A Thursday Morning in Vancouver
Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to write a few posts about the province of British Columbia’s conflict of interest between negotiating with First Nations in good faith, and its responsibility to its investments for the BC government workers’ pension plan. It’s a complex issue, and will take a few posts to untangle. This is what we were up to on Thursday morning; Rod was there to stand with the other Hupacasath and demand fair play on the part of the government.
I think it’s important for people in this day and age to think through multi-levels, to ensure that we have a grasp on complex issues, so that we can solve the big problems
For now, here are a few links to press about the story:
Hupacasath announce conference on TFL removal
Hupacasath accuse province of conflict of interest in TFL 44 deal
Opposition pounces on TFL 44 revelations
Band cries foul over land claims
A Trip Over the Mountains
So, a week after we got back from Mexico, we packed up the car, tidied up the apartment, and drove over the mountains so that we could meet Rod’s band in Vancouver on Thursday morning. The drive went smoothly, the weather was gorgeous, we had a perfect trip.
Well, except for the alarming gas prices. For those of you thinking, $1.31 isn’t bad… that sign you see is in litres. So…$5.27 per gallon in BC a couple of days ago. I’m sure others have noticed the worried looks and commentary that I did last Wednesday at the gas pumps. It is now officially cheaper for me to ride the bus to school than it is to drive the 3.5 miles to work and park 5 days a week. So, I will be rethinking quite a few of my travel arrangements in order to be more sustainable, and affordable, this summer and into the fall. The bike is definitely coming out…and I hope I can make a train trip to Buffalo work, rather than a flight.
Here is Simone, trying not to freak out about it all.
First, Mexico
School ended and I spent several days in quarantine, marking portfolios in my office, so Rod and I could spend a week’s escape in Baja Sur.
We spent most of our time in San Jose del Cabo, fortuitously arriving on Art Walk night in the Arts District. There’s an interesting community there of expat artists, and it established our M.O. of the next few days which was mostly, walking around San Jose. In fact, I flattened a pair of flip-flops.
We stayed in town at a hotel called the Tropicana Inn. It was good there. It was in a great location, had a lovely garden with pool, simple continental breakfast and a well-regarded restaurant and bar. The rooms weren’t fancy but who cares. We loved stopping by for happy hour on the patio in the late afternoon before going out for the night. The restaurant was a bit pricey for our budget, but the appetizer sampler of Mexican bites that we ordered was one of our favourites, and everyone we talked to spoke highly of the restaurant.
Baja Sur didn’t feel like the place I should buy my winter home, but it was good to check out a new place.
After a few days exploring the streets and markets of San Jose, we moved to a lovely resort on the beach.
Every morning we drank coffee on our little terrace and then walked to the sun chairs on the beach.
By the last day, I finally relaxed.
Travel Notes:
The Tropicana Inn : a good choice if you want to be centrally located in town. We walked to everything except the beach from there. There was a taxi stand right there, too.
Playa del Sol Los Cabos : a timeshare resort with beautiful grounds and friendly staff. The timeshare sales area was fascinating, eavesdropping on the salespeople selling to the people while sitting on sunchairs, dozing. Our room was lovely and new, with a small kitchenette that we used every day for coffee, at least one meal, and margaritas. Restaurant food was eh. Restaurants around the resort were nothing special– everything, including Zippers, was to be expected. The walk to Zippers watching the moon rise was great, though. This is a great resort for relaxing, the sort of place you would go if you JustWantToBeAlone, or, if you had a car for the whole time and wanted a solid home base from which to explore. It is not a party resort. Sometimes, Rod and I felt like the youngest people there. In certain places, all of San Jose felt like that.
The Municipal Market
Fresh tortillas and the luncheonette along the side had amazing fresh fruit drinks and other Mexican food.
Baja Brewing Company
We enjoyed this place so much Rod bought a tshirt. The beer was worthwhile, the staff and owners wonderful, and it was just lovely to sit in the open-air and watch the activities. Happy hour was so fun. Slightly North American, but that is a dominating influence in this part of the world.
El Fogon and Taqueria Erica (here’s a link about it)
It was my mission to eat tacos every day. These were the places we found in San Jose, just down the street from one another. Apparently the Hangman was noteworthy, too. Lots of other options.
Organic Markets (English-language paper magazine down there have listings)
On Saturday and Sunday in San Jose del Cabo there are two organic farmer’s markets. The Saturday one is larger, at the Tropicana Jockey Club, with a big circle of vendors. It was definitely a community meeting place and there were also things for sale like jewellery and trinkets and people with giant hula hoops playing around. We had some delicious ice cream. I regret not buying empanadas and still think about those amazing tomatoes that we had. Sunday’s market was much smaller, along the side of the road, with small tents with farmers selling what they had. Much more of a factual, get-your-produce kind of environment. Both are worth visiting.
The Town Square at night
Kids playing soccer in the square, drummers, a snack cart with people lined up.
Road Trip
The drive from San Jose del Cabo, up through Cabo San Lucas, Todos Santos, and Los Barilles. Stop in Todos for a stroll and some lunch, then drive on through and stop for a cervesa in Los Barilles. Our favourite part of Baja California Sur was the section between Todos Santos and Los Barilles.
The Ins and Outs of the Mega
So many people in the hotel district used the Mega store, a giant, North American style box store. We bought big bottles of water, Mexican coffee, honey, beer. We found it to be significantly cheaper for tequila than the so-called specialty shops. The selection was limited, but you could still get some decent tequilas for much better prices. The produce at the two organic markets, on Saturday and Sunday, was so, so much better than what was available at the Mega, so don’t settle. But, Rod found a great frozen mango puree that we used all week in margs. The timeshare people who roamed the Mega were exasperating, but, for me, enjoying all the beautiful Mexican packaging kind of made up for it.
Next time:
Rent a car for the whole time and pick it up at the airport.
Spend more time on the East Cape.
A drive from Los Barilles on the smaller dirt road up to La Paz.
Damiana, a restaurant on the Town Square in San Jose.
A street of small, Mexican-style loncherias that ran parallel to the Tropicana’s street.
And finally, stay for two weeks.
Guerrilla as Peaceful Action
In Lethbridge, a group called Lethbridge Guerilla Gardeners has organized around Loralee Sand Edwards’ guerrilla gardening project last summer. I’ve been thinking a lot about her initiative this summer to include more of the community in the project. The response from people here has been really great– talk about taking over the boulevards, planting vegetables that anyone can harvest, uniting people who live near each other in a common goal. It’s direct-action. Such a short and straightforward path to both solving the problem of, and citing resistance to, the global food crisis, economic downturns, troubling multi-nationalism affecting local environmental ecosystems, and the effects of our dependence on oil.
So, I’ve done a bit more reading and have found two sites that I will be following more closely over the months to come as we begin our gardening season and Rod and I start to restructure our lives to be more closely in alignment with what we really want them to be.
The first is Heavy Petal, a Vancouver gardener. What a great name, and a fun read.
The second is called Elements in Time, another Pacific Northwest blog about a couple who moved from LA in search of a more sustainable lifestyle. I had a lightbulb moment with her post here, about Redefining Normal. The spark was not necessarily with the things on the list she gave, which I’m pretty comfortable with, but with the idea of redefining normal, and looking carefully at personal behaviours that perhaps may have been justified in the past. It’s about making adjustments to the norm in a personal and holistic and non-violent way. I’m pretty excited about the idea and am just waiting for the moment to hash it out with Rod.
Fish Tacos
Tomorrow morning at 6am, our summer begins.
Nearly everything is done. All remaining items on the list are handle-able, especially when I think about the foolishness of how the week began. 68 portfolios to grade, the book project hitting every snag, work stuff bleh, and the house in a shambles. Then there was the house-hunting. We just got back from looking at our second house today. I am still in awe that little things like getting the hotel in London booked, getting the taxes in the mail, all the other paperwork, pausing to eat– actually got done.
So, we leave for our first real vacation in five years tomorrow, and I am delighted to report that today, so far, has not been fraught with stress and anxiety. In fact, it is more of a pleasure to keep at it, like following through on a forehand stroke when you know you’ve hit the ball in just the right spot.
Fish tacos! Sundresses! And we’re leaving the computers!
A New Book
I have a new book. It’s beautiful. A beautiful object. Beautifully designed and written. I want to carry it around with me just to hold it. Except, I don’t want to get it dirty.
Today is Tuesday April 15
When I opened my eyes this morning, the first thing I saw was the tree outside our window covered with an inch of snow.
The Flow
Saturday was gorgeous and we spent the day taking care of things around town. At the end of our errands, we ran out to the liquor store on Mayor McGrath to get Rod some beer. This liquor store is far away, but it has the best deals in town, and we like it even more now that we discovered the secret escape route onto McGrath from around the back.
So we’re leaving via the escape route, and Rod goes, “Hey look, somebody dropped a bottle of wine.”
–minor pause–
“Should we go get it?”
Did that even need to be spoken out loud? It was a unanimous and immediate decision. Rod looped Ruby around via the “mainstream” entrance and past the liquor store and around again to the secret back ramp. Luckily no cars were coming, because the bottle was on the driver’s side, Rod stopped the car in the middle of the lane, opened his door, grabbed the wine and there we went off laughing away down the strip.
Reasons to Start this Blog
1. A big summer looms. This will keep everyone up to date.
2. It’s a good way to practice CSS. Eventually.
3. If you’re teaching Net.Art, you should probably have a blog.
4. We need more blogs!
