This is my final blog post. As I look at the window I see all the things I will miss from this magical place. Last night, I took a moment to reflect. I stood in the cold misty air of the tundra buggy walk way and saw the life in the tundra. For the last time I stood alone hearing the birds singing, the wind blowing, the rustling through the willows, and I saw the life that exists out here on the tundra. I used to wonder, what’s in Churchill after the polar bears left for the winter, but now I understand that more life exists here all year long then in anywhere else in the world. I have heard questions, why would a person want to live in a place filled with dangerous polar bears that regularly enter their home and town? But, I understand now.

I spent this week watching three polar bears living their natural lives. I saw them play, eat, sleep, and love each other in the simplest of fashions. I wonder why it is that we can’t live in a way that is like the polar bears. Why is it us that has intelligent life, us with agriculture and technology, us with the luck of not having the ‘survival of the fittest’. My question is; are we really the lucky ones?

As I watched the tundra expand beneath me when I was flying above it in a helicopter. I saw the land we all must work together to save. I saw animals running through the rivers and forests, hundreds of lakes, and beautiful colors from the mosses and lichens that animals depend upon to survive. From this view I saw almost everything I care about laid down below me, I saw it’s diversity, and I saw how fragile it all was.

Now, I’m hugging friends, giving numbers, and wishing I would never leave. I said my farewells to the polar bears as they walked into the fog last night. As the bears move on from our lives, I must move on in mine. I will use the tools that the people here have given me to the best of my abilities. I will describe the magic that exists in the ice caps to everyone I meet. And I will try my hardest to teach my friends, family, and community that we can no longer leave it up to someone else to make a difference.






If anyone out their in the world ever wants to ask me something, tell me something, teach me something, please do not hesitate to email me at this address: AbriannaPeto@Gmail.com

Last night, the polar bear family visited! There is absolutely nothing that can possibly be more beautiful then these creatures. It was chaos when the bears first arrived at the window; everyone running from one side to the other, flashes going off, people laughing, people crying, and polar bears accidentally putting on the greatest show on earth! After everyone calmed down, some going to their bunks to talk, some working on blogs, and others going straight to bed, I went back to the dining cart buggy to watch the bears. I must have sat there for over an hour. It was so quiet, I didn’t even have my camera with me, I just watched. The cubs were certainly less afraid with less people and even play fought! They stood up balancing on their hind legs and tried so desperately to get closer-to understand us. While I fought back against my urge to hang out the window and allow myself to get closer to them, and understand them.

This morning I was less then a foot away from a polar bear cub. Of course, I was in a tundra buggy. Actually Robert Buchanan was the one who took me to see it. He climbed into “The Basement,” which is basically a piece of caged equipment that is attached to the bottom of the Tundra Buggy. I laid on my stomach next to the basement, and when the cub jumped up, Robert caught an amazing picture with my camera. I was so close to the cub, my heart was pounding out of my chest and my stomach felt like it was going to explode. Seeing polar bears to me is like a drug. The more I see them the more I want to see them, and now I am addicted. I really don’t want to face the withdrawals from them within the next few days after we’ve left.

Today, for the very first time I rode a helicopter. Not only did I ride one, but I also rode it in one of the most beautiful places in the world; the Arctic. We flew off to an area where we saw a collapsed maternal den. I found it astonishing to think, someday maybe weeks ago, months ago, even years ago a polar bear was sleeping there. It might have been an enormous male bear; and maybe it was a female, maybe she had mated here, maybe her cubs had slept here with her.

Then I talked to my hometown through a computer in a video conference. I thought it went really well, and I can see my presentation skills already improving. I also got to see some of my friends and of course my mom who I miss dearly! I loved that so many people from my school and community were interested in what is going on over here in Canada.

In the past two days my entire perspective of life changed. Through a presentation done by my newest and one of my greatest heroes: Robert Buchanan. This man has inspired me beyond the limits of almost any other person I have grown to know. During my life, I have never really had a “Father Figure” so to speak. My father and grandfather both died when I was very young, and my older brothers became of age to leave before I was old enough to really know them as well. Robert fits into this spot that I haven’t had filled for most of my life. I will miss him greatly and us much as anything else at this camp, including the bears and all my new friends.



The helicopter that was riding next to us

As “usual” we started the day eating breakfast while looking out at the untouched arctic tundra of Churchill. We haven’t had any bold polar bears come out to see the Tundra Buggy Lodge yet. I really want to wake up in the middle of the night and see a big white face staring at me! Last night I saw the green version of Northern Lights through my window. I think I was the only person who captured a few good pictures, but I am hopeful others will get the chance tonight. I will post mine here, as well as several of my other favorite pictures (I didn’t get the chance to yesterday)

We went right out onto the tundra buggies again after breakfast today. James spotted a mother bear and a few other arctic ambassadors and I spotted her cubs. It was the same three from yesterday except today we saw them walk across the water! Not swimming, but it was the prettiest thing watching the white bears contrast on the shining blue water and some geese flew over head, just absolutely beautiful. I will post some pictures of that as well.

We came back from the buggy trip to our camp. We then watched a presentation by three aboriginals from around the area. They talked to us about the role hunting plays in the world. In my opinion the presentation brought up that aboriginal trappers have barely any impact on the natural world and that city people tend to do much more damage. They aren’t commercial hunters; they take enough to make a living by selling furs, but only enough to afford a basic life style in the arctic, which I found fascinating. They brought furs with them and I was able to see that the process of tanning the furs makes the hide softer so they weren’t so hard and rough.

My group and I had cleaning duty so I volunteered to clean the bathrooms with Zoe. We quickly finished it and headed back to watch an incredible presentation done by Kevin Burke. It was more like a talk than a presentation but he told us some of the most amazing stories of his experiences in the Arctic, Antarctic, Churchill, etc. Robert or Bob or someone, their names are all quite a bit alike, video taped it and I will definitely try to post it; I highly recommend you watch the whole thing! I would most definitely have paid to watch it.

After Kevin left we watched a presentation from group B that was based on two chapters from our book “Impact of a Warming Arctic” and was in debate form. I saw much from their presentation because they asked use to be more unbiased. So we weren’t focused on our side of the issue. Therefore it gave us a look into the eyes of a person who is undecided or biased on the other side of the arguments we might one day make in our debates.



This is a picture I took of an arctic rabbit



These are some geese flying through the arctic



This is a picture of a cub rolling over on his/hers back



This is a picture of the sunset



A close-up of the Northern Lights



Another picture of the Northern Lights

I have just had the most fantastic, amazing, and spectacular day of my entire life. I saw for the first time ever a mother bear and her two young and very adorable cubs in the wild! But, before I get too much into the incredible details of my day, I’ll fill you in, on what other stuff has happened. Last night I saw the Northern Lights. Tonight seems to be a lot clearer and I’m hoping it will stay that way so I can catch a few more pictures tonight.

This morning I was eating breakfast and the Hudson Bay seemed like miles away, on the edge of the horizon. Well, a few minutes later I looked out the window and saw the Hudson Bay a few yards from me. It was extremely cool! After breakfast we watched a short presentation (kind of felt like some people may have been stalling for a buggy trip) Then we headed out for the most unbelievable ride in a bus in a lifetime!

We rode out towards the Hudson Bay, where someone spotted a white speck that was a bit shinier then most of the other rocks. Once I looked through a good pair of binoculars I realized that the speck was one of the most magical creatures on the face of the earth: the polar bear. Not only one but three, a mother and her two cubs! I just wanted to squeal— I probably did, my memory is a wee bit blurry on account of the fact that my mind was blown!

I ended up taking about 400 pictures. A lot of them look a little bit the same so I plan on choosing the very best out of my collection and uploading them here. So this blog will contain my original pictures and if someday you see one on National Geographic, just know who they stole it from! Well okay, they may not be national geographic, but they are still pretty cool!

We moved really close to the bears, they were cubs for heavens sake! I never expected a mom to let us get so close, and see a small moment of their lives; but she did and what a moment it was! No other time in my life could ever be any better, unless I come back here again some day.

After the trip we headed back to the lodge and had lunch. Then we split up into our groups to work on a presentation that we will be doing later about the book we read, “Impacts of a Warming Arctic.” We then watched a presentation about presentation skills; and now I’m writing this blog. Now that I have gone through my day with you, I must say goodbye until later!

Hello! This is my very first Blog post! I’m coming at you straight from Churchill. Everything in Canada is so new to me it's all just so awesome! It’s hard to put it into words and I’m super excited to be here. The very first thing I saw Thursday before I left was darkness, as I woke up at 3 AM to catch my flight to Winnipeg. The early awakenings are definitely worth it though. I flew to Churchill at 5 this morning (arriving around 9) and the area is absolutely fantastic. It’s kind of freaky though, I come from Utah and all of a sudden my shield of giant mountains (and my compass!) has disappeared.

Those mountains have been replaced by the Hudson Bay, which I got to touch today! If you wanted to know it was foamy, cold, and wet. I was wearing my new coat which PBI generously gave to everyone, it features goose down feathers and fur around the hooded collar, it is extremely warm and puffy, and very comfortable; I was still feeling the cold, but somehow the kids here have acclimated to the point where they can sit outside laughing and playing games in tank tops, and I’m complaining about the cold in my PBI expedition coat!

We stopped for lunch in Gypsy’s where I got to eat Poutine, which was French fries, mozzarella, and gravy. I thought it tasted okay, I just really wanted to try something new and it was the only thing on the menu I really hadn’t heard of before. It was really filling and I tried to have others try it but I suppose most everyone wasn’t hungry as well!

Sadly, I have yet to see a polar bear but I did see a detention center that a wild polar bear was in. It’s called “D-20” also known as “Polar Bear Jail.” by the press. Even though I didn’t see the inside it was still neat to see the place that is keeping all of our bear friends alive! The jail exists as a temporary stopover for polar bears that come dangerously close to town. Now the bears that officers can’t simply scare off are caught and taken into the jail, so the residents are safe and the polar bears are alive.

Polar bears weren't ever allowed to walk around the town as they pleased. We have to remember that these are wild animals; they will attack and kill if they feel threatened or are hungry enough to do so. Therefore, people of Churchill were forced to kill polar bears that came dangerously close to their homes, until this system came into place in 1983.

The polar bears held there are treated humanely but, are not given food and water as they wouldn’t be able to find it in the wild (They are given snow for hydration needs) Bears in the jail are held there based upon their “offense” record, animals that haven’t really been seen in town before are released sooner, but others that have been caught more frequently are held until the ice is about to come back and then they are flown out by helicopter.

After seeing the town of Churchill we headed out to the place we will be spending most of our week, the Tundra Buggy Lodge. It took a little over an hour to drive in the Tundra Buggies to get out to the lodge, but it was a great chance to see greater yellow legs and ptarmigan birds. I got a few good pics of them and several of all my new friends; that are from all around the world. I’m saving all the rest of the space on my memory cards for those polar bears, which I know I'm going to see within the next few days!