so i'm back from my canadian adventure. the good news: i didn't get pooped on by a bird this time. the bad news: i still got pooped on.
here are the highlights and the lowlights, ay!
the highlights
--- not getting eaten by this hungry black bear! while driving along the pacific rim highway en route to tofino, saw this beautiful creature just a few meters from the side of the road.
the only times i'd ever seen bears before were in zoos and circuses (i know, sad face) - so you can imagine how delighted i was to see this one in the wild! pulled the car over and watched as the bear calmly gathered grass in its mouth and strolled around without a care in the world. didn't even seem bothered that some asian chick (yours truly) was hanging out a car window, eyes wide in astonishment and mouth hanging open, occasionally whispering, "oh my gawwwwwd" and "this is soooo cooool!"
--- a few kilometers further - another black bear, and this one was just a baby! pulled over to watch this little cutie too, but it got scared and quickly disappeared into the brush.
--- i also saw an orca/killer whale! on the 90-minute ferry ride from the mainland to vancouver island, i watched in awe as the whale slapped its tail on the waters of the strait of georgia. i was too mesmerized to take photos, sorry. but wow! what a sight.
--- a perfect canoeing trip. steve, a friendly moofin-eating english guy who's made tofino his home for the last few months, led us around the inlets and islands that dot the region. so gorgeous and so, so peaceful. we even saw an otter swim past us.
--- a walk through the tofino botanical gardens. if you ever get the chance to visit, keep an eye out for the random hidden gems and art installations throughout the grounds. very cool! and don't be surprised to find various types of fowls pecking at your feet.
--- gigantic binoculars. yup!
--- a perfect campfire to keep me warm, sparked by steve and his brilliant magnesium flint. not to mention, a perfect night sky and a shooting star!
--- a wild night in vancouver city with the wildly entertaining friend of a friend, kirby. the night with kirby started out quite civilized with an amaaazing home-cooked meal of stew and polenta, baked squash, fresh-out-of-the-oven pie and some fine wine - courtesy of his delightful friends, kim and marcello. somehow it evolved into an all-nighter with kirby and his friend paul and me partying in ways reminiscent of my later woodcliff days. that means nothing to the majority of you, so let's just say it involved things you don't write aboot on a blog that your parents read. and it took this old lady aboot 3 days to fully recover.
--- the awesome rob who hosted mr. italiano and me for a night in north vancouver, in the company of his girlfriend emily and some fantastic new furniture. really nice peeps.
--- the awesome ryan who hosted us for a night in victoria...and gracefully handled our unexpected disappearing act. which leads me to my next point.
the lowlights
--- six days into the trip, i was ditched by my travel companion in a cruel and senseless manner. mr. italiano and i - platonic, just to be clear - had had some differences in our travel styles. i didn't find them particularly crippling - there were no fights, no blowouts, maybe a little tension over small things we disagreed aboot. i'm one to brush things off and get over things quickly, and i thought little aboot this tension. i must've underestimated it all, because it came as a shock to me that mr. italiano had reached such a boiling point that he would leave me the way he did.
here's what happened. when i woke up that morning, our host ryan had already gone to work and left us the keys to his place. mr. italiano told me he wasn't feeling well and he was gonna go out for a walk. i said, "cool, i'll see you when you get back." little did i know, he wouldn't be coming back at all. i had been looking forward to going hiking that day as he and i had planned the night before. so i prepared some soft-scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, ate it alone while his plate got cold. after aboot 2 hours, i was afraid perhaps he'd gotten lost, or something bad happened to him.
and then i realized all his bags were gone. this was a planned escape.
poof! just like that.
i gave him the benefit of the doubt and sent him a text, asking if he was ok. his reply: "i'm ok thy, and finally relaxed. enjoy your stay with ryan, i think is better for me (and for you) if i go by myself. ciao."
ciao! wow. never heard from him again. no explanation, no apology.
i was stunned by this and a bit sad. i didn't want to speculate or even attempt to rationalize his behavior, so i spent the afternoon walking around victoria (which is very cute, by the way - that's the legislature building to the right) and decided to hop the next ferry back to washington. it's not like me to cut a trip short because of somebody else's behavior, but something was pulling me home.
this left me sending an unpleasant, awkward message to our host ryan, who was expecting us to stay another day and had even offered to take us out that night. i didn't understand what had happened, much less explain it to him. he was just as confused (if not more), but like any good host, he couldn't help but feel responsible in some way. ryan was nothing short of awesome, and i regret that in mr. italiano's disrespect towards me, he disrespected our host as well.
the silver lining is that i got to drive back to olympia from port angeles down the 101, which is a pleasant, scenic drive: the olympic mountains to my right, the waters of the puget sound to my left, a beautiful road with twists and turns, and dotted with the changing colors of autumn. this was a far more preferable route to the one i would've taken home, had i driven mr. italiano back to vancouver as planned. this would've taken me home down interstate 5, which is longer, and quite boring. suppose i should be thanking him?
well, i'm certainly not angry. had this happened to pre-traveling thy, it might be a different story. i no longer know how to dwell on things, and it takes a helluva lot more than something like this to set me off.
and in fact, mr. italiano is a really nice guy. i still have respect for him, which is why i haven't mentioned him by name here under this cloud of negative behavior. he obviously wants nothing to do with me, let alone his name on my blog. we had some great times together, both in tuscany where i met him earlier this year and on this ill-fated journey through vancouver island. i thank him for his generosity and for the memories, as there were more good ones than bad. mr. italiano is an incredible man who's lived in the amazon, traveled through remote villages in mali and trekked all over nepal (in fact, canada marks the 60th country he's traveled to)!
as for me, i wholly appreciate the good times i had in canada - the nature, the wildlife, the new friends. but i did leave the country feeling like i'd been pooped on again. i don't blame canada, of course. i'm just getting used to being pooped on while i'm there, that's all.Labels: backpacking canada, bears, bird poop, botanical gardens, canada, canada roadtrip, tofino, vancouver, victoria
