End of 2010 Update

Another year comes to a close. In keeping with the theme of this travel blog, I should update my travels for 2010. The big trip of this year was the three week trip to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, with a brief side-trip to France. My favourite was Switzerland followed by Germany.

Other highlights this year included shorter trips to Whistler during the Olympics, to Portland and Seattle by train, Kelowna, Wells Gray Park, the Adams River record Sockeye run, and Sun Peaks for Christmas.

Of course the big news this year was the move to Kamloops. That involved many trips back and forth between Vancouver and Kamloops by car, U-haul, Greyhound and a few times by VIA Rail.

I plan to expand the focus of this blog, by adding posts on other topics besides travel.

Switzerland First Impressions

Today is already day 4 in Switzerland and Anita and I love it here. The weather is perfect and where we are staying is beautiful. We're staying at a lovely bed and breakfast in Spiez, Switzerland which is a lovely town on the side of the Thunersee Lake in Central Switzerland, about half an hour from the capital, Bern, by rail. The train station is a short 10 minute walk from here and we can go pretty much anywhere we want by train in Switzerland in 3 hours. It is so easy to get around by train that many people don't have cars. We are staying in the loft that has a balcony on both sides of the house with a view of the town on one side and the lake and mountains on the other. We are using this town as a base to see the whole country, but it is so nice that we want to just stay put some of the time instead of racing around every day.

Yesterday we took the Glacier Express train from Chur in eastern Switzerland to the town of Zermatt at the foot of the Matterhorn. The scenery was beautiful along the way and at the Matterhorn. We lucked out with great weather since we arrived here.

Travel Update

Since I returned from Central America, almost three years ago now (where does the time go) I haven't felt like blogging much, except for the Japan trip. I thought I'd update where I've gone in the last three years. Mostly I haven't gone outside of Canada or the USA (except for the brief jaunt to Tijauna). I'll write more about Alaska soon, but for now here's a list.


2007

• Yellowknife for work
  
• San Diego, Tijauna for a conference
  
• BC/Alberta Rockies road trip (Kelowna, Yoho Park, Banff, Jasper, Cranbrook, Oliver, Osoyoos)
• Japan for 2 weeks (see separate post)
  

2008

• Oahu, Hawaii in April
  
• Seattle 4 times (twice by train/bus, twice in bad winter conditions)
  
• Vancouver Island (Malahat train Victoria to Courtney, Sooke, Port Renfrew)
  

2009

• Fort McMurray and Calgary for work
• Eastern Canada by train (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax)
• Portland during the August heat wave (by train from Bellingham)
• Alaska by cruise ship

Pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/matthew.ian.buchanan

Forgotten Japan

(Note: I forgot to publish this post from almost 3 years ago, just an outline)

Thu
Shibuya with Kelsey at internet place
took train to Kashiwazaki

Fri
with David in Kashiwazaki

Sat
train trip from Shibuya-Shin Yokahama-Okayama-Fukuoka

Sun Fukuoka
night food stalls
green hotel
bar with music, records
sumo

Mon Miyajima
ferry to island
tori gate
temples
hike to lookout
ropeway

Tue
Hiroshima
tatami mat hotel room
peace museum, memorials

Wed Himeji
hotel by train station
with public bath
himeji castle
middle eastern food
Kyoto 1st night
gion corner
bar

Thu Kyoto full day
golden palace
rock garden
late lunch
2 lit up temples
shopping area
modern style sushi

Fri Nara
train to meet Crystal
temples
lunch at place with no menus, just pointing to plastic displays

Sumo Tournament

On Saturday, Brett, Kelsey and I took the Shinkansen south to the island of Kyushu. From Tokyo, the distance was around 1200km and we covered the distance, including stops and changing trains once, in about 6 hours. I asked the guy wheeling the food cart down the aisles and he said the train travelled at 270km/h. There was a faster service called the Nozumi, but our rail passes didn't allow us to use it. The slower trains stop more often and at a station stop the faster ones whiz by at top speed. It was quite shocking the first time when that happened as you don't expect it.

We went to the city of Fukuoka to watch a sumo tournament. We were lucky to find a sumo tournament because there are only 6 tournaments in Japan every year. We decided to spend most of the day at the sumo stadium. The early matches have the lower ranked players and it builds up to the top sumo guy at the end of the day at 6 o'clock. There was a match every few minutes so the action was pretty much non-stop. Sumo isn't as popular in Japan as it used to be, so the stadium was never full and most people didn't come until the end of the day. That did give us the opportunity to sneak down to the front to see it close-up. The one bad part of the sitting area is that there are no seats, only pillows for you to sit cross-legged in the defined square sitting areas demarcated by metal bars.

Before every match the fighters go through rituals of drinking a cup of water, stamping their feet, slapping themselves in an effort to intimidate their opponent. They also throw salt into the ring to purify the fighting area. The match itself starts with the ref chanting some things and then they plow into each other. The first one to step outside the ring or touch his arm or leg on the mat loses. Matches rarely last for more than a minute, and then the cycle starts again. At the end of the day after the last match, everyone throws their seat cushions into the air to celebrate. It's kind of an odd sport but actually quite exciting to watch. The only thing that would improve the experience would be real chairs!

More on Tokyo

I never really wrote much on my sights in Tokyo in my last post. Kelsey and I zipped around Tokyo Monday, Tues, and Wed this week. The first day we stopped at the tower of the Metropolitan government complex in Shinjuku mainly for the view of the city from the observation deck on the 45th floor. Shinjuku has the most skyscrapers in Tokyo but there are many other clusters of them around central Tokyo. The sky was a bit hazy off in the distance so the edge of the city couldn't be seen. There was continuous development in every direction except for a few large parks. We had a guided tour of the complex where we learned a bit about the building and how the municipal government works.

The grounds of the Imperial Palace are right in the heart of Tokyo and are an unusual open space in the crowded city. You can't actually get into the palace grounds but just catch glimpses of the guards and workers feverishly sweeping a bridge above. Close by, on the other side of the tracks was the Ginza, the high end shopping district with the fancy name brand stores and bright shiny lights. Checked out an electronic store to see what was available. The prices didn't seem to be much different from back home, but I guess there were a few models that haven't made it to Canada yet.

Some of the other places we saw was the Akihabara electronics district, Ueno Park where all the big museums were, Shibuya the party place, Ebisu beer museum (400 yen for a set of four tasting glasses), and the shrine in Yoyogi park. The lesser known Meguro Parisitological Museum was interesting with it's display of the 8.8m tapeworm extracted from a local man who had the misfortune of eating the wrong piece of trout.

Now I'm in the western seaside town of Kashiwazaki in the Niigata prefecture. Got my first ride on the Shinkansen train to get here, that was really smooth! This area was in the news earlier this year because of the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that destroyed many houses and killed around 20 people. There is evidence of cracked roadways and a tennis court is used as a temporary housing area. I learned that earthquake insurance is impossible to get in Japan. The only part of the earthquake that made the world news was the fact that the nearby nuclear power station was damaged in the quake. Apparently some transformers caught fire, but no radioactive material was released.

Last night was fun hanging out with my friend David who has lived here for the past 7 years. His fluent Japanese and local knowledge helped us get into a good sushi place and a fun izakaya (pub). The food, drink and company were excellent. Today we're going to explore the area, and then I'll be heading back to Tokyo.

Tokyo

I`m here in Japan for 2 weeks, starting out in Tokyo for the first few days. It has been a whirlwind few days so far. I got here on Sunday afternoon after a 10 1/2 hour plane ride followed by a 2 1/2 hour bus ride into the centre of the city. Although I was very tired I went out to a festival in Tokyo Teleport town and met up with Brett`s friend Kelsey and girlfriend Natsuki. We had some Japanese food (imagine that!) and got my first glimpse of the complex Tokyo subway and train system. It would be very easy to get lost if I didn`t have someone to show me around. Everything works very smoothly with all the complex movements of people and trains running on time, it`s really quite remarkable.

There are some photos I have put up online here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.ian.buchanan/Japan1/

Cheers! Matthew

Tofino

A year later and I'm finally ready to add another entry to my blog. My excuse is that I haven't been anywhere from March of 2006 until now. Now Tofino isn't exactly exotic, and I've been there before but I was looking forward to getting away from the city for a while. Anita came with me and having never been there before and she was super excited about it so that got me excited too. February at Long Beach is pretty much low season but with the benefit of no crowds and perhaps some winter storm watching opportunities.

The trip didn't get off to a great start. Before we had even left downtown Vancouver a guy crossing at the street caught my attention and told me my right front tire was flat. Great timing! I pulled into an alley and tried to get the tire off with a short tire wrench. Should have probably checked to see if I could have loosen the bolts before I spent that time jacking up the car. Anyway after that false start a tow truck was called and the tow truck driver had the proper tools to get the emergency tire on in 5 minutes. The weekend could've been ruined before it started because we still had a ferry to catch and a 3 hour drive across Vancouver Island. We decided to head over to the island on the emergency tire instead of spending the night in Vancouver. After all that we did catch the last ferry, stayed over in Nanaimo for the night, got a replacement tire in the morning and were at Long Beach by noon Saturday.

Our place was right across the street from Chesterman Beach. It was a small B&B and our room was a top floor suite with a big queen bed, fireplace and a sitting area. What a great find! The weather report looked a bit bleak but it turned out great. There was a bit of rain, clouds, wind and sun. Saturday evening on the beach was beautiful. There were a lot of people taking advantage of the rare nice February weather including surfers who presumably were wearing wetsuits. The sunset was incredible, but since my words won't do it justice, you can see some pictures here. After we watched the sun disappear beneath the waves and returned along the beach, most of the people had left but there was a cool strong breeze making comb-like patterns along the wet sand.

On Sunday we hit the beaches to the south of where we had stayed including Long Beach and Wickaninish Beach. They were both beautiful. The big waves meant we had to keep a close eye on the water to make sure we didn't get wet. Anita learned that the hard way and paid for it with wet shoes for the rest of the day. The highlight beach that day was definitely South Beach. A small cove with a short sand and gravel beach. It was much smaller then most of the others but is angled in such a way that it takes the full force of the winter storms. The perch from the rocks safely above the waves was great place to sit for a while and feel the power of the ocean.

Tofino Photo Album on Picasa
Next stop Yellowknife!

Mexico DF

Mexico City Zocolo
A one day whirlwind tour of Mexico City which is the last stop on my Central American tour. My connection back to Vancouver didn't work perfectly so I ended up having 20 hours to kill. I didn't have much idea of Mexico City when I got there, but was able to book a hostel from the airport. I left my big bag in a locker and headed through the subway system to my hostel located one block from the historic Zocolo. It turned out to be a great location as I was able to walk around to all the sights. A Mexican woman staying in the hostel pointed out to me all the places worth seeing in the downtown, so I headed out for the afternoon. The streets were packed with people and the street vendors were out in force.

Costa Rica

Hola amigos. Only one more day in Central America left so I better make the most of it. I will spend my last day in the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose and then leave very early Monday morning for Mexico City. It has been a nice week so far in Costa Rica. I spent most of the time visiting the Pacific Coast since I only had a few days. Costa Rica is definately more touristy than the rest of Central America and hence more expensive, but on the plus side there is a lot less garbage by the side of the road and the buses are nicer but still pretty cheap and easy to get around. One thing I noticed while in Nicaragua (and Honduras and Guatemala) is that almost everyone throws their garbage out the bus window. So the sides of the roads, ditches and so on are filled with junk. Of course they keep the touristy areas cleaner, but it is such a shame. As soon as I arrived in Costa Rica I noticed there was hardly any garbage and that everything seemed greener. Perhaps they fertilzed the side of the roads near the border because soon enough the bus was travelling through dry ranch country.

The city of San Jose is nice and cool compared to the steamy Pacific coast and it is a nice change. The beaches were really nice though and it was great to spend my last few days relaxing on the sand.

Nicaragua

I'm losing track of time, but I think it's been a week in Nicaragua and I have seen a lot so far. After leaving San Pedro Sula I spent one day in the capital of Honduras Tegucigalpa. It seemed a lot safer than Guatemala City, but since I really only saw the central section I can't be sure. The hostel I stayed in was run by a friendly American guy who was quite helpful. There was a water shortage here too, so the shower I had was more of getting slightly damp experience.

I stopped in Esteli in northern Nicaragua for one night. I had a hard time finding a hotel there for some reason, and when I did find one it was a lot more expensive than Guatemala or Honduras. On to Managua where I stayed with my cousin Michael and his family. They had a beautiful big house and it was nice to relax in a hammock by the pool for a few days and visit with the kids whom I haven't seen in over five years. While there I went on a school field trip with Nicolas sixth grade class to the Masaya volcano. They needed another adult on the trip, so I volunteered to go along. I thought I was finished with volcanoes, but this one was a lot easier to get up, since the bus drove right to the crater edge. The crater was a lot larger than I expected. Being with a group of 12 year olds was quite tiring as they seemed to be pumped up full of sugar the whole time, but I escaped unscathed.

I also visited the city of Leon and stayed with a local family. It was an interesting experience. It seems like everyone in that neighborhood had a rooster, and they were all out in full force before dawn, so no sleeping in there! Had a side trip to the Pacific coast and the beach there was a lot nicer than the one I went to in Guatemala. Now I'm in Granada near Lake Nicaragua and will visit Laguna Apoyo, Isla Ometepe, and San Juan del Sur before moving on to Costa Rica.
Adios

Adios Guatemala

Now I've finally made it out of Guatemala after 2 and a half months. My day trip to Semuc Champey was a really good time. It was probably the scenic highlight of the whole country. It was a bit hard to get to as we had to drive over some pretty rough roads, but it was a spectacular place. There were 10 of us on the tour including the driver and guide. When we got to the first stop on the trip, the guide said we had a choice of seeing the standard cave by foot, or going to another cave where we would have to swim through the cave, and also we could go floating down the river on an inner tube after. The choice was unanimous for the partly underwater cave, but we really had no idea what we were in for. We were told to leave everything behind but sandals and a bathing suit. Our lights were a candle for everyone and we were on our way. The water was quite cold but soon we got used to it. As we got into the cave the water got deeper and deeper until we had to swim. The trick is to hold the candle above the water if you still want to see. We were told bats lived in the cave but they didn't bother us. There were some ladders to climb and descend and also some tight openings to squeeze through, but everyone lived so we all had a great time.

After we got out of the cave, we relaxed in our inner tubes and floated down the river. The water was cool, but refreshing. In the afternoon we saw what we came to see. Semuc Champey is a beautiful spot where the majority of this river flows underground through a tunnel in the limestone. On the top of the bridge some of the water flows into these pools that form a series of steps down to the bottom. You can't go through the tunnel, but you can swim through the pools above. You have to see it to believe it, but I don't think the pictures do it justice.

After that I returned to Coban, then headed north to El Peten province to get to the ruins of Tikal. Tikal was once the largest Mayan city, but was abandoned around 800AD, but nobody knows exactly why. The city was rediscovered in the 1800's and gradually they are uncovering the pyrimads and buildings that were buried under the jungle for over 1000 years. It was quite a site to see, and I spend most of a whole day there with a guide. I stayed close by in the island city of Flores, and ended up staying there longer than I thought because I got really sick. I had to go to the hospital, and it was quite an ordeal, but I'm alive so I don't really want to tell that story.

Then when I felt a bit better I headed southeast to the Rio Dulce, and then by boat to Livingston and Puerto Barrios. The whole area around there was very moist, humid, and hot, in fact it rained most of the time. Some of the sites along the river were pretty cool and there were tons of birds. I sped through Peurto Barrios and then made a run for the Honduran border. Now I've finally made it out of Guatemala and on my way south. Right now I'm in San Pedro Sula.

Coban Alta Verapaz

Coban is a small city in the centre of the country. It´s not as high as Xela, but it feels colder because of the moist climate. It is about 1500m above sea level and frequently misty and damp although today is nice. Before I came here I spent a couple days in Antigua. It was similar to Xela in that it had a lot of colonial building, cobblestone streets, but it was definately more tourist oriented. The setting was spectacular being surrounded by 3 volcanoes, unfortunately there were no live demonstrations of lava to see! One of the days I did an afternoon trip to the Pacaya volcano. The bus turned out to be an old chicken bus that seemed to be a lot less powerful than the normal ones I've been on. Maybe it was all the gringos. Luckilly it was only about an hour and a half to the 1800m elevation on the volcano, so I only had to suffer for a while. The seats on these buses are always too close together to those with long legs. From the point where we got off the bus, it was about 2 hours to the summit. It was pretty steep most of the way, and we stopped every 15 minutes or so. The path started out paved, then turned to dirt with steps, and then the vegetation disappeared. The winds picked up near the top, and the final few hundred metres of the cone were really steep, and loose. At the top we reached the edge of the crater, but we couldn´t peer into the crater because of the thick smoke. Sometimes the wind would blow the sulfur smoke back at us, but mostly the smoke was headed in the opposite direction. It was hard to stand because of the extremely strong winds. There wasn´t actually a lot to see in the crater, but at least I can say I´ve been on an active volcano. The way down was hard on my knees because we didn´t stop too long for breaks as it was getting dark. Made it back in one piece though.

More photos here.

Habitat House

The last day on the job for all of us as the house is more or less complete. Here are the four paid workers posing in front of the house. The three on the right are brothers, the youngest on the right is only 16 and he works full time. It does not seem like he wants to go back to school ever. The last day was pretty fun although it was still a lot of work trying to get everything finished on time. The whole house took only four weeks to finish, but the owners will have to do the finishing touches like painting, wiring, and getting the water hooked up.

More photos of the house here: Habitat for Humanity house in Olintepeque

Monday I leave Xela for other parts of Guatemala. I will try to see Antigua, Coban, Semuc Champey, Tikal, and then head southeast to the Atlantic coast and then to Honduras after that.