Greenlanders have a well-earned reputation for kindness and hospitality. Their smiles, in particular, are disarming. Many tourists can be taken back by the genuine good will coming from complete strangers. In time, the smiles and "hellos" become infectious. Except for in the territory's largest city, Nuuk, smiles and salutations are the rule on the streets.

However, this particular Greenlandic habit evolved from the incredible harshness of the arctic, as revealed in a comment shared with Knud Rasmussen, Greenland's foremost writer and explorer. While Rasmussen traveled in Canada, a Canadian Inuit Sâmik told the Greenlandic explorer (seen right, in his parka) why his Inuit brethren could be so joyous when they lived such a hard and dangerous life: "Ah, you strangers see us only when we're gay and carefree! But if you knew the terrors we so often have to face you would understand why we love laughter, why we love food and song and dancing. There is not one of us who has not known a winter when hunting failed, when people were dying of hunger all around us and when we ourselves survived only by some chance. But how should a man who is healthy and well-fed understand the madness of hunger? All we know is that we long to live." [As quoted by Ingstad, Helge. Land under the Pole Star. Translated from Norwegian by Naomi Walford. (New York: St. Martin's Press). 1966. P. 339.]

After having returned to the United States, and the large city of Seattle, I'm struck by how lonely and unfriendly the faces are in the West. I saw the same guarded expressions among nearly all European visitors in Greenland, as well. The differences drew a sharp line for me separating Greenland from its Western neighbors.

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Smiles You Can't Find Anywhere Else

Two young women on a Greenland ferry from Qaqortoq to Nanortalik make a visitor feel welcome.

Greenlandic Hospitality

Greenlanders are world-renown for their hospitality and warm smiles, like those that greeted me in a Nuuk apartment.

Father and Son

A father, Mogens Kleist, and his youngest son, Lars, enjoy time together on a fishing and hunting trip outside of Sisimiut.

Greenland Smiles

Two Greenland girls ham it up in the summer sun in Sisimiut.

Child's Play

A young mother and her friend play games with the mom's young boy aboard a Greenland ferry.

Young Bench Warmers

In Igaliku, three boys sit amid the ruins of Gardar, the old Norse bishop's residence. (Igaliku, 1999)