Campbell River, BC

 I've come to the opinion that travel is rarely seamless.  It makes sense, if you consider the failure points in any trip.  Delayed or cancelled flights, trains, buses, weather, illness and injuries.  Let's not include scheduling mistakes, because they never happen...

We decided to spend Thanksgiving with Nickie's daughter's family, who live in North Vancouver.  October is usually dicey weather in Vancouver, but aside from a little rain, what could go wrong?  To be fair, we enjoyed a few days of hiking in Campbell River, on the east coast of Vancouver Island.  The area is beautiful and with only 2 days to hike, we didn't start to cover all the incredible terrain in the area.  We are 87.6% certain we will be back in the near future.

Elk Falls
Note the suspension bridge at the top

Thanksgiving weekend was wet.  It rained just enough to make us hesitate about outdoor activity.  This is a problem with 2 grandchildren aged 5 and 7.  For those who subscribe to masochistic endeavors, perhaps a tiny bit more "character Building" is required, to make the experience truly rotten.  Try being sick at the same time.  Although Nickie recovered well from her illness while returning from Italy, I never fully recovered and since both grandsons were ill, perhaps I picked up a new strain...

So, Thanksgiving was a bit wet, then we hiked in Campbell River, then during our last weekend in Vancouver, it experienced record amounts of rain.  Do recall that this is Vancouver.  Not known for record breaking sunny weather.  Nickie and I went for a walk and although I wore a raincoat, my pants were soaked.  Some streets had 20 cm of water.  In one store, water was coming in at the bottom of the walls.  Wet!

Suspension Bridge over Elk Falls

Campbell river has numerous hikes within a short driving distance.  We started with a hike in the Elk Falls Provincial Park.  Surprisingly (to me), there was a waterfall in the park!  The trails in Elk Falls PP are not overly technical with only a modicum of elevation.  A nice trail when recovering from the flu.  There is a serious suspension bridge close to Elk Falls.  It got a little misty while taking pictures, but incredible views nonetheless.  We then hiked to the John Hart power station, crossing the famous Erna bridge.  For those who a keen on bridges, I should mention that Erna's bridge is quite tiny.  You might be disappointed if you spend thousands of dollars to go see it.  But who am I to judge?

Mini tree-house for rent?

The next hike was along the Crest Mountain trail.  Crest Mountain is shaped just like a tube of toothpaste - incredible to see!  Before you spend thousands of dollars to go see Crest Mountain, please read my note on Erna's bridge...

This is a serious hike with some serious elevation gain, but worth hiking if only to see an amazing forest.  The trees are truly impressive.  At one point I was told by Nickie that I wasn't allowed to take any more pictures of trees.  From then on, I took pictures of amazing rocks (which just happened to be beside an incredible tree).

The rock looks like a mirror image!

Crest Mountain Trail is in the Strathcona Provincial Park, which is over 250,000 hectares.  It is also the oldest provincial park in BC.  The trail is a bit technical in spots and there is 1,250 meters of elevation gain.  Although only 5K, give yourself a healthy 4 hours for this hike.

A couple of cedars

We did not make it to the top.  I thought I was recovering, but after 2+ hours of climbing, I was starting to fade.  And not the type of "fade" normally associated with a long climb, but a tiny bit of "write your will" fading.  After climbing through the large trees, the hike becomes a bit steeper.  Once there was snow on the trail, the discussion turned to getting back down.  As in "How the hell are we going to get back down?".  We were not far from where the trail becomes gradual and emerges from dense forest, but we decided to turn back.  Next time!

Much trickier than it looks!

Getting steep!

I'm beginning to like YVR.  I know it is smaller, but the Vancouver airport seems to be more efficient than Pearson in Toronto.  We dropped our rental car at an offsite agency.  The shuttle departed for the airport 15 minutes late, which is normally not an issue for us, but since our flight was at 10:10 and the shuttle left at 08:15, i was a bit concerned about the typical airport delays.  I don't know if magic was invoked, but we got to the airport, checked our bag, went through security and was at our gate by 09:00.  Not sure how that happened!

We now have 3 weeks off before a trip to Costa Rica.  Nickie and I will be travelling with my sister Christine.  She is the youngest of my siblings, but a true commando at heart.  This is likely due to being a teacher for 30+ years.  I expect her students were all terrified of her.  I know that we are.

Hiking in Italy

The title is a bit misleading...  I have been to Italy 5 times.  To sum up why, the food.  Those damn Italians make everything taste better.  It's not fair!  Salads are better.  How can anyone possibly make a salad "better" than elsewhere?  I answered this one myself when I noticed the chef popping out to the garden beside the restaurant and picking a few herbs.  Unlike Canadians, if the food is not excellent, Italians will go elsewhere!

Back to the misleading title.  Although we hiked in the Dolomites for a week, we also visited Venice and Verona.  Nickie had never been to Venice and although I had been there 2 years ago, it is a spot everyone should experience firsthand.  I did warn Nickie that she would not enjoy Venice.  Why, you ask?  The crowds, which are both unbelievable and disturbing.  I cannot imagine living in Venice - I don't know how the locals do it.  And the Italians only have themselves to blame.  Similar to the French, they have a plethora of sites everyone should see.  Unlike the French, Italians are nice to tourists.  Entirely their own fault.

San Marco Sinking?

I don't live near an ocean.  I know about tides, but was puzzled to see raised platforms being erected in San Marco square.  Curious!  Then I noticed water coming out of the storm sewers.  Lots of water.  Definitely not a good sign.  We visited San Marco square during a "high" high tide.  The raised platforms were about a meter in width and could easily handle a few hundred people.  Do recall that I am talking about San Marco square which, incidently, was now a lake.  Thousands of people were trying to move along the raised platforms.  It only took one tourist to stop and take a picture, for everyone to be standing still.

Gondola Rushhour

First game of Marco Polo was played here

Two full days is sufficient to see a good part of Venice, unless you intend to swim all of the canals.  If so, give yourself about 3 weeks.

Glass blowing island of Burano

I guess that I should mention about our flights.  Not wanting to risk another fiasco similar to when we flew to Vancouver with Lynx, who went bankrupt prior to our return flight, we booked with Air Canada.  Guess what?  Air Canada was facing a strike, which would start the day our flight left for Venice!  We hemmed and hawed about booking another flight.  With 5 days until our departure flight, we decided to book with Air Transat and avoid the risk of not getting to Italy.  The day after our flights with Air Transat were confirmed, Air Canada declared the strike had been averted!

Another Italian plus is their transit system.  I love talking to Europeans about the non-existent Canadian transit system.  They shudder at the cost of taking a train from Rome to Venice, which can be as steep as $95 CAD.  I ask them to guess at the price for a train from Toronto to Vancouver.  Yes, it is a much longer trip, but can cost north of $5,000.  Getting from Venice to the Dolomites is tricky.  Reminds me of the punchline for a Rodney Dangerfield joke: "You can't get there from here".  We took 5 trains and a bus.  I like to have a comfortable buffer between flights.  I don't book 30 minute layovers.  So imagine how I felt when I realized that 2 of our train connections were less than 10 minutes each!  Our shortest was a 7 minute gap between trains.  All this in railway stations I had never seen.  As a credit to the Italian train system, none of our trains were late and we had no problems.  We took a train from Venice to Venice (from San Lucia to Mestre), Verona, Bolzano, Fortezza, then Brunico.  Then a bus from Brunico to Pederoa.

Hiking in the Dolomites

A word of caution about town names in the Dolomites.  Over the centuries, the area has been under rule from both Italian and German speaking nations.  I'm hazy on who invaded whom, but a lot of towns have 2 names.  Brunico is also Bruneck.  Bolzano is Bozen.  It can get quite confusing if you are not aware of this!  We stayed at Hotel Pider, in the town of Laval / Wengen / La Valle.  I forgot to mention that some parts of the Dolomites have 3 official languages; Italian, German and Ladin.  If you have not heard of the Ladin language, you are not alone.

Nickie, yelling something about the hills being alive.

Hotel Pider from a distance

Zoom in:  Pider is left of the church

Hotel Pider is a wonderful hotel deep in the Dolomites.  I recommend the half board, which (I think) means they feed you breakfast and supper.  There are hiking trails outside the front door.  Breakfast is quite a nice spread, including scrambled eggs.  Supper was beyond intimidating.  I'm pretty sure the chef at Pider has never heard of Hamburgers.  Every breakfast, we would select that night's supper from a menu.  How can that possibly be intimidating?  Here is the menu for one of our suppers:

Salatbuffet

Grub aus der Kuche

Kurbiscremesuppe mit Gorgonzolatropfen
oder
Penne mit Thunfisch Perltomaten Sauce

Flank Steak vom Rind mit Krauterkruste
oder
Kohlrabi Eintopf

Kartoffelblatter, Auberginen 

Parfait von der Walnuss

Very soon we found out they can provide the menu in English!

I think this is a barn

Hiking in the Dolomites is incredible.  It is one of the most beautiful places on this planet.  It was almost annoying how many times we had to stop and admire the views.  Mind you, the vertical might also have influenced the frequent stops.

Hiking above the clouds

The Dolomites remind me of the Canadian Rockies, in that pictures do them no justice.  There are also impossibly verdant fields, where cows graze.  I think the cows are on some form of Valium.  I would certainly not consider grazing on such steep slopes!

There are many buildings whose purpose at times eluded us.  Is it a barn?  A B&B?  Storage?  Some were obviously built on or in a cliff.  One building of which we had no trouble determining its use was a restaurant, high in the Dolomites.  The view was excellent, the soup amazing and the wine delectable.  There is little reason to order a special bottle of wine in Italy.  The house wines were far better than Ontario reds.  They all tasted great, in part because we had been hiking 3 - 4 hours that morning. 

Wine is better at altitude!

Pider provided us with bus passes.  Although it would have been easy to hike from the hotel every day, we took advantage of the bus passes and hiked from La Villa (aka Stern) and Badia (Abtei).  From Badia, we actually hiked back to hotel Pider.

The Dolomites!

From the Dolomites, it only took 2 buses and 3 trains to reach Verona.  It was a breeze!  Verona also had large crowds.  It boasts a Roman amphitheatre called Arena Di Verona.  Since it predates the Colosseum in Rome, it is rumoured that it was used as a template for the Colosseum.  Verona is also the site for a play called Romeo and Juliet.  It was written by some old guy, possibly Bernard Shaw.  One component of this play is a balcony.  I took a picture of it, even though I couldn't see what the big deal was all about.

Arena Di Verona

Juliet's Balcony

As with all travel, it was time once again to head home.  I developed a tickle in my throat in Verona.  We took a train to Venice for our last night, to make the trip to the airport less complicated.  The next morning, the throat tickle turned nasty.  Perfect timing, getting sick while travelling for 20 hours and crossing 6 time zones.  We are recovering nicely (yup, we were both under the weather).

Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Part of our rather complex travelling schema is to spend more time in Canada during the summer.  We envision short trips, allowing us to get back home before the garden dies from neglect.  Back in 2005, I hiked in the Gros Morne area and memories of the incredible scenery remain with me to this day.  

I should mention that our only air travel hiccup was a 1 hour delay for the flight home (both flights were direct).  Nickie and I rented a car at the airport and a house in Rocky Harbour.  Mike, our landlord was very helpful, especially when the power went out.  I don't think power outages are common in Rocky Harbour, but lightning did strike an electrical pole, causing the first outage.  The next day there was a "planned" outage, probably to correctly repair the damage from the first outage.  Neither caused us much trouble, aside from an issue I had trying to find my pants in the dark, in order to answer the door.  Mike had thoughtfully dropped by to provide us with a flashlight.

Hiking in Heaven

On our way to the top!

For more information on these hikes, click on Gros Morne Hiking.

Baker Brooks Falls

We started with a warm-up hike; a moderate 10K out-and-back trail called Baker Brooks Falls.  The trail notes warn of biting insects, but in late August we encountered none.  Probably a warning for the Spring and early Summer.  The falls were quite beautiful and there was considerable shade along the trail.  One interesting aspect was an "exclosure" (new word for me!) which is a fenced area to keep out moose.  Since the introduction of moose to Newfoundland back in 1904, they have been playing havoc with the flora.  There was a distinct difference between the moose grazing lands and the exclosure.

Go Big or Go Home

Almost at the top of the scramble

Don't look down!

Our next hike was the Gros Morne Mountain Trail.  Although only 17K, be prepared for some exertion!  There is a total of 1,000 meters elevation gain, about half of which is during a scramble.  We are not fast hikers, but fairly constant.  It took us 7.5 hours to complete the trail, which is respectable considering the range is 6 - 8.5 hours.  The scramble takes about 45 - 60 minutes of climbing over rocks and boulders.  It is steep enough that stopping to rest a few times is a good idea.  The top of the mountain boasts some interesting terrain and flora. The views are amazing, displaying geological formations not found in most parts of the world.  This hike is well worth the effort, but bring along bad weather clothes and more water than you usually take for an 8 hour hike.

View from north side of the summit

Western Brook Pond

Several waterfalls into the Western Brook pond

 A day off from hiking was in the cards, so we booked a boat tour on the Western Brook Pond.  I understand that in Newfoundland, "pond" is used to describe even large bodies of water.  The WB Pond is 16K long - a lake in my vocabulary.  It was carved out by glaciers during the last 2 million years (Pleistocene Epoch).  The almost vertical cliffs rise over 600 meters from the water.  Most people have seen photos of the cliffs, but experiencing it in person is something else!  It was unfortunate that it rained for most of the tour.  Bring warm and waterproof clothes unless you really enjoy hypothermia.  I did get a few good photos near the eastern end of the pond.

Mist and rain along the cliffs

The next day we hiked along the Old Mail Road trail near Cow Head.  The only reason we went on this hike was so that I could write about a town called "Cow Head" in my blog.  To be fair, we saw some sand dunes along the trail, which are rare in Newfoundland.  The trail was formerly used by mailmen, as there were no roads in the area until about 1952.  That afternoon was also hiked the Coastal Trail, although we turned back early as the rocks were bruising our feet.

View of the Tablelands

Next up was the Lookout trail, a nice climb up from near the town of Bonne Bay / Woody Point.  We took the ferry from Norris Point (near Rocky Harbour) to Bonne Bay.  As we were about to depart Norris Point, the captain quickly went through the ferry and counted the people.  He then asked us to disembark and get on a bigger ferry.  I wonder if this happens anywhere else in the world?  The lookout provides excellent views of the area and of the Tablelands.  We encountered 2 teenagers playing chess at the top of the mountain.  I would of taken their picture, but was too afraid...

Tablelands

Hiking the Tablelands

The tablelands are a rather bizarre geological feature.  They are supposedly one of only 2 spots in the world where you can stand on mantle rock.  Click above for more information.  Mantle rock is normally found below the earth's crust.  If you were to dig at the rate of 10 meters per day, it would take you about 10 years to reach the mantle.  You would encounter some difficulty as most shovels would melt, requiring considerable time to climb out of the hole and get a new one.

The Tableland trail is quite easy, until it is not.  We chose a rather hot day for this hike, which was one factor in our decision not to climb to the summit.  Another factor was that our knees were not talking to us.  My left knee grumbled something about wanting a day off "or else".  There is an easy well-made trail along the bottom of the tableland.  You are asked to stay on the trail to protect the flora, but If you want, you can also scramble up to the top.  It did not look easy and we only saw a few people doing so.  Most were holding a bottle of Islay scotch.

The rocks don't support vegetation and I think most of the frail plants we saw were growing on dirt blown onto the orange rock.  The formation is incredible as the area has undergone glaciation.  Very cool!

Sideways striations

Well, it was then time to bid adieu to Newfoundland and head back to Ontario.  As mentioned above, our flight was delayed by about an hour.  This landed us at Pearson too late to take a train home to Innisfil (Barrie), so we took a taxi.  To be honest, it was nice to get from the airport to home in only 55 minutes.  That way, we didn't have to take UP (train to Union Station), then GO (train to South Barrie), then a taxi home.

Next is Italy.  We booked with Air Canada and out flight leaves on September 16 and arrives in Venice on September 17.  Yup!  Air Canada pilots are poised to strike on September 17.  Should be fun!

The Great Glen Way

Although I have been to Scotland before, I've heard the weather is nice in April.  To be exact, there is less rain than in most other months.  Let's make this perfectly clear, "less rain" in Scotland does not necessarily translate into "mainly sunny days".  However, we lucked out while walking the Great Glen Way.  We experienced a few brief episodes of drizzle.  The kind of rain where you debate stopping to put on a raincoat, and when you do so, invariably the rain stops.

A few years back, I walked the West Highland Way, a wonderful way to experience the Scottish terrain from Glasgow to Fort William.  The Great Glen Way can be considered a continuation, as it traverses from Fort William to Inverness.

The start of the Great Glen Way

Once again we relied on Macs Adventures, a company centered in Scotland that specializes in adventures worldwide.  Macs set up the hotels, luggage transfer (we walked with a day pack) and provided maps, emergency contact and most important - advice.

The Caledonian Canal

We completed the roughly 120 km GGW in six days.  As an observation, it would have been nice to have a day or two off during the walk.  As we were only averaging 20K per day, it was not overly taxing, but 20K is enough to limit the time available to explore the towns in which we were billeted.

The trek from Fort Williams to Inverness actually follows a fault line, called the Great Glen Fault.  I think I know where the walk obtained its name!  What happened (feel free to ask someone who actually knows about the fault) is that the north eastern part of Scotland was actually in Canada, about 200 million years ago.  I'm guessing there was some sort of disagreement, so what is now north-eastern Scotland gave the rest of Canada the finger, and headed east.  The mid-Atlantic ridge had something to do with the kerfuffle, but I see it as an innocent bystander.

Loch Lochy

Shortly after the year 1800, someone had a rather obtuse idea to put in a canal along the fault line and named it the Caledonian Canal.  The name isn't all that obtuse, but the canal runs from Fort Williams to Inverness, connecting the North Atlantic to the North Sea.  Look at a map and you will quickly realize that in modern times, this doesn't make a lot of sense.  Back in 1800, the powers that be determined it would give Scotland/Great Britain a significant advantage should a hostile navy show up.  I'm hazy on the logic behind this, but to be fair, I should mention there are an incredible number of Scotch whisky distilleries in the area.

Some of the locks

The Great Glen Way proceeds primarily along the canal, locks and lochs.  No, that isn't a typo.  There are a bunch of locks (29) and 3 lakes, which the Scots call lochs.  Most people have heard of Loch Ness, on which many have claimed to see a monster.  Again, look up the distilleries in the area and it all makes sense.

The Great Glen Way starts near the MacDonalds restaurant (I wish I was kidding) in Fort Williams and after a few dekes, heads out of town.  It then follows the canal to Gairlochy, which is at the south end of Loch Lochy.  The Scottish are known for their sense of humour, so it comes as no surprise that they named one of their lakes "lakey"...

The GGW heads into forested land along Loch Lochy and be on the lookout for detours, described as diversions.  There is considerable logging in the area and parts of the trail are re-routed at times.  This avoids have to run very very fast to avoid having a tree dropped on your head.  Loch Lochy comes to an end at Lagan Locks and the GGW again follows the canal.

Nickie taking a picture

After a short bit, the canal ends and you walk along Loch Oich.  I'm not even going to try to pronounce the lake!  Loch Oich is a small lake that ends at the bridge of Oich.  Again there is a longish bit of canal, that ends at Fort Augustus.  The Romans never did make it that far north, so the fort was named after someone else named Augustus - probably a Canadian.  For almost half its length, the GGW then follows Loch Ness .  Along this portion, we overnighted in Invermoriston and Drumnadrochit, before arriving in Inverness.

We stayed 3 nights in Inverness, where we recovered (the last 2 days covered 55 km) and toured the town.  Inverness has some rather large churches and a castle that unfortunately, was closed for repairs.

Ness river in Inverness

Next on our itinerary was a visit to John O'Groats.  This is a small town (yes, it has a distillery) in the far north of Scotland.  We had planned to take a ferry to the Orkney Islands, but were not aware that the ferry schedule is limited in April and early May.  After considerable investigation, we realized that we needed to take a bus, then a ferry, then another bus to get to where we wanted to go on the Orkney Islands.  We would then have 34 minutes and 12 seconds before having to board a bus for the trip back to John O'Groats.  Instead we hiked along the coast of John O'Groats, which had some fascinating striations caused by the latest ice age.

Ice age striations covered in algae

To get from John O'Groats to Fort William, we had to take a taxi (no buses on Sunday!) to Thurso, a train to Inverness, then a bus to Fort WIlliams.  Strangely enough, even though there is a train on Sunday from Thurso to Inverness, there is no train from Inverness to Fort Williams (?)

Nickie claims that I get sick every time we travel.  This is nonsense.  Back in Fort William, we decided to hike Ben Nevis.  I was sick.  We walked to the base of Ben Nevis where I bid Nickie adieu and turned back.  Nickie went on to summit Ben Nevis, which is a considerable challenge.  I had summitted Ben Nevis on 2 previous occasions, so resting was a better option.

Nickie on her way up Ben Nevis

The trip back home was uneventful, which was a bit eerie.  We are getting used to landing in a country just as it declares a state of emergency, or our flights being cancelled since the airline went bankrupt.  In this case, all was calm and boring.

Next trip:  Italy (visit Venice then hike in the Dolomites).

Cheers!

Babysitting in North Van

 The powers that be deemed it providential that we travel to British Columbia during the Family Day holiday in February, in order to get away from Stroud and help Nickie's daughter Sarah, during report card season.  Sarah is a teacher and requires about 40 hours of seclusion in order to complete the report cards.  The 2 grandchildren (okay, technically they should be described as Sarah's sons) require considerable interaction at the ages of 4 and 6.

Hiking in BC in 2023

I'm not going to belabour the point about issues arising when I travel, but since we booked rather last minute, we decided to use a low-cost airline for the return flight to Vancouver.  We chose Lynx!  Our outbound no-frills flight was uneventful and we remarked to each other that travelling cheap wasn't so bad.  The flight boasted free water, but no movies, meals or wine.  Our flight back was scheduled for Sunday February 25, 2024.  Guess what!  Lynx went bankrupt and their last day of business was February 26.  Our overnight flight would have landed in Toronto on February 26, so it was cancelled!

We scrambled for a few days to locate a replacement return flight.  Being an optimist, I fully expect to be reimbursed for our cancelled flight, at some point in 2026...

Vancouver is rather dreary in February, but we enjoyed several hikes in the area.  The beachfront just south of Stanley Park - I think it is called English Bay Beach, is a great spot to walk about and enjoy one of the cafes.  We did not hike any of the nearby mountains, as the trails are a bit treacherous in February, but visited some of the parks within the city.

Grouse Grind in 2023

If you glaze over the fact that we booked a trip on an airline that went bankrupt, a real concern is that the maple syrup season started early, while I was in BC.  I make maple syrup with a friend and due to the unseasonably mild weather, we (they) tapped early.  I asked the pilot to drop me near Badjeros, the closest community to the farm where we make maple syrup, but he could not find it on a map, so we continued on our way to Pearson Airport.  If you want a challenge, try to find Badjeros, Ontario!

After the maple syrup season ends, we will head to Scotland and hike the Great Glen Way, a 120 km trail from Fort Williams to Inverness.  I've hiked from Glasgow to Fort Williams (known as the West Highland Way) and we are looking forward to some incredible scenery and Scottish hospitality.

Take away:  Try not to book flights on airlines that go bankrupt.

Cheers!

How to Enjoy a State of Emergency

Nickie and I enjoy travelling and have explored quite a few spots over the last 2 years.  Before that, travel was primarily theoretical, through the lense of Covid 19.

Once in a while (okay, perhaps almost every trip) trouble comes looking for me.  And trust me, it is never my fault!  Just don't ask Nickie if my actions sometime contribute to the problem.  It's hazy, but I believe her recollection is skewed.

I'm hoping these are phone lines...

I have travelled to Ecuador before and was excited to share the experience with Nickie.  Ecuador is a mixture of old world (Spanish), rural charm and a more peaceful pace of life.  Except for the Ecuadorians drivers.  F1 drivers would be nervous venturing onto their big city streets.

To break the tension, I should mention that nothing terrible happened to us in Ecuador, on the first day.  We had barely landed in Guayaquil (pronounced similar to Guacamole) when Ecuador declared a state of emergency. I am 72% certain it was not related to our arrival.  The next paragraph will prove how safety conscious I truly am.

Part of our schedule was to spend a few days sightseeing in Guayaquil, just before flying back to Canada.  Since some of the trouble was in Guayaquil, we decided to stay there for only the night before our flight home.

Directly after landing in Guayaquil, we took a bus to Santa Elena, then a taxi to Salinas.  Public transportation in Ecuador is ridiculously cheap.  A three hour bus ride costs about $5 and cab fare ranges from $2 (short trip) to $6.  Salinas is a beach town with a plethora of restaurants and hotels.  The beaches are great and the Pacific ocean waves are manageable.  I'm not overly keen on beach towns.  I can endure up to 4 hours on a beach, but then I start to vibrate.  The humming annoys those nearby, so we usually have to move far far away.

One of Salinas' beaches

Near Salinas is a cool ocean phenomena known locally as Chocolatera.  This is where strong ocean currents smash against the shore, whipping the water into a chocolate froth.  Or so I've read.  We never did get to see Chocolatera, since you must cross a military base.  Recall that Ecuador was in a state of emergency.  Had we taken a taxi, all would have been well, as presumably, the driver would have told us the route to Chocolatera was closed.  But Nickie and I like to hike!  The normal route was closed, but I happened to find a way into the military base through a door in the back yard of a hospital.  Soon we were hiking along streets with many military buildings scattered about.  As we walked by a group of soldiers holding machine guns, one asked us what we were doing there.  My Spanish is not the greatest, even after a few years of Duolingo, so my question about how to get to Chocolatera might have been misunderstood.  We were promptly asked to leave.  There are a few situations where even I decide it is better to obey than to argue.  One is when talking to angry young soldiers toting machine guns.  I recommend you consider this a good rule to follow!

The next day we again tried to find our way to Chocolatera.  Since our efforts while walking appeared to be futile, we hopped into a taxi and when he was turned back at the gate, we began to realize that Chocolatera was barred due to the state of emergency.  If you are ever in Ecuador, I recommend seeing this wonderful site.  But not during a state of emergency...

2nd largest Nativity scene ever!

Most days we swam in the ocean and ate some wonderful seafood, but not at the same time.  Which gave me an idea!  We could try swimming around the military base.  Now there's a plan!  Unfortunately, Nickie talked me out of this idea, citing rough seas, sharks and snipers as potential deterrents.

After a week in Salinas, we took a bus to Cuenca.  To be exact, we took a taxi from Salinas to Santa Elenas, then a bus to Guayaquil, then a bus to Cuenca.  The bus to Guayaquil was boring, as the terrain is flat.  Not so with the bus from Guayaquil to Cuenca!  It passes through the Caja National park.  At one point, the road is at almost 4,000 meters above sea level.  Spectacular scenery and the bus driver was able to show off his F1 driving prowess.  There is no better feeling than drifting a coach bus around mountain hairpins!

Caja National Park
The highway is where the bus driver honed his F1 skills

I've been to Cuenca before and had forgotten how noisy, busy and smelly it is.  Cars, trucks and buses race around for most of the day and well into the evening.  Since there are only 400,000 people living in Cuenca, I think the same cars, trucks and buses most follow a route, over and over again.  If they were all simply going to their destination, there should be no traffic after 9 AM and only a little between 5 and 6 PM.  I'm not sure how they do it.

There was more police and army about, due to the state of emergency.  However only in the busier parts of town, such as the town square, known as El Parque Calderon.  It is an impressive display of old Spanish architecture and includes the obligatory huge churches.  It was quite busy and likely is so most of the time.  There was a traffic jam on the 4 roads surrounding the square.  I am 92.5% certain the traffic simply kept going around in circles.  Maybe the drivers are paid to make Cuenca look busy?

Nickie near our hotel in Cuenca

After a wonderful supper in the square, we walked back to our hotel, situated in the southwest section of town, near one of Cuenca's rivers.  Outside the hotel were 2 armed police officers, 2 more in the lobby and a couple standing outside one of the first floor rooms.  I was going to yell "You found the drug lord!", but decided they might not understand my sense of humour.  We went to our room on the second floor, not really knowing what was going on.  We made plans to roll off the bed, clutching the mattress, when they started firing their rifles.

The next morning, there were still 6 officers at the hotel, so we decided it was a great opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge (actually Cuenca) and hike in the Caja National park.  The hike was wonderful!  Well, as wonderful as hiking can be at 4,000 meters.  I saw a lot of stars that I am quite certain no one else could see.

Caja National Park at 4,000 meters

On our return, there were no longer any police surrounding the hotel.  So we asked the clerk what had happened.  He explained that the police were there to protect the President of Olympia.  I might have misunderstood the clerk, but the fellow being guarded was carrying a sceptre.  We felt a bit of relief, now that we weren't sharing a hotel with a prime target for any local drug lords.

The next day we walked to the south side of Cuenca, which has 3,387,412 steps (I counted them) up the side of a hill.  Although the climb is onerous, there is a great view of Cuenca at the top.  Almost worth the cardiac arrest.

Cuenca!

We decided to take a trip to Ecuador's largest Inca ruins in Ingapirca.  I normally over-analyse prospective trips, but somehow failed to notice that the site is closed on Monday and Tuesday!  Fortunately, much of the site is visible from the road, so we saved the $1 entry fee!

Ingapirca

Finally it was time to head back to Ontario.  I enjoy travelling, but also look forward to getting home after some time abroad.  The trip from Cuenca to Guayaquil was a surprise, as the bus driver was quite competent, only squealing the tires on 4 or 5 occasions.  We had changed our accommodations in Guayaquil, due to the state of emergency and instead of staying in a rather nice hotel, we stayed in the Airport Hotel of Guayaquil.  It was cheap, in all senses of the word.  Our room was slightly smaller than a broom closet (the first time I was jealous of Harry Potters' bedroom) but compensated by having no windows.

The flight back was uneventful, just the way I like them.  It seemed a bit strange when we landed in Bogota and felt much safer!

To sum up, here are some tips on vacationing in a country that is under a state of emergency:

• Keep low at all times.
• Don't argue with soldiers holding automatic weapons.
• Obey the curfew.  In fact, enjoy the curfew, as it means even party towns are quiet after 11 PM.
• Avoid spending considerable time in towns where people are being shot.

There are also some benefits of vacationing in countries in a state of emergency:

• Unless there is gunfire, you should get a good night's sleep.
• Restaurants are not as busy
• Hotels should be a bit cheaper
• Airport lines are much reduced

In case you think that chaos follows me wherever I travel, don't go to Scotland in April.

Cheers!