchikan Alaska

Ketchikan

Ketchikan the first stop for the gold prospectors who came to this lovely country of Alaska long ago. Now we to are invading this wild and serine country on the Norwegian sun a mighty cruise ship that will be for the next seven days our home. We had been sailing for 1 night and 1 day along the coast of west Canada past the Island of Vancouver winding in and out of small little islands and now as the dawn of a new day broke, we sailed into the port of Ketchikan this was our first stop of four ports, we quickly had our breakfast on the top deck of our ship in the sunshine of the Alaskan morning. As we dined on our breakfast, we could see the hive of activity in the port boats small and large sailed past flying boats skimmed the water as they took off and landed large cruise ships that had been behind the Norwegian sun sailed past us into port. In the distance, the high mountains glistened with the glaciers that looked like snow in the distance.

We had booked in advance a small trip ashore to a native Indian reservation, we had booked it while on board the ship, we took a lifeboat ride to the shore and boarded our bus that would take us to our destination just a short distance out of town, we turned into a small lane and in front of us we saw for the first time an Alaskan Indian reservation.

We alighted our transport and were taken by school children to the Native ceremonial house were we treated to an Alaskan Indian welcome, all the children of the village danced and sang there ancient songs and dances, from there they took us to were the totem poles were made, they told us the history of totem pole’s and from there we were shown them being made all from ancient tools and paint. The trip took 2 hours and was a delightful way to take in the native Alaskan traditions. From there we went back into Ketchikan for a stroll around the town. The town still has the old staging point were the old gold prospectors alighted to buy there first goods to take them further into the interior far north to there next but one stop. You can still walk the wooden walkways the old buildings are still stores but instead of selling hard wear they sell gold and food like fish and chips, at the far end of the walkway there is the local brothel albeit now thank goodness a museum, the walkways are on stilts that are over the small creek and if you close your eyes for just a moment and let your mind wander in the Alaskan sunshine you might just hear the shouts and cries of the men who would go on to make an epic journey far into the interior of Alaska to dig for there fortune.

The town of Ketchikan is a wonderful insight to a bygone era a small peaceful community will welcome you with there goods that you can buy, It was an enjoyable experience that will live on in my memory for a long time, all to soon again it was time to board our cruise ship for our next town, and as we sailed of into the afternoon sunshine we looked back at this small town with fondness.