Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/679293
SPRING/SUMMER 2016 DREAMSCAPES 47 to wild beaches, up narrow fjords, to archae- ological sites and lively outport parties. THE WILDLIFE Local "culturalist" Tony Oxford is a poetic guide, politician and balladeer, with a great handle on the local vernacular. He awakens us over the PA system every morning, strumming a musical ditty. When a little "storm petrel" lands soggily on the deck at midnight, Oxford dries it out in his cabin closet overnight and sets it free as the sun breaks over Fogo Island. Though biologist Holly Hogan says the little seabird was likely lured by the ship's lights, Oxford has a darker explanation. Our petrel might be the soul of a drowned sailor, doomed to spend eternity fluttering above the waves, or a "water witch," here to foretell bad weather. OUTPORTS OLD AND NEW Fortunately, the weather holds as we go ashore on Fogo Island, the new "it" place for modern explorers looking for unique cul- ture, art and architecture. Millionaire entrepreneur and Fogo-ite Zita Cobb is revitalizing the fishing commu- nities with contemporary artist-in-residence studios and an upscale inn, decked out in handmade quilts and artisan furniture crafted by local boat builders. It's designed to immerse "geo-tourists" in a community where locals follow the natural rhythms of the seasons, still picking berries, "making fish" (drying cod) and hunting caribou to survive. "It is a place to embrace and to be lived in for what it is," says our guide as we feast on fried fish, partridgeberry scones and cloud- berry tarts cooked by local women in the Parish Hall, "an island halfway between the old world and the new." VIKING WEATHER Today the water witch summons the weather. Our ship is barely visible off shore in the driving rain and wind as we motor to the thousand-year-old Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. "My son, let me tell you something right now: I've wiped more salt water out me eyes than you've sailed over," quips Oxford as he commandeers our Zodiac through the storm. We trudge over wet, grassy slopes to see the Snorri (Viking ship) and Norse-style sod buildings reconstructed next to the mounds where their longhouses, iron forge and workshops once stood. This is the earliest confirmed Viking settlement in North America and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, proof that Norsemen arrived here 500 years before Columbus. Eventually they gave up on the place, too isolated and harsh for even marauding Ice- landers. As the storm kicks up, we must retreat, too, taking our lunch and partridge- berry crumble in a box.