Yet another beautiful, albeit cold day. Sailing in is gorgeous, with the forested mountains and little villages dotting the shoreline on either side of the ship.
We dock on time (late in the morning) and watch as we get the best welcome we have ever seen (and later find out that La Baie has been awarded “best cruise ship welcome in the world”). There are kids dressed in period costume, Indians, pilgrims, loggers, priests and nuns, all depicting the history of La Baie. The Saguenay region is also the largest producer of blueberries in the country, so the welcoming committee is giving away free pieces of pie and blueberry juice to the passengers. it is wonderful to watch – especially since we are on the ship and spared what looks like a really strong cold wind down there on the dock!
We get a quick bite to eat, then rendezvous to get off the ship so we can walk around the town of La Baie and get a feeling for the area before our guided tour of the Saguenay area with Fjord et Monde. 
La Baie is a small little town with not a lot in the way of tourist interest. We walked up to the church where there was a craft market, then on into the crossroads of the town, where a goofy little statue commemorating the Winter Games of 2012 resides.
After our short exploration, we meet back at the pier parking area and board our little mini-bus. We have a small group that is well mannered (and not a problem getting on and off and back on time!). The owner of the tour, Josef, is our driver. He is learning English and needs a guide currently, but he says will be speaking perfectly in 2 years! Jean is our guide, who does speak perfect English and keeps us entertained and spreads his area knowledge throughout the tour.
Our first stop is the statue of the founder of the town, which is Josef’s great-great-grandfather. While we are at the statue, we walk across the street to the bay to watch the migration of the Canadian Snow Geese. Every year, millions of Snow Geese descend on the bay here on their way south for the winter. It is amazing. Pictures are below; videos are here:
http://youtu.be/S0RgBHpkJuo or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmyPHNKWlio (just depends on which YouTube upload worked. Sigh….)
Next we head out of town and into village of Riviere-Etemite where there is an exposition of nativity scenes that are sculpted every year. These sculptures are terribly interesting for the interpretation as well as the materials used. Pine being the most common material.
But our favorites were the concrete Eskimo interpretation with the bear
The bronze….
and the recycled aluminum version.
Cool! Back on the bus we head to a church and then a short walk to the covered bridge by Anse-Saint-Jean.
The covered bridge is fabulous. Great for photos of the bridge and the surrounding countryside!
Back on the bus we head to the village – with a stop at a bakery that, sadly, is all sold out of the baker’s wares. It smells heavenly though! Unbeknownst to us though, Josef had snuck into the bakery and procured two trays of sweets for us. Know as Nun’s farts (I kid you not), these were little wrapped pastry dough swirls coated with melted butter and brown sugar. Excellent treat!
The next stop on our tour was the National Park where we hiked through a few nice trails to some excellent viewpoints looking up and down the Fjord. The channel actually freezes over in the winter, and the only way to keep it open is for ice breakers to come through in front of the cargo ships.
Our last stop was the village of Anse-Saint-Jean where we were hoping to try some blueberry beer, but the little café sold the last 2 bottles the morning before we arrived. Bummer! But, we satisfied ourselves with regular old beer while we sat inside and caught up on emails with free wi-fi!
On our way back, Jean treated us with chocolate covered blueberries. Awesome! The ride back is uneventful, and we are back in town and at the ship before we know it. Great day! And more chocolate covered blueberries from the tour folks when we board the ship! Love it here!
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