Rob From Canada: Return to Sender... Back to Canada

Victoria, Vancouver, Whistler, and Los Angeles

August 5 - 26th, 2008

Traveling back to Canada from Guatemala was an excruciating day, accentuated by my Guatemaltecan friend Valeria who kept me out for an all night party in Antigua. With no shower and no sleep, I boarded a shuttle bus at 4am to return to the city, transfered planes twice, narrowly escaped a body cavity search care of a fat-fingered customs officer, boarded a long city bus and ferry to Vancouver Island, and drove for 40 minutes back to my dad and step-mom's place in Victoria. After 21 hours of travel, I arrived without my luggage. It amazes me that these airlines can now charge an extra fee just to check a bag, and they feel no pressing responsibility to ensure the bag arrives with the passenger.

Equally as curious to me are the customs officials who can't imagine that I could travel for 4.5 months in Guatemala without without selling drugs to support myself. I politely suggested to the officer that if he didn't have a house mortgage, utility bills, monthly car/gas/insurance payments, expensive cell phone plan, cable TV and internet subscription, gym membership, and perhaps cut out a few dinners at the Keg, that he might be able to afford the $600 a month it cost for a room, 3 meals a day, and 5 hours of daily Spanish lessons in Guatemala. He then asked me to produce my original boarding pass for my flight into Guatemala... yeah, right... and he sent me into the interrogation room. There stood a guy who had probably done more drugs prior to his shift than I have seen in my life, and the interrogation went something like this:

"Did you do any drugs in Guatemala?", he asked.
"No", I replied.
"Did you SEE any drugs in Guatemala?"
"No", I rep(lied).
"Have you EVER seen drugs in Canada? Have you ever seen marijuana in Canada?", he fished. Canada? What? I thought we were talking about Guatemala! At this point I wondered if he was looking for a business opportunity. "It's just not my thing", I reported calmly, neglecting to ask him for clarification on whether he meant medicinal or recreational marijuana.

After leaving the busy Guatamala City, one of the first things that struck me upon arriving in Canada was the serenity and openness of the skies. I was able to sit outside of the house and look at the unobstructed clouds instead of peering out at the typical barbed-wire blockade walls that are common in Guatemalan cities. I was able to enjoy a relaxing walk down the city streets without choking on diesel fumes and without constant fear of becoming fodder for the onslaught of traffic. These aren't completely fair comparisons, but nonetheless were my mmediate observations going directly from the chaos of Guatemala City to the calm and sedate city of Victoria.

After attempting to consolidate some travel logistics for the next leg of my travels, there was a little time left over for sailing through the San Juan Islands in the day and camping out under the stars and full moon in the evening, relaxing in the sun at Mystic Beach, cycling around Stanley Park in Vancouver, and visiting Mike Nolan and Danielle for dinner/breakfast before slogging up the Grouse Grind. My time up the hill was vastly improved over last year's office-chair-butt-induced time. Venturing further into the mountains, I met up with my Aussie friend Nikki in Whistler. The village was packed shoulder-to-shoulder and crankshaft to shinguard for a huge mountain biking festival. We watched these wheeled lemmings hurtle down the hills and turns before twisting and contorting themselves in the air after hucking themselves off the ramps, seemingly into the arms of the crowded plaza below!

After a night of dancing and being fully amused by Nikki's crazy friend Barney, we all dragged our butts out of bed for the Slow Food Bike festival in Pemberton. I must have misinterpreted the title, because I had expected it to be the "Slow, Food/Bike festival", when in fact it was actually the "Slow Food, Bike Festival" in efforts to raise awareness of the importance (health and environment) of eating locally grown natural foods. Hence the term "Slow Food", in contrast to "Fast Food". Hundreds of people gather annually to cycle along a 25km route, sampling local farm produce and products.

The next stop in my itinerary was to visit Jackie in Los Angeles, whom I'd met in a VW Van in Guatemala. Before flying out to South Korea, Jackie took me on some adventures in and around Los Angeles while whirling around in her speedy little Saturn Sky Redline. We went to check out a popular 80's Glam Cover Band on Sunset Boulevard, hang out on the multitude of LA beaches, spent an evening of climbing up in Simi Valley where I actually muscled my way up probably the hardest climb I've attempted, and went hiking and camping out in the mountains very near Joshua Tree National Park.

San Juan Islands. Two days sailing, and two nights camping under the full moon on some islands just on the American side of the border.and nights of camping, this time camping on some islands just across the border.