Juneau

We arrived in Juneau and the rain stopped (except for occasional sprinkle) although the clouds still hung very low. We had three hours to wander around the city (not enough time in my opinion). I have been to Juneau a number of times in the past but have never arrived so far out of the city as where this ship docked which was something like 40 miles outside of the city.

We took a bus ride in with a very talkative bus driver who gave a running commentary of living in the north in Alaska. He was sooo American (even the other Americans on the tour weren't enamoured with him). He told us that the salmon were now running and this was the first day of fishing. They had tagged one of the salmon and whoever catches it wins $100,000.00. The fishermen were on the water in droves, catching salmon and trying for the tagged one. Then he told us the Canadians are mad that they [Alaskans] are fishing salmon as the Canadians think they are Canadian salmon and don't want Alaskans catching them, then laughed aloud at this fact. The fact is that due to the dwindling Chinook Salmon population (less than 1/2 the amount from last year), the Yukon Salmon Committee, whose mandated to look after the salmon's welfare, proposed a total moratorium on Chinook salmon fishing on the Yukon River including a first nation voluntary moratorium to help save the salmon population (the salmon travel up the rivers in the Yukon to spawn). The Alaskans seem to have missed the point. That was sad to see. The Yukon news report here read:

While Yukon First Nations know that dramatic conservation measures are needed, fisheries managers upstream in Alaska don't seem to be ready to do what it takes to protect the fish, Sidney said.

"We are at the end of the line, and we're the ones that see this fish is in trouble … and they will not listen," he said. "They wouldn't listen, and they kept [their] commercial fishing and their subsistence fishery over there. That's totally out of hand."

Earlier this week, Alaskan officials cut the subsistence fishery in half. Nevertheless, Sidney said, people there are still fishing salmon, even though there are currently not enough fish to meet the minimum number required under a U.S.-Canadian treaty.

He gave us a lot of misinformation, like everyone in Whitehorse speaks French only and Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska gave birth to a Down Syndrome baby, a condition caused by drinking alcohol while pregnant. With all the misinformation he was spouting, I didn't put any weight behind anything he said. (You can see he was a thorn in my side during the trip). Now, that's all I am going to say about him.


Juneau is a government town built at the base of the steepest mountain I have ever seen. It is very picturesque and friendly.


The wharf holds a small mall with three excellent restaurants. Again, it is a stop for cruise ships, one having pulled in shortly after we arrived.