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Traveldiary chapter 9 [May 2004 - October 2004] as PDF (Canada & side-trip to visit Urs in the Dominican Republic) |
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Photos: Canada 1 - Canada 2 |
Canada, by car from Vancouver to Halifax
We left
We were surrounded by
Sari's and Turbans and of course, by other Asians, coming from all over
the continent. It was quite amusing, how long it took, till all the Indian
people had found seats that suited them better than the allocated ones, and
this in a full plane. Later, when meals were served, China Airline
personnel was busy for ages, distributing about a dozen different special
meals, to satisfy all the different requests the various ethnic groups had
made, before the Western and Asian passengers also got something to eat.
Afterwards, when a movie was shown, we heard a Chinese shyly ask a flight
attendant, whether it would be appropriate, to ask the Indian Sikh sitting in
front of him, to remove his turban, so he could see the screen too. Well, after
learning that this is a religious symbol, he didn't dare asking...
Finally, after 15 hours,
we reached
Canada gave us a
friendly reception - apart from the long questioning customs clerk. We saw big
green gardens and clean wide streets. Every Canadian, we got in contact
with, had always time for a chat and they were very very friendly.
The city of Vancouver
is extremely multicultural, which gave it a nice and very special character.
Especially Asians were here in big numbers, be they immigrants, tourists or
language students. In many parts of the city, almost 80% of the faces we saw,
were of Asian origin. Many of them had taken the chance to open an own
business, often a restaurant. But also many immigrants from other countries did
the same. Unfortunately, within our two weeks in that city, we couldn't try
them all, because the choice was just too big. At least we got to taste some
Malay, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mongolian, Indian, Ukrainian,
Greek, French, Mexican... Most diners, it didn't matter whether they were
immigrants or tourists, seemed to prefer their country of origin's kitchen over
the other ethnic varieties or North American fast-food. It was not uncommon,
that all the other guests came from the same country as the Chef and
at one place, they didn't even have an English menu. The only thing common,
probably of Canadian influence, were the huge portions, as for example the
300gr. of Feta-Cheese, served on a mixed starter plate! In general, the quality
was quite high and prices were rather low.
The only annoyance in
After the heat in
We enjoyed it double,
after 5 months "covered" in
Except that they didn't feel ashamed to go nude, they were even seeking a
suntan, whereas in
We believe, we have
seen almost all of
After checking many
sites in the internet, to check out those most typical American cars, we had
been offered, we found that they depended on 13-16 litres for 100 km. But as
you all know, we much rather spend the money for OUR food, than for the car's
and so we looked harder to find an alternative, until we found that needle in
the haystack. So we became the owners of a Saturn, a brand owned by GM and
inspired by Japanese models. It's a 9 year old station wagon with a 4 cylinder
engine and only 87'000 km. It cost us 3'750 Canadian Dollars plus tax, which
made a total of C$ 4'300 (about 2'650 Euro).After driving it for some time, we were
delighted to find out, that it really consumes 6.3 lt/100km only. Bingo!
We got registration and
insurance very quickly and even the bonus for good driving records we have had
in
Now we were ready to
start our big tour across
At least, not all of
those fast-food chains were of the greasy North American type: some served
Mexican food, others freshly ground coffee, freshly baked muffins or
croissants. One was even specialising in ice-cream.
We found also many
so-called "looney shops" which sell most items for a Looney. In case
you hear this for the first time; here some explanation: The name of Looney was
given to the 1 Dollar coin, as it depicts a Loon, a species of water bird, the
Tooney; 2 Dollar coin, then probably got it's name of a slang, meaning two.
Further they call the 25 cents a Quarter, the 10 cent a Dime, and the 5
cent a Nickel.
As we stayed at a
hostel with a good kitchen, we went to the supermarket to buy some food. We
were quite puzzled how expensive quality food in
From Squamish, we
continued north through an amazing alpine landscape, seeing the first few
Canadian deer, which they call Elk here. Even though it was raining, we briefly
stopped at the posh summer- and winter ski resort of Whistler. The entire
"village" had only recently been built between the ski slopes.
After another couple of
hours on windy, but wide mountain-roads, we stayed overnight at Lillooet.
Even though, this was in the middle of no-where, there was a certain legacy of
the past gold rush left, despite the fact that of the 15'000 inhabitants it
apparently had in 1860, the population shrunk to 2'700 today, most of the
buildings still have that look, which gives the whole place a "wild
west" feel.
Along many rivers and lakes, we drove on through a hilly countryside eastwards.
Reaching Salmon Arm, we were looking for accommodation quite
hard, as we couldn't find neither a Hostel nor a cheap Motel. In the end we got
rewarded with an experience, we're not sure, if otherwise we would ever had
made it in our lives: we stayed at an old people's home!
Guided by a good weather
forecast, we went south to the
Thanks to the Lady that
runs the Hostel where we stayed, we found
Continuing along various
lakes and taking the free ferry across the Arrowlake, we came to the
beautifully located little NAKUSP INTERNATIONAL HOSTEL in Nakusp.
This place had recently been opened by an English-Indian woman and her French
partner. We had some very interesting chats with the young couple and they gave
us directions, how to find not only the commercial hotsprings, but also some
lonely hot-pools in the forest. When we reached St. Leon Hot Spring
in the woods, we shortly talked to the couple that was just leaving this
beautiful site and then soaked in the 40 degrees hot sulphur water enjoying the
quiet and superb setting beneath the fir trees and were thankful to those
people, who set-up and looked after this manmade little bathing basin.
On the drive out and
also on the next day, we were lucky to see bears along the road. One was just
crossing the track a few meters in front of our car. As there was still a lot
of snow in the mountains, they moved down to lower areas, where food was
already plentiful and now after their hibernation, the bears were very hungry.
Driving into the Canadian Rocky Mountains of
As we continued our
trip, we came across lots of wildlife, mostly deer and at almost every stop we
saw Chipmunks, whistling marmots or ground squirrel. Coming out to the
prairies, a beautiful wolf crossed just in front of the car - or maybe it
was a coyote - we're not sure.
As
we wanted to meet our friends Juliet & Basim in Calgary, we
interrupted our discovery of the Rockies National Parks. That meeting was a
funny happening, as Heinz had met Juliet 16 years ago whilst traveling in
this very area and they had stayed in contact since then. One and a half years
ago, Juliet, meanwhile with a family, moved from
When we continued our
travels, we came to the
Approaching the Rocky Mountains again from the south, we were driving back
west towards
As we can take advantage of nature's power on the positive side, we decided to
go out to a hotspring on our way. We were told that the forest road to the
spring we had chosen, was not suitable for our car and so we drove out to some
other one, that was recommended. The dirt road to that place was in excellent
condition but got muddy as it started to rain and so, our car was covered
in a mud pack by the time we arrived. Surprised how many cars were at the
parking lot and seeing how good the track was, down to the river, we thought,
we better pack our bathing gear this time - just in case. Reaching the three
pools of the hotspring, we were not surprised to find them all crammed full,
as it was Saturday and we were also not surprised that all men wore knee-long
trousers. As we had heard before, from some German immigrants (some
bakers), a man wearing knickers as common on any beach in Europe,
often gets judged as being homosexual all over Northern America, and
therefore, gets lots of attention. Heinz didn't want any of this and Brigitte
didn't want to get changed in front of this big prudish crowd, that had
already lots of empty beer cans around... So we just backed out and went off,
to wash our car.
Via Invermere, we drove back up
to the
Although the road reached an altitude
of over 2'000 meters above sea level, we drove on a more or less straight
valley highway. Every now and then, we, or cars in front of us, spotted some
wildlife, mainly grazing along the roadside. Somehow it felt like driving
on a popular alpine safari track. Apart from bighorn sheep, we also
saw Mule Deer (called Elk in
The next 4 days, we stayed in Jasper, which was the
first place, where many private houses offered rooms for rent and funnily, we
ended up staying with a nice Swiss Lady, who had immigrated 36 years
ago to
When we left the mountains towards
However, there was only one supermarket and that was a very special one; it was
purely Chinese, with probably less Western products on offer, than any big
supermarket in
Somehow, we didn't feel like stopping
in
As on any other
campground in this country, almost all of the guests arrived with a campervan,
they are known here as "RV's", which stands for "Recreation
Vehicle". Therefore, campgrounds are not equipped with fancy facilities
for people with a basic tent, as for example with kitchen, shop or snack-bar.
But Helios Club Members went out of their way to accommodate us, quickly giving
a finishing touch to their rental-caravan. Within an hour, they brought in a
fridge, which they placed in the forest, because the one in the trailer wasnft
working. As the light was only designed to run on a battery of 12 Volt,
somebody quickly extended the wire, so that we could connect it to our car. We
also got a spare battery, for the case that the one of our car would go
flat. Everybody gave us a very warm welcome and we started to enjoy the club's
outdoor hot tub and heated pool. We were told, we could also use the sauna, if
we didn't mind to heat the oven with wood. As we asked, when it
usually runs, we learned, that it hadn't been used for the last 3 years! Heinz
thought; gthen it's about timeh and announced that he would gladly heat it up
in the evening. So, we informed everybody that was staying Sunday night, the
sauna would be on. By the time we came up to the "Aqua-Center", as
they called it, somebody already had cleaned it out and lit the fire. There were
about a dozen people showing up, taking advantage of the rare occasion.
When we went out
shopping the next day, we tried to find some bread that was not yet sliced and
packed in plastic bags. The Lady from the supermarket IGA's bakery
department helped us. She found a solution by selling us frozen
doughfs that they usually bake up themselves and we even got them for the
wholesales price. The only trouble was, we hadn't made sure beforehand,
that our caravan's gas-stove oven was working. So, the next morning we had this
beautifully risen dough and tried desperately to make the oven run – but sure
enough it didn't!
Luckily, our neighbour
Paul, a young dropout who lives permanently at Helios, could solve the problem
and from now on, we had fresh bread daily.
Considering that it
apparently often still snows at the end of May, the weather spoiled us now
and it was warm and sunny and thatfs why we finally stayed on for more than a
week. Daily, somebody invited us for a drink to his or her site or cabin and it
was very sociable. Here we felt even more hospitality than before in very
friendly
Leaving this real
Naturist-heaven, we visited Drumheller
next, an area famous for its finds of dinosaur fossils and it's unique
sandstone formations, called hoodoos. They formed in a dry washed out canyon,
in an otherwise very flat environment. Driving east for many hundred
kilometres, the green flat and treeless prairie started becoming boring and so was
the city of Saskatoon,
the capital of
Continuing our way for
another two days through endless flat
On the first two nights
at the hostel in
After 5 days, we left to
Crocus Grove Nudist Camping about 70 km north of the city. This club is
superbly equipped with sauna, hot-tub (indoor), a heated swimming-pool and a
generous club-house with a communal kitchen that was even suitable to cook
for big events. You just have to bring your own groceries, as the next proper
food-store is more than 40 km away. Or, there is a restaurant just 2
km from Crocus Cove at the local golf club. There were mainly
fast-food type items on the menu, as often in the Canadian countryside,
but what they served, was surprisingly good as everything was freshly prepared.
One thing we didn't consider, when we returned a second time, was that they
closed already at 8 in the evening, as often away from the big cities.
Back in the club, we cooked the last Spaghettis and later enjoyed the Aqua
center. We stayed in a little cabin and enjoyed it to be with the very
hospitable friendly 'bares' and talked to almost all the Club-Members that were
present. We just didn't like the wildlife, which was abundant during our visit:
the very famous Royal Canadian Mosquito! Those nasty animals followed us in
swarms and loved it that everyone here exposed the maximum flesh but they
really drove us off, after a few days.
It wasn't far to the
From
With Good Luck, we got a
small apartment at Glen
Echo, a naturist park in the north of town. We felt ripe for a weekfs
holiday of our travels and this was a perfect oasis for this. It had many
indoor facilities, as a big swimmingpool, a Jacuzzi with the most powerful jet
wefve ever enjoyed and a sauna that was (automatically) heated three times a
week. Upstairs, there was a big games- and reading area with 3 ping-pong
tables, a pool table, dart and tablesoccer. Glen Echo had big lawns for
sunbathing and a beautiful pond with a tiny island. The campsites were dotted
around the forest that surrounded the Club but they had no power. We could walk
the trails through the forest, even out to the fields which we enjoyed, as
not many mosquitoes were at our pursuit.
The weather was always warm, which unfortunately provoked thunderstorms every
day, but one. Unusual to us, it mostly started around lunchtime, and
sometimes arrived within only 5 minutes to previously blue skies. At one
stage, there was so much rain, the pond overfilled and flooded. The hillside
lawn soon looked like a waterfall and the children's playground was suddenly in
the middle of a big river.
One day, we visited Toronto,
After Glen Echo, we left
to Niagara Falls on
the border to the
After only two hours, we
reached
On the same side of the
Driving back to
In Ottawa we made an
experience, we hope we otherwise won't make it ever again, in our lives: we
stayed in jail! Actually, it has now become a Youth
Hostel. We had a good laugh on our way there, when the driver
stopping besides us on a red traffic light, seeing that we had a map on
our lap, asked us helpfully, whether we knew where we were going. How to
explain to somebody in just 5 seconds, that we wanted to go to the
prison?
Crusty
baguettes could be found everywhere in the centre, along with
fresh cheese, fruit and vegetables. But only a few hundred metres out
in the suburbs, it still looked like in English-Canada, with all it's fast-food
chains.
Now came the time to
experience, whether
As the weather-forecast
now on the end of July, predicted some warm and sunny weather, we wanted to
take advantage a little longer and opted to stay on another naturist ground, of
which there were 9 to choose from between Montréal and
We picked Loisirs
Air Soleil in
Alternatively, they had
about 40 campsites for visitors and some were "equipped" with a
little private hut, containing a fridge and toilet. Altogether, they had around
350 sites taken by members who had either put their caravan there or built a
house. More sites were being added. Unlike in
In the newly developed
part of the campground, an indoor pool and Jacuzzi had recently been opened, a
perfect amendment to the heated outdoor swimming pool, mini-shop and Snack bar,
Restaurant. That restaurant was very cheap but didn't meet the otherwise much
higher standard in
The only unpleasant
surprise was the language. As we both spoke some French, we were quite puzzled
when we realized that we didn't understand a single thing, as Québecois sounds
really quite different to European French. Here they had two employees in
a professional reception and the one of them that spoke English made sure that
every English speaker on the campground got to know about our presence. On the
next day, Robert came round in his golf cady and showed us around the huge
ground, which also consists of a big area with unspoilt nature. He also
introduced us to many Québecois that were capable of speaking English and some
Americans. Further, there were some of his family members that belonged to
the club as well. Soon, we felt that here in French Canada many naturists had
the same open attitude, telling their friends and family how much they enjoyed
the club and that's probably why the acceptance and popularity is increasing
here, while it is declining in the rest of the country.
Among those people we
had met, were Olga and Steve, an American couple that chose to become members
of Air-Soleil because they felt, that all the American camps they visited were
too quiet and boring, despite the language of which they meanwhile master quite
a bit. After chatting for an hour, they spontaneously invited us for
dinner after which we sat around a campfire till late. We talked abut our lives
and learned, how they and many other Americans feel ashamed about the
Bush-Government and also the whole business of suing each other for money on
the most stupid reasons.
The next day, we got an
invitation to go fishing but we could talk ourselves out of it but arranged to
share the meal of their success...
When we showed them a
copy of 'Naturist Life' with a story of us, they spontaneously said, there
should be some other people in the photographs and offered to have their
picture taken. The same evening Robert and Steve came back to our caravan
starting a lengthy story on the modalities to take pictures on the camp. Both
of us got the impression, there was trouble ahead, and we would probably be
asked to delete all the photos we had taken, as it had happened before in some
place, where an official club-photographer took the same pictures - just
of the two of us, again - exactly the same way we had done them, except that he
took these close-up's so close, that you surely can not recognize anything of
that club around us. After that, two board-members had to approve them, before
the pictures were e-mailed to us 3 weeks later... But the same thing didn't
happen here in Air-Soleil - we were now in Québec! In a long story, we were
being informed that the pictures of the afternoon were all right, but they had
decided that we should show how family-oriented and lively this place is and
therefore, they wanted to call other members and their children together to
pose for some pictures. By coincidence on the next day, a professional photographer
for naturism, Richard West, showed up. Needless to say he was interested in
taking such pictures as well. When the owner of the campground was finally
asked for permission, he didn't agree to such a short noticed photo-session, as
he had had a lawsuit in the past and wanted to make sure that everyone had a
disclaimer form filled in and signed beforehand. A few weeks later, the
disclaimer forms were out and a photo session could be held. Although we were
long gone by then, Richard, and also Olga & Steve sent us more
than enough photos to show the family oriented atmosphere at Air-Soleil .
We enjoyed our 10
days at this club with it's many animations that included Petanque,
Tennis, horseshoe-throwing, Volleyball or in the evening: a theatre and song-games
(of which we unfortunately didn't understand a thing...) Furthermore, since at
virtually every site one or two golf cadys were parked, they had organized a
race with these. It wasn't the teenagers only that drove like Kamikaze pilots
down the steepest sand hills! Within the domaine, was a big gravel-pitch and
there were also forest trails that was usually driven on with these cadys and
they led to a beautiful swamp with a beaver dam and to a river.
After
9 days at Air Soleil we left to visit Joe Beelen, Brigitte's former Boss, who
lives now again in Montréal. We have last met
him at Costa Natura, where he had had his first naturist experience in 2002. He
really loved it and he made us laugh with his spontaneous comment "I can't
believe how civilized all those people are here". He might have expected a
bunch of Hippies.
As
it was very hot in his apartment, he didnft mind, if we sometimes stripped off.
But as Shizue, Joe's new Japanese partner didn't feel comfortable with this, we
thought we better hop into our cloths again after the morning toilet, otherwise
we felt we might promote a crisis in their relationship. Unlike other
Asian immigrants to
We
were shown around their neighbourhood and were delighted to find that in
branches of the same supermarket chains we got to know in English Canada, the
choice of food here was so much different, bigger and better. Especially
in the fresh food and deli department we felt like being back to
On
the sweet side, they didn't only have three standard chocolate bars but
also a big tempting selection imported from
Joe
and Shizue showed us around many pleasant sights of the city, from the
beachside boulevard down on the St. Lawrence river up to
It's
amazing what little promise in Good Luck is necessary to lure people into
dropping buckets full of coins into those slot-machines or spilling money like
tap water on the tables. It was somehow shocking to see how easy it is to make
the masses believe what is right or wrong. If you are addicted to a drug that
either pours money into the government or has a strong lobby you are perfectly
acceptable, whereas if you are addicted to another drug that neither brings in
money nor has a lobby, you are considered as being criminal. Is our
society not smart enough to tell things apart and realize how much is being
manipulated?
We
went downtown several times by ourselves to discover the city of
One
evening, we went out with Edith & Ioran, a Spanish/Dutch couple that was
here now and whom we had met in the hostel in
We
left Montréal eastwards along the
On
Aug. 12th we arrived at "Nature-Détente",
a naturist camp near
We
took advantage of the "forfait" (special package) that included the
room and two meals a day for $ 90 per couple or $ 480 for a week (Euro 55/290).
For a single it would have cost $ 70 or 365 per week (Euro 42/220).
Ronald,
the chef cooked with devotion. On the first look, his menu appeared rather
simple but he did usually add three "plats du jour" as daily
specials. Everything was always prepared fresh and with love, decorated with
fruits or salads and even eating "a la carte" was not expensive. Also
in the restaurant, nudity was the norm which meant that we never needed any
garment during the entire week we stayed. No matter how mean the weather might
be, in "Natur Détente's" indoor center there is always enough to do
and nudity is natural all day and night.
This
does not mean that it's not nice outside as well - if it is... They have a
swimming pond with a sandy beach, which became very crowded on the weekend
when we were there. Then, people also took over the Volleyball and
pétanque fields, played minigolf or threw horse shoes or went for a long hike
on a forest trail. There was also a "Maison de jeunesse" in a
separate building, plus an outdoor kiosk with snackbar. Presently, the center
is open from May until September daily and every weekend during the
winter. The owners have extension plans and probably by the time you read this,
a Thalasso therapy healtcenter and more rooms will be added, thus allowing
"Détente" to remain open daily year round. Already now, winter
weekends are so popular, you need to book long ahead if you want to stay for
the night, not only for a day.
We
found quite a few people, guests and employees, that spoke English or even
German, while we tried to work on getting used to what makes Québecois so
different from European French, as the written language (at least) is
fortunately not all that different.
After
a nice nude week, we left to Québec City. This town
was really a jewel surprising us with its fortrified old city that claims a
place in the world heritage list. To us, it looked very European or to be more
precise: very French, but with clean public toilets and without the dog-shit on
the pavement... The down town (or rather uptown) had many
old buildings and was packed with tourists from all over the world. With
its uncountable number of souvenir shops and restaurants, it reminded us a lot
of French Sarlat-la-Canéda in the
We
know that the people of Québec are very proud of their identity and they don't
like to be compared with the French, however, we don't see what could be wrong
with that, since everybody who has seen English Canada knows about the
different way of life here.
Separatists
or not, it feels like Québec is another country! Of course, it would not
make sense, if Québec would separate from
We
couldn't help seeing so many striking similarities in the way how they live and
behave, how they built their cities and even more by reading the menues of the
restaurants.
Usually
the meal consisted of at least three, sometimes up to 12 courses, which takes
in the whole evening, not like in Western Canada, where people often manage to
order, eat and pay for a five-course set-menu, within 20 minutes only,
especially at Chinese Restaurants.
Sorry
to come back to France: in Toronto a Canadian, speaking of his past holidays
couldn't believe how long everybody had to sit in the restaurant until
all courses were being served and the most amazing he said " nobody
complaind about it!"
In
all of Québec food came in small often nicely decorated portions and dogy bags
are unheard of. The food was described in a bloomy way consisting of items as
gmagret de canard, foie gras, riz d'agneau or chèvre chaud, terrine or paté as
starters and not only the fish was swimming in a sauce. Needless to say,
that we enjoyed any aspect of this beautiful city.
Luckily,
this summer was exceptionally warm, so we decided to reveal our body to the sun
again. Now we chose "Le Cyprès",
a 300 ha naturist camping along a river, where we hoped to do some extensive
walking, canuding and cycling. Although we got there, we never got to know the
grounds. Despite having reserved a cabin by telephone only 6 hours prior to our
arrival, the Lady on the reception couldn't remember us and had given away all
the cabins. As she neither cooperated to find another solution nor apologized,
we decided to clear off and go to "Nature-Détente" again
instead, which was less than 50 km away.
Being
unlucky at first, turned into Good Luck again as the restaurant, from where we
phoned to find out whether "Nature Détente" had some space for us,
was a real
As
it was Saturday evening, there was still some animation going on at the
naturist camp by the time we arrived and we took advantage of the sauna and spa
on the same night still.
For
another three days we enjoyed the club's superb facilities and Ronaldfs
great restaurant.
As
the next heat-wave was moving in, we wanted to discover yet another naturist
camping: "Centre Naturiste Cité du Soleil"
near Lac St. Jean further north. To get there, we drove through an area that
consisted mainly of thick pine forest and lakes. This naturist camping might be
small, but it was very personal and beautiful. Considering that it is in the
middle of the Saguenay region, which is bigger than
All
12 tourist offices in the surrounding of "Cité du Soleil" distributed
it's brochure and the camping also advertised regularly on the local and
regional radio stations. We learned that almost all of Québec's naturist
grounds advertise that way. Even more amazing for North-America: a weekly local
newspaper showed a big picture from a couple on their front page
in an article featuring that ground, they were depicted from the back but plain
nude. "Cité du Soleil" had about thirty campsites,
and some more under construction. There was a swimming pool, pétanque
course and only there, we found a very pretty little natural lake with a
pedalo boat and a float for the guests use. Brigitte loves boating, so her
captain Heinz had to find out how to steer the bloody thing!
The
very friendly owners Elise and Jean-René invited us to see and later to eat
moose, after we told them, that we had seen almost all Canadian wildlife,
except those. As a hunter, Jean-René knew a lot about Moose, he was even able
to call them, although when we went out with him to the forest, we could hear
the moose but it didn't make any appearance. However, the meat from the animal
he hunted last winter, tasted just great.
Now we
understood French better up here, either we got adapted or it was more Parisian
what they spoke. We rented a caravan where we did some home-cooking
and visited one of the gastronomic places around.
Our
urge to be tourists as well and not "just" na-turists finally
succeeded, as we learned it's now just the best time to see whales down in Tadoussac
on the conjunction of the
At several
points around Tadoussac it was possible to see the mammals from the rocks on
the shore. They came only shortly up to the surface to breathe, before they
dived down again. National park personnel were there to explain about the
animals and we were lucky to see quite a few species each time we waited
on the different observation points - it paid to be patient.
On
our first day the weather was most beautiful and 26 degrees warm but it seemed
as if autumn had arrived overnight. The next day, it was a cold
14 degrees wet and foggy. We stayed in a nice Gîte (B&B), where
the Lady served us a great breakfast and in the evening we enjoyed
the many Fren... so sorry; Québecois restaurants, which served
gastronomic meat- and lobster dinners.
On
a ferry, we crossed St. Lawrence river that was 40 km wide here at the height
of
It
rained, when we arrived in the
As
we were staying in a very comfortable Bed & Breakfast, we went from there
to see the famous Hopewell
Rocks in the
As
the weather promised to be unusually warm again in the next few days, we felt a
bit more naturist life would please our body and soul. Back in mainly English
speaking eastern
We
assume, they just wanted to check their prospective members and visitors
identification before ringing back but of course in our case, they could not do
this. In another club we visited, it was no problem to stay as long as you
wanted, if you were a foreigner owning an INF-card and it didn't matter whether
you were single or a couple. Everybody was welcome up to three times (trial
visits) and then you had to pay the annual fee to become a member, which
was just a formality after you had brought along the required criminal records!
The
prudish attire in big parts of northern
By
the way, in none of the clubs in Québec, that had been clearly
signposted for any outsider, we saw "hundreds of gawks queuingh at the
gate, as some feared they would...
Outside
naturist environments, people mostly were very prudish, in comparison
with the
Another
ironical example was an episode of the TV series with a candid camera:
they tried to advertise for a video camera that allegedly could record cloths
transparently. Wow, everybody said and afterwards had a very close look at the
result on the video's screen. What did they see? Except the filmed persons underwear,
all other clothing had indeed become invisible...
From
Shediac, we soon came to the
Even
Mc Donald's posted big signs along the road, proposing a lobster-sandwich and
we were curious enough to try it. We must admit, we liked it - and even more,
as they forgot to charge it!
As
temperatures now started to plunge and jump, every time they rose to 15‹C or
more, shops started the aircon again - probably Canadian's are afraid to get
used to warm weather. We, on the other hand, were thinking of the beach once
more, especially as it got up to 26 degrees the next day. Even if there was
no club for us to visit east of
So
we drove out to a remote place near
Cape
Breton on the northern tip of
On
the other side of
Throughout
Heinz
felt, that things in
On
some lakes, swimming was not permitted at all and everyone who was going
on a boat was requested to wear a life jacket, children sometimes even had
to wear them to swim in a pool. This resulted after ridiculous claims were laid
against the owners of the grounds, after some accidents had
happened...unofficially, because there was too much alcohol involved. Who is
still responsible of himself? You should see the operating manual to our car;
about one third describes what may happen, if you don't wear seatbelts, don't
clean the windows, don't light headlights at night, don't walk behind your car
before reversing or if you drive whilst drunk...this list goes on and on and
you might wonder whether most car buyers won their driver's licence in a
lottery and therefore the manufacturer of the vehicle has to tell you all
of this garbage.
Halifax was a pleasant city
with lots of tourists concentrating around the big harbour area, where earlier
in summer, big cruise ships called in, making it even more bustling than it was
now. We stayed in a beautifully located B&B, not far from Peggy's Cove. This was
still a true fishing village that lay protected behind uncountable little
islands. When we arrived, the fog just lifted. Fog seems to be as abundant here
as lobsters and not only in autumn. We were lucky to see the sun throughout the
next days when we followed the southern coastline until its western tip at
As
soon as we came to the north shore, the scenery changed and in our opinion, was
not quite as spectacular anymore. The road led us around the Bay
of Fundy, that brought us back to the southern part of
We
stayed for a few days in a nice cottage in St. Martins, where we had a rest and
continued writing the story you are reading now. The owners of the cottage also
have a Mini-horse farm plus
a "Bed & Breakfast" place. To our big surprise, they recommended
us a lovely spot, where a freshwater-lake is almost meeting the ocean,
separated only by a sandbar. This place could be reached after half
an hour's walk and that's why it could be suitable for skinny dipping in
summer, they mentioned. But it was a bit too cold when we were there.
Continuing
our way, we sighted a big black bear crossing the highway just before
reaching
Fredericton and
On
our stop in Edmundston, we were already back in dominantly french speaking
territory, even before reaching our favorite Province: Québec again.
Our
high expectations were not disappointed. Even in the small
Another
stop was Rivière du Loup,
before we continued westwards, along the
We
didnft want to bypass this place without taking advantage of its gsavoir vivreh
again. So we had two more nights at the Youth Hostel, in a room that was cheap
and two more gourmet-meals that were notc
We
went to say gHelloh to Joe and Shizue in Montréal, just before continuing to
When
we saw the touristy place of Mont Tremblant resort, we were quite astonished
how many people had come to this ski-resort on Friday Oct. 1st, weeks
ahead of the ski-season. The village had only been built 15 years ago
by the same promoters that had also put Whistler on the map, even though by
Swiss standards, ski lopes werenft that long. It offered more than any
tourist would need, useful or not and people from around the world came by
the busloads to see this artificial place.
After
that, we returned to Montréal, where we could stay at Joefs apartment again. He
was offering us a lot of help and facilities, so it was the perfect place to
organize the sale of our car and a new onward-ticket.
Our
favourite provinces lay to the East and West edge of the country with the
frontrunners being French influenced Québec, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick and also Ontario, plus on the west side it was British
Columbia with Vancouver, influenced by Asians and the Rocky Mountain
National Parks of Alberta. The center, we found rather dull but by crossing the
country from west to east, it was possible to get an overall impression and to
feel the differences that can be quite amazing from one province to the next.
Each has its own traffic rules and regulations. If you're a qualified
professional, it's not sure that your diploma will be recognized outside your
own province. If they exceptionwise recycle, then there's plenty of different
ways, how to do this.
Many
recent immigrants from
Although,
the Canadian summer is much shorter than a summer in
And
now, what's next? Well, just by coincidence, end of September we passed a farm
where 3 Wallabies hopped around and we're gonna do this:
We
want to hop over several small islands in
On our way from Canada to Australia, we would have loved to
visit several Micronesian islands. We had made reservation for about a dozen
island-hopping flights on Oct. 14th, but unfortunately the next day
Palau Micronesia Airways was not able to issue the tickets, as the flight from
Palau to Darwin had suddenly been suspended. With some Good Luck, we
could thereafter find a cheap ticket from Montreal to Melbourne
directly.
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Photos: Dominican Republic |
Casa de Campo: no problems inside the holiday ghetto!
Before that, we made a week’s side-trip to visit our
friend and former flat-mate Urs. He lives now mainly in the Dominican Republic, where his
wife Teresa originated. They were officially separated for a few year, although
depending on her mood, sometimes they were not. She died voluntarily one month
ago and he had trouble understanding this and was even more suffering, as
he is terminal ill with cancer. We tried to make him see our positive attitude
towards death and eliminate his fear to die.
Our charter flight did not land on the airport close to his
home and so he picked us up in Punta Cana 100 km east. The island was lush and
green with incredible flowers on trees and bushes. The people lived in very
colourful houses but mostly they were very poor. We were told that the
three main sources of income, apart from tourism, are sugarcane, rice and
coffee. Most Dominicans earn less than USD 150.-/month and Haitians from
the other part of the island, who come here as guest-workers, are paid even
less.
Urs owns a villa in the 27 km² holiday- and "rich
people's" resort called "Casa de Campo".
Although we were impressed by Urs' house, in comparison to many others
of the approx. 1'200 villas, his was quite modest. The whole resort
consisted of beautiful gardens and was safely fenced and guarded round the
clock. There were uncountable pass-times on offer for the luxury-tourist, to
enjoy this safe and worry-free oasis. There were 4 big golf courses, dozens of
tennis courts and swimming pools, more than 200 horses to ride and a
shooting range. On the sea, you could book sailing- and diving-courses and
there were noisy jet boats for rent. For those that just wanted to relax
on the beach, there was no need to bring a towel, as they were distributed for
free and placed by servants on a sunbed, which they placed under the desired
tree or sunshade.
After we saw how many black Dominicans work as servants of
the rich upper class and the many white tourists, it reminded us of
colonial times. Within 'casa de campo', and also in many similar resorts,
each house creates at least two jobs, often more, for cleaners,
watch-man, maintenance staff and the like. To distribute its thousands
of employees to their respective working places, the resort operates its
own big bus-network.
Considering the low income, we were shocked by the high
prices of the few supermarkets. The same goods cost two or three times less in
Canada!!! Still, we wondered why so many local people shopped there.
The prices in restaurants were even more out of this
world, and in the resorts, it was the worst. Can you imagine how our
appetite just vanished upon hearing that the price for a simple sandwich was a
dreadful USD 25.-? This was more than a menu gastronomic would have cost in
Quebec, where wages are at least 10 times higher than here!
The Dominican Republic is a poor country and the
consecutive governments drive it even deeper into chaos and bankruptcy, because
they use the money mainly to enlarge the government member's own
wealth and for the army that is meant to protect them. The bulk of the
population, on the other hand, lives in poverty.
As the gap between rich and poor is immense, no wonder they
have a big problem with crime. In many shops and on all construction sites,
where they had more than three bricks laying around, we saw armed security
guards. When our friend Urs went to the garage to have his car fixed, he
routinely took his lawyer along, just to make sure no good parts were removed.
The only thing, Dominican women seem to be able
to spare a few Pesos for, is for beauty-products that should make
their skin bright and their curly hair straight.
Hair-rising, however, we felt was the behaving in traffic. We
doubt they have rules, but if they do, they are just to be ignored and we were
surprised how well Urs adapted to this dangerous game, as we have never seen
him driving like this in Switzerland.
He showed us the area around La Romana, where we collected
all these impressions, but when we were within the resort of 'Casa de
Campo', it was as in a different world. The so-called Caribbean dream, to us,
was neither in- nor outside the resort.
It was very interesting to meet Urs in this
country and we have had some deep discussions during the week we spent there..
Air Transat's sardine-jet flew us back to Montreal,
where we spent the last 3 days of Canada in the city center. Apart from closing
our bank-account and picking up the next airline tickets, we met again with
Edith, having some more interesting discussions over a meal à la
Québecoise.
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