Kulusuk: The first meeting with East Greenland

One of two airports on Greenland’s East Coast is located near the tiny village of Kulusuk on Kulusuk Island. To get to Tasiilaq, the largest town on the East Coast where I’m doing an internship this autumn, I had to fly through this airport before connecting to Tasiilaq by helicopter.

As soon as I got out of the plane, my jaw dropped. The airport is located in the most beautiful surroundings, amongst high mountains that had only recently been sprayed with a light layer of snow. This was my first time in East Greenland, and I was already in love.

Kulusuk is a small village, home to just over 260 inhabitants, whereas Tasiilaq is home to just over 2000 inhabitants. Thus, it would make more sense to locate an airport in Tasiilaq instead of Kulusuk, but I’m guessing this is due to the hilly terrain of Tasiilaq. The location of the airport does mean that Kulusuk, an otherwise isolated village, gets a fair share of visitors every year. Most of them come from Iceland on day trips, costing over 1100 USD for just four hours in the village. I remember considering this day trip when I travelled through Iceland in 2015, but the cost of it seemed too extreme to me. Still, I’d wanted to visit Kulusuk ever since, and now I finally had the chance on this short stopover.

But with just 1,5 hours in between my flight and helicopter, I didn’t have enough time to walk all the way to the village and have a look around as it takes about 45 minutes to walk there from the airport. But I did have time to go to the graveyard and the viewpoint behind it.

I walked out of the tiny airport and followed the dirt road towards the village. The wind was completely still, so there were beautiful reflections of the mountains in the small lakes that I walked past. I saw Hotel Kulusuk, located in the middle of nowhere. I stopped in my steps to listen to the complete sound of silence.

I continued on until I came to the tiny graveyard, sloped on a low hill. From there, I walked up and up until the village finally came to view. Colourful houses dotted the landscape. In the distance, I could hear the sound of children playing and sled dogs howling. It all seemed very idyllic. So tranquil and beautiful, yet so hauntingly isolated.

The mountains here are rawer than in West Greenland, and I expect that life is too. Empty beer cans on the side of the road reminded me that Kulusuk, like many other isolated Greenlandic towns, also has a dark side to its beauty. In West Greenlandic, East Greenland is called “Tunu”, which means ‘the reverse side’. This refers to the isolation of the East Greenlandic settlements as well as the language, which is completely different from West Greenlandic. But it also refers to the shadow side of Greenland. Alcoholism, violence and sexual abuse are unfortunately very real problems in the isolated Greenlandic villages. Limited job opportunities mean that many people survive on financial support from the Danish government creating a loss of purpose in life.

However, things may be getting better for Kulusuk. In 2011, the students from the small public school in Kulusuk got the highest average grade in the entire country, which is incredible considering the low number of inhabitants and the fact that the village is located on the East Coast. This gives hope for a better future for the villagers of Kulusuk – that is, if these well-educated children choose to return to Kulusuk after they receive the rest of their education on the West Coast or in Denmark.

Despite my very brief stopover, I got to experience a bit of Kulusuk and at least see the village from above, which was beautiful. I do hope that I’ll have more time to actually explore the village on my next stopover in Late November, when I’ll be on my way home to Denmark.

Shortly before sunset, it was time to catch the helicopter to Tasiilaq, a beautiful 15-minute panoramic flight over the Ammassalik Fjord that brought me to my next big adventure.