How great to see some sunshine at last on my return to Vancouver after driving (or rather, aquaplaning for much of the time) for close to 1k kilometres over the last couple of days.
I had a splendid evening with my cousin Don and his lovely wife, Joyce and was right royally fed and watered. The living area in their house, like many in Canada I am told, is open plan
which creates a very sociable atmosphere and despite the large space is very warm and cosy. Not only was the food (and drink!) excellent but so was the conversation. I acquired more knowledge about Canada in one evening than I had probably learned in my entire life to date. In particular, I was fascinated to learn something about the native Indian ‘problem’, especially as I had driven through a reservation or two to get to Don and Joyce’s house in Salmon Arm. Many moons ago the Government (made up of mainly western colonialists) gave the native Indians some land as compensation for all the land of theirs that they had nicked in the name of progress. The land was hardly prime real estate (as this had already been ‘assigned’ to the incomers) but the Indians had to accept what was given or get nothing. So they set about making it ‘theirs’ which included, amongst other things, the establishment of sacred burial grounds. After many years it was found that this Indian land was perhaps not so worthless after all as it was either required for highway building, for example, or even for oil drilling. So the government has set about requisitioning the Indian land that they want which, of course, includes some sacred burial grounds. ‘Don’t worry’ say the government ‘We’ll give you some even more useless land in compensation so you can just move your burial site there’! This is a bit like the Saudi government saying they want to move Mecca or the Italians saying they are going to redevelop the Vatican site or even the Elvis Foundation saying they are going to relocate Graceland. It doesn’t go down too well! This is a big and ongoing problem in Canada.
Before I set out on my 4 hr drive back to Vancouver (some of it in the rain, of course), Don gave me a guided tour of Salmon Arm including a stop overlooking the Shuswap lake which should have looked like this:
but actually looked this
The lakes in Canada are huge. This particular one covers and area of 120 square miles and has a circumference of close to Ik kilometres or miles or something. It’s huge and certainly puts the Weedon duck pond to shame!
It took 4 hours to drive back to Vancouver so I’ve had enough driving for a while. So I will be taking it easy tomorrow before departing to Mexico City and onwards to Cuba tomorrow night.
Finally, congratulations to Kirsty and Steve on the arrival of their twin daughters, Sophie and Harriet. Great News. x
Hasta la proxima
Richard
thelasthurrahsite 