Siberia

Provideniya: This place was weird to say the least. When the Soviet Union collapsed circa 1990 the population of the place was 10,000. Now the population has shrunk to 2,000. The place seemed like a ghost town. We counted 50 vacant buildings like the one pictured here that had the windows knocked out. I thought the statue of Lenin in the foreground was symbolic of the failure of the Communist system.

Provideniya: As run down as was the infrastructure of Provideniya, a local group of dancers put on a show that blew us away. That's the way it is in Russia, when it comes to some things they aren't very good, but when it comes to the arts they have no peers.

Provideniya: Four Yupik girls pose for a picture in Provideniya. On several stops local people put on shows showing off native costumes and dances.

Little Chaplino: About an hour drive along the Siberia coastline from Provideniya resides the small Yupik Eskimo village of New Chaplino. I think this boy had his dogs out just for us. There wasn't any snow around except in the mountains.

New Chaplino: The local Yupik people had killed a whale a couple days before we got there, and here are the remains after all the good parts were removed. When they see a whale in the ocean they get in their boats and go after it. The Eskimos of Alaska have hunted the Bowhead Whale for thousands of years.

Eastern Siberia: Typical landscape of the Chukchi Penisula in eastern Siberia, which the Russians call Far East Russia.

Katmai National Park : One day we visited a place called Geographic Harbor where we all got in zodiacs and took off looking looking for grizzlies. Our zodiac found only one bear, although others saw three of them. We didn't get real close since bears are good swimmers. In fact one day a grizzly swam right across the bow of our ship. The captain hit the brakes and we all rushed to the bow of the ship to watch it swam by. The bear even turned his head in the water and gave us a dirty look as he passed..

Cabin of Ship: This is our cabin, or one like it. One day in the middle of the Bering Sea the ocean swells were about 15 feet and the ship pitched and rolled so much it was impossible to stand up. In order to keep from getting seasick or crashing into a wall, we spent the day in bed.