Wind Down

Full of ups and downs, I was back in Mexico with the trip drawing to an end. One of the most exciting things about the trip was the food. I love spicy food and especially Mexican, so this was my chance to load up on some real Mexican cuisine. Being a vegetarian down there made finding suitable food a little tricky, and aside from a couple minor translation difficulties, I ended up surviving it. Lots of tacos and burros, even legit churros, and of course hot sauce in everything. On potato crisps and even IN beer (oh michiladas!)

Playa Del Carmen was the last port of call, seemed like a good idea to avoid going back to the mediocrity of Cancun. Little did I realise both places are about as bad as each other, ultra touristy and pretty tacky. Not a huge bother, I ended up taking a full day tour out to Chichen Itza and a cenote. I’d say this day was the single biggest highlight of the whole trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone going. Chichen Itza was great to experience, much like the other ruins scattered through mesoamerica, but it was swimming in the cenote (limestone cave with natural pool) that was just incredible. The temperature was cool and refreshing, and the water was crystal clear and even had fish in there.

We ended the day at some luncheon where the servers played music and inexplicably danced with bottles on their heads.

And that was the end of the Mexico trip.

Super anti-climax to the blog of North America, I followed this up with two weeks of snowboarding, hopping between friends’ places between Vancouver, Whistler, Vernon and Banff. Seriously, best country I can think of.

Chilling in the Rockies

Been hanging out in Canmore with Bee for about a week now. While she slaves away at work (read: sits on Facebook all day) I’ve made off with Elaine and had stressfull days exploring the Canadian wilderness. Elaine, by the way, is the ’89 Honda Allie bought for $600.

Actually it’s worked out pretty well, she’s been finishing work at about 3pm most days so we’ve been able to go and do some stuff together like 5 pin bowling in Banff, hiking around Lake Louise up to Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes, and again to the top of the Big Beehive, with ridiculous views over Lake Louise and across to the Plain of 6 Glaciers.

Toffee ice cream + m&m's in a mug. Best.

Road tripping to Banff

Is the camera working?

The quintessential Canadian dish: Poutine. Fries covered in cheese curd and gravy.

27 chins. And a thumbs up for snow-capped mountains and road trips.

We went for a quick trip to Calgary the other night to go see The Gaslight Anthem. Glad Bee wanted to come (and she didn’t even know them!) so we had a car to get there… Turned out the venue was on a university campus in the middle of nowhere, would have been fun trying to get there without it. Car privileges is a good reason to be friends with her

The next day we made the trip to Lake Louise for a bit of a hike around. It was pretty cold on the lake, then up the hike it started getting warm, if only from the exercise, then it went cold, and then overcast until eventually it started snowing on us! Wasn’t quite cold enough to create piles of snow (sad face), but still pretty cool.

Yet another river stream.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise from a high angle is something else. To explain the lake was this colour you wouldn't believe me... and in real life it was an even more brilliant blue than this.

Mirror Lake, about half-way up the hike. There was no mirror effect. Ripped off.

There's a storm brewin'

Jordan makes his first Canadian appearance at Lake Agnes

Mountain goats. I want one.

Bee and Lake Agnes

Just standing on a cliff above Lake Louise. No biggie. Drew pointed out it kinda looks like my shirt says 'asshat'.

The snow storm headed our way

This is probably the closest representation of just how blue Lake Louise looked from above. And even this doesn't do justice.

This is called the Big Beehive. Up the top is where the last few photos were taken

Lake Moraine

So that’s all the cool stuff we did around Lake Louise. The next day while Bee was working I took myself for a drive over into B.C. for no real reason other than ‘just ’cause’. Seemed like a good enough excuse for me.

On the way over I stopped by Banff via Tunnel Mountain and had a good view of the Banff Springs hotel. Here it is. Yay.

There is a place in B.C, near Field, where train nerds and stupid tourists alike all converge to see a train wind through a tunnel. Riveting stuff. Of course, as the stupid tourist I am, I witnessed this amazing event for myself. Anyways, it’s apparently a marvelous engineering feat, some dude decided it would be a good idea to dig a spiral tunnel through the mountain so the trains don’t have to climb (or descend) at such a harsh gradient. Cool shtuff.

That is one train looping over itself in the spiral tunnel.

Yet another picture of a body of water for your entertainment! Looked pretty sweet in real life.

To finish the day off I headed for Lake Minnewanka on the way back home. Much to my disappointment, I learned that the pronunciation is such that it rhymes with Willy Wonka. I still prefer “mini wanker”, and it remains the real reason why I even bothered going. Amazingly, I didn’t even take a photo of any of the signs. I am such a disappointment to myself. Still, I guess it was worth it, just look at this:

While there I also caught a glimpse of a mink. You can’t see it real well in this picture, but it looks a little like a cross between a ferret and a mongoose. I want one of these even more than I want a mountain goat.

Whilst here in the mountains, there were two things I really wanted to see: bears and moose. To this point, I think I’ve seen just about everything but. I’ve come to the conclusion that bears and moose are little more than a myth created to bring in tourists.

Anyway, I’m off to Calgary for a gig tonight, then Edmonton for two nights (and gigs, of course… why else would I want to go there?!). Laters.

Banff

Went on a bit of a trek through the mountains in Banff by myself while Bee was back at work. Pretty chill day, went up to the Cave and Basin where some railroad workers discovered the hot sulphur springs back in the late 1880′s. The cave and basin were actually closed for renovations, but I still managed to snap a few pics.

ooooh it's a hot spring

The basin from above

The basin again. It's a naturally formed pool... even the decking and the hut. Amazing!

Hurrah for the wilderness!

Bow Falls, Banff

Downstream of Bow Falls

Looking down Banff Ave.

Experiencing Banff this time around was a little different to the past couple, with the Winter/Summer differences aside (pretty much the only difference is one has bigass piles of snow everywhere, the other doesn’t). I guess as a proper tourist in the past I never really noticed it, but this time around just chilling out spending a week ‘living’ in Canmore with locals, you begin to understand why they refer to Banff as being just like Canmore, only way more touristy. It’s pretty true, Canmore is more awesome, if only because not every second shop is a souvenir spot. Banff is still rad, don’t get me wrong, but Canmore is definitely the place to live. And only 20 mins away, you easily get the best of both worlds whenever you need it.

Going to Calgary tomorrow night with Bee to see The Gaslight Anthem, The Menzingers and Fake Problems. Should be good.