Provideniya is directly west of Nome in the district of Chukotka on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The primary purpose of the stop here was to clear the ship for travel in Russian waters. Provideniya is Russian for Providence (originally named by a British explorer in the 17th Century) and is the location of the closest Russian airport to the U.S. It was long a location for fishing & whaling but the first buildings weren’t constructed until the 1930s. During the Cold War it was a Soviet military port but the base is now abandoned. While waiting for the authorities to clear the ship we saw some grey whales in the harbor, but they were too far away to get any good photos. After about 3 hours the ship was finally cleared and we were able to walk into the town. There is hardly anything here and the population is about 2000 with over half being Inuit of the Chukotka tribe which is closely related to the Alaskan Inuits. The buildings are all Soviet era architecture and in poor repair. There was a small Chukotka welcome ceremony with children dancing. We walked to the statue of Lenin and then into the town where we visited the museum of Chukotka history which had very interesting displays and photographs. We wandered around the town for a bit and then went to the Cultural Center where they had tea, candies & cookies for us followed by a folkloric show. The show was put on by children with one adult Chukotka woman doing the singing and beating the flat drum. They performed several Chukotka as well as a few Russian & Tartar dances, all in appropriate costume. We spent about 3 ½ hours in town which was experiencing really warm & sunny weather, about 48 degrees F.
We were back in our room after dinner reading before going to sleep when the captain made an announcement at about 10:30 that the Northern Lights were glowing and were visible from the back deck. We quickly dress and headed for the deck and saw what looked like a dull green cloud on the horizon. One of the expedition leaders finally got the outside lights at the rear extinguished and everything got much clearer and brighter. Spikes began to shoot skyward from the Northern Light cloud and put on a spectacular show. We had the additional pleasure of seeing 3 meteorites shoot down past the lights. Without urban light pollution we could see billions of stars like sparkle dust sprinkled all over the heavens and it was brilliant. I loaned my laser pointer to one of the expedition leaders who pointed out stars and constellations and I suggested we have a star gazing night sometime during the voyage with someone knowledgeable pointing out the various stars.