Ketchikan – do you Partake…

Port one on our cruise – Ketchikan the salmon capital of the world! There is so much salmon here I’m going pink just thinking of it – tinned, canned, boxed, dried you name it and you can find it here – I’m bringing you all home some salmon jerky, sounds appetising doesn’t it!

Ketchikan is one of the oldest fishing villages in these parts and as I look out of the cafe window the only thing that reminds me that it is 2006 is the mobile phone tower in the background. The town itself is what you would expect of a fishing village, it is colourful and messy and has a cheeriness that only a shoreline of timber shacks can produce. Rather than take a bus tour with the other ship dwellers we decided to grab a walking map from the info centre and explore ourselves which turned out to be a good idea. We saw the back streets of Ketchikan, where there were no tourists, as well as the tourist hot spots like Creek Street (Ketchikan’s former red light district).

It was on part of this walk that we headed down to the fishing docks and met a real life fisherman (white beard, sailors cap and overalls – the whole bit). He was strolling back from his rusty van toward is apartment. Actually apartment is probably the wrong word, his room in one of the big timber houses that line the waters egde. He was inspecting the side of the building to see if he could some how fit gas heating for the upcoming winter – this was his first winter here, he has lived in Ketchikan for 18 years but  always on his boat. This year he is renovating the boat so has stepped onshore till it is completed – not bad for an old fella. His final commments give title to this post, as we invited him to get on with his morning he commented that he was busy, carrying his glow lamp up to his room to set up his pot. I kid you not – in Ketchikan pot is very popular – he explained. He asked very politely if we partook of pot – we politely declined and with that we were all on our way. Looking back I am quite lucky that our morning did not end in Simon and I sitting cross legged on the floor of a dank fishers apartment… well you know. Till our next adventure on the high seas Gem