CHUKOTKA

Dates: August 2 to 12 (no slots), August 9 to 19 (one slot), August 16 to 26 (two slots), 2022

Duration: 11 days / 10 nights

Number of participants: 6 - 9

Cost per person:
- 236 000 Russian rubles subject to 8 - 9 participants
- 254 000 Russian rubles subject to 7 participants
- 259 000 Russian rubles subject to 6 participants

* 10% early booking discount (in case you book before March 2, 2022)

Everything is included except for:
- international flight to Anadyr (roundtrip),
- international medical insurance,
-Russian visa(if needed).
Estimated cost of the flight Moscow – Anadyr – Moscow: 45000 – 650000 rubles (to be purchased by your own).

Single supplement: 37 000 rubles per person. Provided everywhere except for overnights in yaranga



TRAVEL PROGRAM: TOUR TO CHUKOTKA
Day 1. August 2/9, 2022. Arrival to Chukotka. Abandoned military base Gudym

Arrival in Anadyr at 12:40 pm (UTair flight 533 from Moscow).
Meeting with a guide at the airport, crossing the estuary by ferry and entering the city of Anadyr.
Check-in in the hotel "Nord" near airport.
Visiting the abandoned military base Gudym. Gudym, built in late 1950th, served as a nuclear weapon base during the Cold War period and was completely hidden underground. Explore secret tunnels. Picnic at the military base with packed army ration.
Local delicacies: red fish, caviar and other.
In the evening stories about local rituals and traditions: the ritual of feeding the spirits.

Meals: lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel "Nord" in double/twin rooms


Day 2. August 3/10, 2022. Anadyr – Laurentius – Lorino

After breakfast transfer to the airport.
Flight from Anadyr to Laurentius, to the very east of the Chukotka Peninsula.
At the airport meeting with our guide and team leader, professional ethnologist. Registration at the border guard office and lunch in the local café. Walking tour around the village, visiting the local museum.
Land transfer to Lorino (42 km, 1 hour), photographing tundra along the way. Accommodation at the apartment.
An ethnologist's lecture on the history of whaling on the seashore with a visual study of canoes, harpoons and other whale hunting tools.
Dinner (homemade food) and communication with sea mammals hunters in an informal environment.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment


Day 3. August 4/11, 2022. Acquaintance with the culture of the Chukchi in Lorino

Participation in the competition of whalers: throwing a harpoon, rowing on a canoe made of walrus skin, knitting.
A visit to the bathhouse, informal communication with hunters.

Walking tour around the Lorino village – world capital of whaling. Meeting with representatives of the Inuit and Chukchi cultures, a discussion on issues of intercultural interaction.
The Chukchi are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukotka Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within Russia. They speak the Chukchi language. Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea. According to most recent genomic research, Chukchi people are the closest cousins of the First Americans in Asia. Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi, who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi, who lived as nomads in the inland tundra region, migrating seasonally with their herds of reindeer. The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu ("rich in reindeer"), which was used by the Reindeer Chukchi to distinguish themselves from the Maritime Chukchi, called Anqallyt ("the sea people").
The Inuit (Eskimo, Yupik) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, Chukotka and Alaska. The Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo-Aleut family. Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 CE. They had split from the related Aleut group about 4,000 years ago and from northeastern Siberian migrants, possibly related to the Chukchi language group, still earlier, descended from the third major migration from Siberia. They spread eastwards across the Arctic.
Visit to a bone carving workshop, explanation about a traditional craft. Here you can also order souvenirs made of walrus tusk, bone or whalebone.
Dinner and overnight in the apartment.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment


Day 4. August 5/12, 2022. Lorino – Reindeer herders camp in tundra

After early breakfast, leaving by motor boat or by caterpillar all-terrain vehicles for the reindeer herders brigade (brigade of Neshkan, Yanrakynnot or Lorino, depending on the location of the nomads). The way by boat takes at least 4 hours, by all-terrain vehicle – at least 6 hours and may take even much more, depending on location and road and weather conditions. Taking pictures of tundra on the way.

If we travel by sea towards Yanrakynnot, we will stop at the Masik (Mechigmen) "whale alley", where ancient settlements of whalers of the 13th century are located. Here you can still find the remains of so called "jaw dwellings", built in the form of semi-dugouts from the bones of the jaws and ribs of bowhead whales. Picnic en route.
Meeting reindeer herders and sharing gifts.
Dinner from venison and food of reindeer herders.
Master classes on cooking dishes from venison.
Talking with reindeer herders, stories about life in tundra around the fireplace. Lecture on the traditional exchange between reindeer herders and marine hunters.
Night in sleeping bags in traditional yaranga in a very basic conditions.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: yaranga (traditional Chukchi dwelling).


Day 5. August 6/13, 2022. Reindeer herders camp in tundra – Lorino

Breakfast with reindeed herders. We spend first half of the day in the camp of reindeer herders, participating in the life of the reindeer herders' brigade.
Trip to the herd. Master class on lassoing.
Return to Lorino, lunch.
visit Lorino hot springs in the tundra halfway from Lorino to Laurentius. Bathing in the springs and return to the village for spending the night at an apartment.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment

Day 6. August 7/14, 2022. Dezhnev Cape - the easternmost point of Eurasia and the ancient Eskimo settlement of Naukan

After breakfast we will travel to the End of the World. We will make a sea trip to the northernmost part of the Bering Sea, pass through the raging waters of the Bering Strait, and if weather permits, we will go out to the Chukotka Sea relating to the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Here is our main goal - Cape Dezhnev, the extreme eastern point of Russia and the entire continent of Eurasia. In good weather and visibility, you can see not only the outlines of the islands of Ratmanov (Russia) and Kruzenshtern (USA), but also the mainland coast of America - Alaska. If weather permits, we go until Uelen – another settlement located on the northern part of Chukotka Peninsula.
On the way we will observe gray whales beating their tails, walruses in the water and sometimes at rookery and numerous bird colonies.
We will go ashore in the immediate vicinity of Cape Dezhnev, where there is a monument to Semyon Dezhnev, the discoverer of the strait between Eurasia and America. His notes were published only after his death, a hundred years after he discovered the strait, so all the laurels went to Bering, who saw the strait seventy years later, and Dezhnev just got the name of the cape.
There is also the ancient Eskimo settlement of Naukan of the 11-12th century and the Ekven burial ground dating back to the 2nd century BC. This place, with the remains of half-dugouts of dwellings and utility rooms of the Eskimos: built with stone and whale bones, is located in a stunningly beautiful place and makes an extremely strong impression, atmospherically surpassing the famous Cape Roca in Portugal, located on the opposite end of Eurasia.
Lunch at the easternmost point of Eurasia, next to the Dezhnev monument and the border service point.
Return to Lorino.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment

Day 7. August 8/15, 2022. Chukchi whale hunting in Lorino

After early breakfast, boat trip for observation of gray whales and observation of the full process of traditional whaling craft. We will witness distribution of the whale meat among local population. Traditional hunting for whales is officially permitted among the Chukchi people, within allocated quotas, which amounts to about 120 – 140 gray whales and 2-4 Greenland whales a year.
Lunch made of meat of sea animals.

Walking tour around the village. Dinner and ethnologist lecture on the history of the development of Chukotka.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment
* As an option, at extra fee, concert of folklore group.


Day 8. August 9/16, 2022. Walrus traditional hunting in Akkani

Early departure to the old settlement of Akkani. We visit old abandoned village of Akkani which now serves as a hunters' base for the local community. Akkani is located in a picturesque bay with numerous whale skulls and bones along the coast.
Observation of traditional hunting of indigenous people for pinnipeds. Demonstration of traditional cutting pinnipeds, tasting of cooked dishes from walrus meat.
Lunch made of meat of sea animals, mushrooms and berries.
After a walk around the area we return to Lorino.
Farewell dinner.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: apartment


Day 9. August 10/17, 2022. Lorino – Laurentius – Anadyr

After early breakfast, visiting the office of the territorial-neighbors community of sea mammals hunters during the morning meeting. Say goodbye to the hunters. Buying souvenirs and transfer to the airport of Laurentius, say goodbye to the ethnologist. Flight to Anadyr.
Ferry through the Liman to the city, check-in at the Anadyr hotel. Lunch.
Observation of salmon fishing on the shore of the traditional Chukchi village Tavayvaam.
Dinner.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel "Anadyr"


Day 10. August 11/18, 2022. Anadyr

After breakfast we go for city tour (monuments of Grinevetsky, Rytkheu, Mandrikov, St. Nicholas) and an observation point overlooking Anadyr. Visiting of the Chukotka Heritage Museum.
After lunch, we will walk to the passengers' pier, where at low tide beluga whales and seals catch salmon, staying against the current in the estuary. Photographing white whales and seals.
Farewell dinner. Performance of a folk group: throat singing or dancing.

Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner
Accommodation: hotel "Anadyr"


Day 11. August 12/19, 2022. Return flight

After breakfast buying of souvenirs and crossing the estuary.
Transfer to the airport and flight Anadyr - Moscow by UTair airline, departure at 3:40 pm (flight UT534).
Meals: breakfast, lunch
Accommodation: no


* The operator reserves the right to change the order of execution of the program subject to keeping of all activities.
** The program depends on the local flights schedule and availability of flying weather.

Cost includes:

• Domestic flights from Anadyr to Laurentius (roundtrip)
• transportation costs in Chukotka (transfers, taxi, ferries, boats, all-terrain vehicles)
• twin/double accommodation in hotels and apartments,
• accommodation in yaranga
• full board meals
• permit to the border zone
• entry to the national park zones (payments and permits),
• tickets to the museums
• all activities and visits according to the program
• English and Russian speaking guide, local guides
• English and Russian speaking guide - ethnologist and team leader in Lorino
• ethnologist's lectures about Chukotka in Lorino.

Cost excludes (to be additionally paid):

• Tickets to Anadyr roundtrip,
• medical insurance,
• Russian visa (if required),
• additional extra food, alcohol and souvenirs,
• additional optional activities which are not listed in the program.

To take with:

• Wear sets fitting weather conditions, including summer wear (trousers, T-shirts, long sleeve shirts) and warm wear (fleece, jamper),
• warm windstopper jacket
• thermal underwear
• hats for all types of weather: baseball cap/hat/suncap and windstop warm hat for sea journeys
• windstopper gloves
• buff
• swimsuits
• raincoat
• comfortable closed trekking footwear (with membrane) and comfortable light shoes (snickers) for walking
• rubber boots (up to you)
• sleeping bag for 0 degree
• anti mosquito net for sleeping (up to you)
• personal hygiene items: towel, wet tissues
• personal medical kit (analgesics, antiseptic, antibiotic, antiviral, your personal medications)
• sunblock set (cream, sunglasses, cap) and wind protection means
• facial anti mosquito net (up to you)
• repellents: sprays, creams
• big backpack for stuff
• small backpack for radial walks (25-30 liters)
• forehead torch
• thermos (up to you)
• photo and video camera, spare batteries
• dry bag for camera and documents (up to you)
• insurance confirmation copy