A Trip To Iqaluit In Nunavut, A Canadian Arctic City

Written by Clint Leung


In 2004, I completed two Inuit art buying trips to Iqaluit (formerly Frobisher Bay),repparttar capital of Nunavut, Canada's newest territory. For both trips, I flew out of Ottawa on Canadian North airlines. The other airline that services Nunavut is First Air. Onlyrepparttar 136052 last half ofrepparttar 136053 jets was allocated for passengers asrepparttar 136054 entire first half was for cargo. Being so remote, Canadian Arctic Inuit communities pretty well have to have everything shipped up there by plane or by boat duringrepparttar 136055 summers since there are no roads connecting torepparttar 136056 rest of Canada or even between each Nunavut community. The Arctic landscape fromrepparttar 136057 air was desolate, hilly and barren. Asrepparttar 136058 plane got closer to Iqaluit,repparttar 136059 airport's small terminal building stood out with its bright yellow color. The airport itself is within walking distance torepparttar 136060 rest ofrepparttar 136061 town. There are taxis that charge a flat rate of $5 per trip anywhere in Iqaluit. Interestingly enough, these taxis also pick up and drop off other passengers alongrepparttar 136062 way so shared rides with others are common here. There are several hotels in Iqaluit and rooms are generally clean, comfortable but quite basic. Accommodations and dining up north in Nunavut are both expensive. All food items withrepparttar 136063 exception of local Inuit fare must be flown up fromrepparttar 136064 Canadian south. A carton of milk will cost about $10 in Iqaluit. Most Inuit locals cannot afford to buy overpriced fruits, vegetables and meat fromrepparttar 136065 south. Many local families still rely on Inuit hunters who bring caribou, seal and whale torepparttar 136066 table.

There is only one high rise building in Iqaluit and it is used mainly for local Nunavut government offices. All other buildings are low rise, includingrepparttar 136067 hospital. The vast majority ofrepparttar 136068 residential housing is similar to cabins that are raised offrepparttar 136069 ground because ofrepparttar 136070 harsh Canadian Arctic winters. Many look a bit run down with junk and disposed items piled outside. Withrepparttar 136071 fact that there are no lawns or trees possible this far north,repparttar 136072 neighborhoods are certainly notrepparttar 136073 prettiest sights around. But one Inuit art carver told me that his government subsidized rent is only $36 per month. There are some small clusters of nice homes onrepparttar 136074 outskirts of town. Some houses have husky dogs tied up outside and many have snowmobiles. In fact,repparttar 136075 roads, most of them unpaved, are shared by cars, trucks, snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles and people. Duringrepparttar 136076 summers, Iqaluit can get quite dusty with allrepparttar 136077 vehicles turning uprepparttar 136078 dirt onrepparttar 136079 roads. As a result, Iqaluit did look a bit nicer during my first trip which was duringrepparttar 136080 winter whenrepparttar 136081 city was in white snow rather than brown dirt. There is new construction going on since withrepparttar 136082 creation ofrepparttar 136083 Nunavut territory, Iqaluit is growing as more Inuit from other Arctic communities are migrating torepparttar 136084 city.

Want To Fly For Free? Here's How I Do Just That!

Written by Glen Hopkins


Want to Fly for Free? Here's How I Do Just That!

"Travelling is so expensive! How on earth can you afford to travel so many times in a year Glen?"

With a bewildered look on my face I reply, "What do you mean it's expensive. I fly for free. Don't you?"

I have had this conversation so many times with friends and colleagues that I decided it was about time that I share withrepparttar rest ofrepparttar 136051 world what I thought was obvious. ...That pretty much anyone can fly for free.

Let me explain something you probably already know, but chances are don't fully capitalize on.

Flying is FREE!

How? With Air Miles of course.

What are Air Miles you ask? Those arerepparttar 136052 'points' that most major credit card companies will GIVE you when you make purchases with your credit card.

I can hear you already. "Whoop dee doo Glen, tell me something I didn't know!"

Well, although you may have known that you can get free air miles using your credit card to redeem towards free flights, did you know most people (maybe even you) don't capitalize on this?

Did you fly for free 6 times last year? I did!

Yes, that's 6 as in 'six' times - free. And I could have flown even more but I didn't need or want to.

Now if you flew that many times or more last year you probably need not read any further. But if you didn't you need to learn how to maximizerepparttar 136053 number of air miles you can squeeze out of your credit card company.

Here's how I did it.

Obtain and use a 'Gold' Credit Card

All major credit card companies offer a 'Gold' or equivalent credit card to their customers which includes several benefits including, free insurances, loss and theft protection of purchased items, and of course free air miles!

Yes, I know, they charge you a yearly fee to have a Gold card. Yup, I paid $120 last year for my Gold card and I flew six times. That means I paid a whopping $20 for each flight I took. Okay, you got me, I don't fly for free but rather at a 99.9999% discount!

More Air Mile Points, Equals More Free Travel

Maximizerepparttar 136054 number of Air Mile Points you receive by using your credit card for everything! And I do mean everything.

Here are a few ways I use my card. See if you can't think of some more.

Personal Use:

- groceries

- clothes

- diapers

- gas

- dinning out

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use