National Parks and San Fran

wow haven't written in ages. Left seattle two weeks ago and travelled to Mt Rainier Natrional Park. little did i know i would be hiking in thick snow. Slid down the side of Mt Rainier on a garbage bag. That was fun. Drove 500 miles through WEashingotn, Idaho and Montana and stayed in Missouri, Montana. Drove to yellowstone NP and saw black bears, a grizzly bear, coyote, elk, byson, moose and some other cool stuff. Saw lots of geysers inlcuding Old Faithful. Drove through Nevada and went to Craters of the Moon and some hot springs. Watched australia lose to someone in a casino in the middle of Nevada. Went to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming and stayed at Jackson. Hiked to Ampitheatre Lake which was entirley frozev over and started snowing as i ate my sandwich! Another 500 miles and got to Lake Tahoe on the Californai Nevada border with great views of the Sierra Nevada range. Drove to Yosemite NP which was so stunning. Hiked to Half-Dome which was 27km and took all day including a few hundred metres of vertical rock-face climbing. Most spectacular and satisfying walk ever, almost. Stopped at a winery for some wine-tasting outside san fran before arriving yesterday and walking over the golden gate bridge in cold and mist! Could go into more detail with all the walks but running out of time. Will be home in less than two weeks! yay!

Victoria to Seattle

wow i'm sitting in the most amazing building...the Seattle Central Library (yeh i know, kerrin i just hear you saying that this is the kind of place i would hang out...actually making use of free internet as usual). Anyway, i just looked up the building online because i forgot who did it, but it's designed by Rem Koolhaas...wow, knew it must be someone good. As soon as i saw it i loved it. It's a big glass thing with odd geometry. You can see pictures at

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/koolhaas/Seattle/

The inside is great too, it just feels like you want to be here, with its vast space and light. agggh. wow.

anyway. Victoria turned out to be realyy great and i could finally make use of the loooong evenings before sunset by strolling around. Reminds me an english seaside town, nto that i've been to one recently, but you know.

The ferry trip through the Puget Sound wasn't AS great as it thought, mainly because the Sound is so wide. i think i was spoiled by seeing Doubtful Sound in NZ.

Seattle so far is fascinating with its buildings and bookshops and interesting food places. It's seems far more interesting and accessible than New York. New York has the hype, but Seattle seems to have more to explore...well, so far. i'll see how it goes.

Finding the hostel on Union street near Pike Street Market was a bit of a nightmare. My pack seems heavier every time i wear it. I got off the ferry at Pier 69 and according to my map needed to walk many blocks to Union Street. Then there's that horrible feeling where you realised you've walked too far and have to turn back. The day was unusually warm and the pack was SO heavy i kept sitting down. I finally finally found the place...this story really has no interseting twist other than the bag was heavy and i wa slost and hot...guess you had to be there...or be me.

When i was wlaking around this afternoon up to Broadway to change my tickets i wlaked past this 'lady' who had her elbow poking out and i burshed it as i walked past. I was like 'sorry' as you do, expecting a similar 'sorry' as she was well out fo her personal space zone with that elbow, and then i hear behind me this, "excuse YOU bitch!!". I was like, 'oh great' she's gonna come and scratch my face or something..."she kept yelling "hey i'm talking to you bitch!". I really couldn't care less because of how she was talking. If anything i was already imaginaing it being a good story. Although i did turn my head slightly to make sure she wasn't walking my way with her claws out. hehe

The othe rfunny thing was overhearing some locals in Vicotria talking about the weather forecast, "going to be a scorcher and a record-breaker" they said. hehe, i was very interested to hear what this scorcher temperature was. "ooh about 26 or 27 degrees." Actually sounded pretty wamr for there when it gets only low 20s in the summer, but it was still funny. They all started talking about sunburn, and one lady said she tends not to go outside in the summer in case of sun damage. hehe once again.

Well, i 'm going to keep walking around for a while, and maybe explore the library a little more. In two days i start my national parks tour.

Tofino - Vancouver Island

my last day in Vancouver was really good. Did a massive walk around the seawall at Stanley Park, the headland of Vancouver downtown. In the afternoon caught the ferry to north vancouver then found my way by bus to Lynn Canyon. There was a big canyon and a suspension bridge. I did a walk through the trails there and at the beginning there was a sign saying Beware of Black Bears. That got me all nervous and i couldn't concentrate on anything but looking for bears. Ever since the bull-charging I realise how irrational animals can be and you can't just say 'hey, stop that, i didn't do anything to you.' Or maybe, it is actually complete rationality - and that you can't argue your way out of either. Bull gets angry, bull charges. Bear gets hungry, bear eats. hmmm

So, on saturday, or whatever day it was, i got the ferry over to Vancouver Island. I almost missed the only bus to Tofino because i came out the wrong exit at the ferry, and then i had to run alongside the bus with my backpack on and knock on the door till the driver stopped. He was going to leave without me! He crossed my name off and everything, and i wasm't even late!

The drive across to the west was cool with lots of golden wattle everywhere, and the usual snow-capped mountains and those pine-looking tress which i think are actually called hemlock trees, as well as western red cedar trees. I couldn't believe it on my first night in Tofino the sun didn't set until 9.30, and then it didn't really get dark till 11.30. I wasn't sure what to do. You can't exactly go to bed when the sun is still high and bright, but i was pretty tired. So i put my clothes over my pajamas and walked out to the headland and watched the sun go down. The area around Tofion is beautiful and part of Pacific Rim Reserve, which is a UNESCO biosphere reserve world heritage site. So, obviously a place worth preserving. I did sea-kayaking out to nearby Meares Island where we did a hike through an old-growth forest and got swooped by a large bald-headed eagle, and saw lots of starfish along the way. I also rented a mountain bike and tried to see a bit more that way. It's probably the kind of place you want to be with people/person. Still trying to adjust to not being with a group. Makes it hard to go for a hike alone because apart from the warning signs for bears, there are also signs saying to be careful because there are wolves in the parks. Overall though, it was a beautiful place. Would like to come back some day and try the West Coast Trail.

Today i spent the day in a bus getting to Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island down at the bottom. So far, the city seems really interesting, with old english type things and buildings and shops. Seems a shame to only have a night here. Tomorrow morning getting the ferry through Puget Sound to Seattle.

Two Canadian phrases used ALL the time:

1. Right on

eg. Where are you travelin' from? Australia. Oh, right on. How long for? One week. Right on.

2. Totally

eg. Can you please tell me where the laundry is? I can totally tell you where the laundry is.

more Vancouver

starting to feel so much more relaxed now that here and in nice coolish weather. It seems to rain alot, or is at least really overcast, but that is a nice change. The food options here are so much better than New York, there is a great range of Asian food. Today got the bus down UBC (University British Columbia) to go to the Museum of Anthropology, mostly to see the amazing building. The exhibitions were interesting, but the setting and the concrete building with cascading spaces with huge glass walls was great to see. The campus itself is so pretty with lots of green grass and garden areas. There is always a really nice smell as you walk around various flowers, i don't know what they were but some of them were so familiar it made me feel really happy. The campus, i didn't realise was huge, but i ended up walking to the other side and went to the Botanical Gardens there (sounds like a real mum and dad day). They pretty good and smelt so nice, but of course it started raining as i was doing the forest trail. I was getting too tired to run so i just strolled back and got really wet in the rain! I eventually found the bus back to downtown and got it. hmmm. interesting. Ooh i also checked out the Architecture faculty to see how it compares to usyd, and it was really nice, but nowhere near usyd. Their studios were pretty ordinary, although their drawing boards looked pretty amazing.

I spent the rest of this afternoon making lunch for myself (finally, a kitchen!). This hostel is so so great. Compared to everywhere, or not even compared i feel in luxury.

no time left

nicky

Amantani

our massive room, and...


the bathroom!


our family - esther, angela and Betsy, and me the way too tall-looking one on the end




working hard


cooking for our host families on the last day - wearing traditional clothes


Bonny and me throwing our flower necklaces into the lake as we said goodbye to the island

Copacabana

day walk with Ross and Stephen at Isla del Sol



sunset in Copacabana

Mural

The final mural in the reception at the Huran hacienda and the final 'mural team' who did the last few days of hard work.