Hothooine

We've been in Bethel for two months now and I am daily inspired by the people, the culture and the landscape that is Bush Alaska. However, I am also beginning to realize that living here is akin to living on the ill-begotten love-child of the planets Tatooine AND Hoth from the original Star Wars trilogy.

First of all, we're remote. I mean WAY remote. Like Tatooine AND Hoth remote. As Luke said about Tatooine in A New Hope, "Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's furthest from." This seems to describe Bethel far too well. Bethel is off the road system, meaning the only way to get anywhere from here is by airplane or boat. Technically, right now the Kuskokwim River currently serves as an ice road to other places more remote than Bethel, which seems to counter my point, although being more remote than here may actually require a new word to be defined.

I do find it interesting that a locations remoteness has actually been studied. Curiously, the place furthest from any sea is, appropriately enough, called the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility. It is 1553 miles from any ocean and is uninhabited. Coincidentally, Point Nemo is the furthest point from any land mass, also falling 1553 miles from the nearest lad form.

The most inhabited remote place is an island called Tristan da Cunha. It's a whopping 1242 miles from St. Helena and over 1700 miles from the nearest mainland. They only get mail once per year! How insanely nuts is that?

Bethel's Hoth comparison is pretty obvious given our climate, but it's worth mentioning. I find it amazing how NOT cold -30 is until the wind blows, when I find it equally as amazing at how unbelievably cold -30 is. Of course, it's interesting how quickly our acclimation to temperature changes as well. We had weeks of sub-zero temperatures and now we've nosed into the plus category and I'm overwhelmed by how hot it seems. T-shirt weather is now +15!

Okay, maybe Bethel isn't as remote as some other places, but we're close!