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.

Vancouver, Seattle, Vancouver

Caught back up with Mel in Vancouver and stayed with a couple friends in East Van. We really didn’t do much, and it was the best way to spend my time there. Good company is all I need when I’m in my second home.

We did, however, head back down to the States for a quick shopping trip and sight seeing tour as a day trip. The best story to come from this was the ever-friendly US border security guys. It’s a long and boring story to recount, but just imagine the usual intimidating guards suspecting you of anything and everything, pulling us out of the queue, making us wait around for some immigration officer (who realised we were fine all along and waved us through), and then the officer at the boom gate basically calling Mel stupid because she didn’t go to ‘college.’ For a country that could really use tourist dollars, they’re doing themselves no favours with having those guys on the frontline.

So after all that, we made our way down to some outlet shops, bought loads, caught up with Mel’s mate for a feed then went on over to check out Kurt Cobain’s old house.

It's somewhere in there poking out from behind those trees.

Laters.

Chilling around Vancouver airport waiting for my flight to leave. Had to throw out a bunch of clothes and my backpack is still super stuffed. Anyways I’m not going to have my phone active for a while so just email me if you have to. I’ll get around to it at some point.

I’ll post some Seattle photos later too.

Kinda bummed to be leaving Vancouver. Looking forward to being back later in the year.

Outta here

I’m going to have to get around to updating this properly soon but I’ve got a few more photos anyway.

How I kept busy at work.

Busting a gnarly indie. Totally rad. Cowabunga.

My boarding pals.

I will be happy if I never have to see this view ever again. I've spent way too many hours on buses and coaches in the last 9 months.

Downtown from North Vancouver

I’m still here

Some stuff has happened in the past month or so since I last updated this thing. Not much though.  These days life is pretty much work, eat, sleep and repeat.

EXCEPT we had some more snow in downtown Vancouver about 4 weeks ago:

Just outside my apartment building

And on February 26 (I think) it was the first anniversary of the end of the 2010 Olympic Games so there was an unofficial party down Granville St where a couple of guys started a pirate radio station and encouraged people to come along and bring their own boomboxes so the music would be blasted all the way up and down the street. It was odd rocking up to see the street flooded with a sea of people decked out in red and white:

Bee came to visit for about 5 days before she headed back home. We did a bit of Vancouver sightseeing together, starting with a trip to Lynn Canyon which is kind of like a miniaturised Capilano Suspension Bridge adventure, and cost us nothing more than the bus trip out there. Yay.

I’d somehow discovered Vancouver has a hedge maze so we found our way there at some point during the week too:

We made it to the centre

And we went to Queen Elizabeth park, a little south of the CBD for some sweet views over the city:

And now for some more pics of my mountain:

And now the countdown begins… a month from tomorrow I leave Canada and head for China.

Around my ‘hood

This is 5 mins from where I live.

I intend on writing up the Portland trip in the next couple days, just waiting to find the time for it. Had a blast down there, I have some sweet photos and stories, so stay tuned.

January gigs

29 – Take It Back, Kid Liberty, Rust Belt Lights @ Funky Winkerbeans, Vancouver

More photos

View from my balcony on a sunny day in Van.

Sick of mountain photos yet?

Too bad