After a great break on Vancouver island it was time to get back to the city. Dani and I had another beautiful apartment in a slightly different location, but still in downtown Vancouver and within easy reach of plenty of places to eat and drink.
One day we went for a hike on some beautiful trails the other side of Vancouver.
This is the library, which for some reason was built to resemble the Colloseum in Rome.
Another place on our list was the Vancouver lookout with its 360º view, which we wanted to visit at dusk.
The museum of anthropology was another recommendation and we arrived just in time to catch the free guided tour. That was definitely worth doing, as the history and meaning of all the wooden totem poles and carvings made sense when it was explained. During our stay in Vancouver we learned a little about the history of the First Nations people, including how they came to be referred to by that name; The word ‘Indian’ is still a legal term, but its use is in decline in Canada and considered offensive. The term ‘Indian’ was given to indigenous people by European explorers who mistakenly thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent! As was so often the case when ‘white’ people arrived somewhere, they thought themselves superior and took land for themselves to establish their own settlements. Repeated outbreaks of European infectious diseases such as the ‘flu, measles and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), resulted in a forty to eighty percent Aboriginal population decrease.
On our last day we went to Whistler and woke up to clouds and rain for the first time. Before my trip I’d bought myself a new warm waterproof jacket and was finally grateful for it!
Neither of us wanted to leave. Everyone told me I would love Vancouver and both Dani and myself did. I’m aware that the great weather helped enormously but we had an absolutely fantastic two weeks and I’m missing the friends that I made 4 years ago. When I first volunteered in 2011, I read in the blurb that one of the benefits would be that I’d ‘make friends for life’. My reaction was ‘yeah, right’, but I suspect they may just be right!
What a wonderful experience and time we had in Canada Julie (and in Africa where it all began of course!) Definitely making wonderful memories with many more adventures ahead no doubt.