Wednesday 29th Vancouver
Woke early and got the blog up to
date. J went out for yoghurt which we had with some very excellent Cunard
muesli. The lack of luggage loomed as a problem and we couldn’t get internet
access through the wi-fi. I went down to pursue these issues when the new
fellow opened reception at 9am. I had got as far as “We got here last night but
our luggage . . .” when the first bag landed at my toes!! A little Chinese
fellow gasping with urgency had just fetched it from the airport. I told the
reception chap that I was deeply impressed. Alas he couldn’t do anything about
the wi-fi but apparently there are a lot of free wifi places around here.
So we headed off by bus to the
Aquarium, primarily to see the orcas and the beluga (white) whales. It was a
very pleasant ride out by bus and the driver was very patient helping us and
suggested that I might qualify for the Seniors fare, which I did. Canada is one
of those irritating places where you have to add 11% tax to the displayed
prices.
There was a very nice fellow on
board who turned out to be an Aquarium employee and he regaled the tourists
with advice and directions and suggestions for our holiday. He then led us to
the front entrance and went off to do his job, which is general gopher around
the park.
We started with a display at the
dolphin pool with Helen and Hannah – big white-sided Pacific dolphins. They were beautiful and performed several
leaps and tricks with very informative commentary by the trainers. The next stop was the Pacific Canada tank
where diver ‘Jeremy’ showed the crowd the different fish and habitats of the
nearby waterways. Then out onto the
bleachers for the Beluga whale show. It
was really lovely to see them so close after having spied them at a distance
from Spitsbergen Island. Oh, if you are
ever at the Vancouver aquarium, beware the ‘splash zone’ or you just may have
whale spit all over you. We then descended
the stairs to the underwater viewing area to watch one of them circling the
tank using the same pattern over and over, always swimming upside down as she
crossed the tank in the deep water.
Dolphin leaping
Beluga spitting
Upside down lapping
Right way up - close up
In other tanks, they have a couple
of very large otters and a small group of penguins. The baby dolphins were very curious of young
children at the glass windows coming up and having a very close look at
them. It made for some beautiful photos
and very happy parents.
Babies
We enjoyed the seats in the 4D
theatre watching a David Attenborough film on Artic to Antarctica and some
things in between. It snowed on us while
in the Arctic with the Polar bears, our seats rumbled through storms and
elephant marches. During an underwater
scene we had bubbles descending from the ceiling. We got wet several times as dolphins splashed
into water and elephants sprayed. Gusts of wind came at us from the walls,
ceiling and under the seat. When the
shark attacked the seal we got wet and we got jabbed in the back causing much
merriment among the children. Good fun.
They had exhibits of all types of
amphibians, lots of the usual fish tanks and a very nice Amazon Rainforest
complete with sloths, macaws, monkeys, colourful birds and butterflies.
There is a really nice kiddies play
area in the downstairs section of the dolphin exhibit where the climbing
equipment and tunnels have live aquariums inside the Perspex tunnels. Very cool.
The dolphins were spending a lot of time in the window sections staring
at us looking at them. I got some lovely
photos of them right up close.
These are rescued dolphins as you can see from below pic. Severe damage to fins from fishing nets
His view - Finally we got to watch
the jellyfish – surprisingly graceful as they blew out their trailing tentacles
and some fluffy bits which all ballooned out and then gradually settled back
into place as the jellyfish pulsed and slowly sank in the tank.
I (J) really enjoyed my visit here
and would recommend it to anyone who visits Vancouver. It was a much nicer place to be earlier in
the day when there were fewer people; by 12 – 1pm it had got quite crowded.
We walked the kilometre or so back
to the city, pausing at a convenience store for a 42 ounce Super Double Slurp
Mountain Dew (just as we had in Miami). That was about $1.40 and we had a
couple of wraps for lunch. Strolling on, we passed some parks and gardens and
then turned downhill towards Canada Place, the waterfront. Volendam and Island
Princess were in port and we got to walk right up alongside them at about the
height of deck 7, where Volendam passengers were clustered together in the boat
drill.
The whole area was very
attractively and interestingly laid out with a lot of informative historical
and cultural displays. We detoured into the area where they had animated
displays about the War of 1812. What . . the Crimean War??? Nope . . I had
always thought that after the American War of Independence the Poms went back
home and sulked, but in fact they later went to war against the USA over some
ongoing squabbles. Canada got sucked in in support of Britain, since it was
still a colony.
The war dragged on for 2 years and
involved conflict all along the Canadian border and in other coastal areas of
the USA, particularly New Orleans. It was eventually settled by treaty with
little achieved for either side. Canada seems to regard this as some sort of
Gallipoli experience which heightened their awareness of their own identity.
They are very proud that the mutual border has been the only undefended border
in the world since 1814.
In passing, we saw frequent
reference to “The First Nations”. Probably a reasonable prediction of what
awaits us in Aus . . how long will it be before we are saluting the First Nations
like Pinjarra and Lockridge . . or Redfern in Sydney?
Next we came to Gastown, location
of the original settlement of Vancouver. There are no remaining buildings
because of a great fire of 1912. There is an interesting gas clock, which was
apparently originally operated by gas pressure running a timing mechanism but
subsequently changed to normal clockwork because the gas power was erratic. But
it still chimes with gas-powered hooters.
This was a very touristy area, with
the inevitable Irish pubs (they are Everywhere all over the world!!) and
souvenir shops. And that is where I fell in love with my blue red and white ice
hockey shirt. Made of the same techno fibre as the Bolivian soccer strip, but
cost nearly 3 times as much including the bloody tax. Are the lapels even, you
ask cynically? It doesn’t have any hahaha.
We hadn’t found any supermarkets to
buy dinner but we decided to pop into an Army and Navy store to see the
clothing, and were surprised to find that they had a complete supermarket in
there too. Back at the hostel, we found
that there was still no internet but we have run up the blog and will go and
post it later this evening.
Seaplane and paddle ferry
cool killer whale - with lotusing Chris
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