Alaska Part 3: Tuntutuliak By Jet, Bush Plane and 4-Wheeler

So far, we had explored the mountains of Central Alaska and the coastal mountains of Southern Alaska. Next, we headed to the tundra of Southwest Alaska. 

First, we had to get there and luckily for us, Nellie had a lot of experience navigating in and out of her home. We boarded our jet plane in Anchorage, heading for Bethel. This was our first taste of intrastate air travel; we needed to check our box of tortilla chips and a few other things. Since air travel is such an important method of transportation in Alaska, Alaskans have a lot of checked luggage – totes and totes full. The line was long but Nellie wasn’t worried; Alaska Air is used to this traffic and worked quickly. 

I found a quiet place to work while Lucas, Paul and Nellie waited in the luggage line. Reunited a bit later at the gate, we waited for our flight. It was snowing pretty hard out and so we weren’t surprised to learn that our flight had been delayed due to a long de-icing line. Winter travel in Alaska is all about patience. We eventually boarded our flight and set off for Bethel, a town of around 6,300 people. It is the largest town in Southwest Alaska and the transportation hub for people traveling to all of the small communities within the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

There are no roads to Bethel; you can’t drive there. So, everything, including people and freight, is brought in by air, snowmobiles or in the summer, by barges. There are plenty of roads in Bethel, and lots of cars, but it is a lot like living on an island. We landed, putting on all of our winter clothes before walking off the plane on the runway. Nellie navigated us to the luggage claim, where we picked up our tortilla chip box amongst all the totes. 

The plan was to take a shuttle to the next terminal, drop off our luggage, get lunch and run a few errands during the 3-hour layover. Just a normal Tuesday afternoon. Except we were in Alaska, it was -20 degrees and we had no cell phone reception. I was very glad Nellie knew what she was doing. Eventually, our shuttle arrived and we loaded all of our gear (and tortilla chips) in with the other passengers. Our next flight was scheduled with Grant Air, one of the companies offering plane rides to the villages throughout the region. We dropped our luggage at Grant’s counter and called a taxi. The taxis are all connected with VHF radios, so we could hear all of the other calls coming in on our 20-minute taxi ride. VHF is a very important communication tool in this part of Alaska – just like living on a boat. 

There are only a few restaurants in Bethel, and Nellie took us to her favorite Chinese restaurant. You know how we feel about Chinese food and this place was so good! Our next errand was our most important – AC Bethel Motorsports. Nellie owns a sweet four-wheeler that she uses to get around the village, but it was having trouble starting in the very cold temperatures. Lucas, Nellie and Paul had been brainstorming ideas for this problem the whole trip and they compared notes with the shop owner. Nellie purchased some new relays, hoping they had diagnosed the right problem. Our last stop of the day was to the grocery store, we stocked up on a few basic goods. Bethel is the last big grocery opportunity for a while. Nellie’s hometown has a store, but it is very small and very pricey. This again felt very much like our life on Alaya. 

We made it back to Grant Air with plenty of time to spare. We had to check back in at the counter to finalize our tickets. Since we would be flying in a propeller plane where weight is really important, they weigh all passengers and luggage before boarding. This meant that each of us stepped up on the luggage scale to be weighed. Another first for us. 

Weather conditions also have to be just right to fly. Nellie had warned us about the high likelihood of delayed or canceled flights. We waited as our departure time came and went, but we were assured that our flight was still planned that day. About an hour after our scheduled departure, our names were called and we watched our small plane land, unload and pull up. Our pilot escorted us on the runway to our plane. Lucas was pumped to see it was a Cessna Caravan. I was feeling excited and a little nervous.

We took off just as the sun was setting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the cabin was heated, which, along with all of our snow gear, kept us very comfortable for the 25-minute flight. We had just enough daylight remaining to see the beautiful, stark landscape. Not a tree or mountain in sight. It was crazy to spot a few lonely snowmobile headlights making their way through the tundra between communities. 

We landed on the snowy runway in Tuntutuliak, AK, in darkness. There was a small group of vehicles waiting for the plane – including Nellie’s friend and co-worker, Mark, who was our ride. Mark loaded all of our gear and us into the back of his Gator and we zoomed across the boardwalks to Nellie’s house. It was a cold but exhilarating ride. We were officially in Tuntutuliak!

Tuntutuliak is a small village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. It is home to approximately 500 people. There are no roads in or out of Tunt and there are no cars. Tunt is built on the tundra along the river (which was very frozen when we arrived). In the summers, people get around by boats, on foot or with four-wheelers, using the extensive boardwalk system that has been built since so much of the land is marshy when thawed. In the winter, snowmobiles are the primary method of transport and the occasional 4-wheeler. Nellie moved to Tunt a few years ago to teach kindergarten and first grade at the community school. 

Needless to say, Tunt doesn’t get a lot of visitors from Michigan. In fact, I think we were the only people from the lower-48 in town for the week. We were honored to be Nellie’s second group of visitors, Tony and Cathy, Nellie’s parents visited last Christmas. 

We arrived at Nellie’s doorstep a few minutes later, ready to be out of the elements. Mark had kindly kept Nellie’s house as warm as possible while she had been away. It was tough work to keep the pipes from freezing in these conditions. We warmed up some delicious soup Nellie had prepped for our arrival while she walked to pick up the last member of our party – Scuffy, Nellie’s adorable dog. Scuffy had been staying at a friend’s house and we were thrilled to finally meet him. 

The next morning, I woke up very early for my workday. Once the rest of the group joined me, Lucas made breakfast and we settled in for the day. Lucas, Paul and Nellie got to work fixing her four-wheeler, but first they had to dig it out of the snow drift. Temps were forecasted to be the coldest Tunt had seen all winter, -30s all week. The big difference out here was the wind, the tundra is almost always windy and there is nothing to slow it down. This was a whole different type of cold compared to our time in central Alaska. 

Team Lucas, Nellie and Paul made quick work of the 4-wheeler problem and by the afternoon, it was time for our first day of Slaavi. 

What is Slaavi, you ask? In short, it is the celebration of Russian Orthodox Christmas, which typically falls a week or two after Western Christianity’s Christmas. At Nellie’s invitation, we had timed our visit to coincide with Slaavi in Tuntituliak. Each day, different families open up their homes to the rest of the community, following the star of David to each new location. Once everyone has arrived, the ceremony begins with songs and/or a sermon. Next, the host family distributes gifts to every visitor. Gifts ranged from candy bars to socks to knives and kitchen utensils and filled up the grocery bags we brought with us. After the gifts had been distributed, it was time to share a meal together. The host family would pass around food to all their guests. After the meal, it was time to pack up and head to the next house. Each day, 4 – 5 families would host the community. The celebrations would go late into the night. 

Our first Slaavi day started around 3 p.m. and by 11 p.m. we had visited three homes. At that point, I needed to go home. 11 p.m. Alaska time is 3 a.m. in EST and I had a 9 a.m. EST meeting that morning. So, I went to bed and Nellie, Paul and Lucas visited two more houses, arriving home around 4 a.m. I woke up at 5 a.m. and made it to my call on time.

The next day, we started Slaavi’ing around 2 p.m. and had another wonderful time, ending our evening at a respectable 11 p.m.

We really enjoyed our two days of Slaavi in Tunt. It was such a special experience to be a part of and we were all super grateful to be welcomed with such open arms. Highlights for us were visiting the homes of Nellie’s friends; Alice and John; Lisa and Mark; and Chantel and Kaleb. 

We tried all sorts of new and delicious foods during our Slaavi. My favorites were moose soup and steamed beluga whale. My least favorite was walrus soup. To me, walrus tasted like fishy steak. Lucas also really liked moose and beluga.

In addition to the Slaavi celebrations, we also got to explore the community a bit, as much as the -30 degree temps would allow. One day, John came over in the morning asking for Lucas and Paul’s help digging out a 4-wheeler. The guys jumped at the opportunity and suited up. John dropped them off in front of a snow bank and told them he would return in a few minutes. After a minute, they realized the snowbank was the 4-wheeler, it was almost completely covered by snow that had drifted overnight. They started digging. Within 30 minutes, they had the 4-wheeler out and started, with the help of Lucas’ dream snowmobile, a Ski-Doo Expedition SE 900 ACE, and a tow strap. John was tickled. The joke then became for the rest of the week that Lucas and Paul traveled 5,000 miles just to help John dig out a 4-wheeler. 

While the guys were helping John, Nellie and I got to help Alice prepare for her turn to host Slaavi that evening. It was lovely to just spend time with everyone and hear stories about living in Alaska’s tundra. We spent a long time at Alice and John’s house for their Slaavi, keeping Scuffy company while Nellie helped pass out gifts and distribute food. 

We also got to spend some time in Nellie’s school and classroom. It is a beautiful school built by the community a few years ago and conveniently located right next to Nellie’s house. It had been so cold that most of the pipes in Nellie’s house had frozen, and her boiler was having trouble keeping up with the extreme cold, so the school was also a great spot to take showers and hang out. 

Our last day in Tunt snuck up on us. We spent the day hanging out in Nellie’s classroom, playing games, catching up on some work and watching the Michigan football game. We even made our signature buffalo chicken dip in a crock pot, consuming many of our well-traveled tortilla chips.

Our travel logistics out of Tunt the next day were made a little precarious by the weather. No planes had been able to fly for three days prior to our scheduled departure day, it was too cold for the planes to operate safely. Lucky for us, our travel day was a little warmer (-15 instead of -30) and our flight left Tunt on time. We were sad to say goodbye to Nellie and everyone in Tunt but we were all excited to get somewhere a little warmer. We landed in Bethel a half hour later where we got lucky again; our flight to Anchorage left on time too. 

Throughout our week in Tunt, we all couldn’t help but draw comparisons between living there and living on Alaya or on Mackinac Island. While these places are all obviously very different, some of the principles and logistics of life were very similar. Such a cool and unexpected takeaway from our Alaska adventure. A huge thank you to Nellie and everyone in Tunt for hosting three Michiganders for the week.

We arrived in Anchorage with a few hours to spare before our next connecting flight that would take Lucas and me to our next adventure – Victoria Island, Canada. This is where we parted ways with Paul. He was heading back to sunny San Diego to thaw out and finish up his last few weeks in the Navy. It had been such a pleasure to travel with him for the past month. Thanks for hanging with us, Pablo!

P.S. On May 16, 2026, I received an update from Nellie as I was finalizing this post – she just finished the tortilla chips! They stayed fresh for 5 months! We might need to get some of those for Alaya next season.