#14 - When the trip became a full-blown blast

Lilith's house, Nelson
Monday, Victoria Day
the 18th of May

Day 25

Oh, joy. Life is sweet and nice once you get to Nelson. I knew it! It has been quite great and I love staying with Lilith and Maia, her 17 year old daughter (my couchsurfing hosts). (...)

Vernon was good. Very worth it. After that stupendous beach I decided to keep going . After all, it was only noon. I went through pretty residential neighbourhoods around the lake. Some looked like regular summer houses, some like wealthy-show-off summer houses. (...) I kept on going by the side of the road up the mountain, finding extensive orchards (...) and a little park with a hidden beach. The water wasn't too cold. If I wasn't alone I would have jumped in. I got as far as Kalamalka National Park [ I still think it is a great name - Kalamalka, once you manage to pronounce it] but I decided it wouldn't be too wise to go hiking as I still had a couple of hours walk back. So I turned around, got very tired and appreciated the big hotel bed. Well, I got sunburned. Yes, I admitt it. Very sunburned in my left arm. Jeans and t-shirt are still too little (???). (...) The next day I packed my stuff up and was gone. I went to the bus depot a bit earlier and bought myself a head-set Greyhound-style. Ah, ah. Whatever. I got to hear music, at least , now that my headset is broken.

The trip was awesome. We went back to Kelwona and I stayed there waiting for 2 hours. Then !I! took the bus to Nelson. Not my luggage. That stayed behind. It had to happen, one of these days. Thankfully it arrived in Nelson the morning after, so it was no big deal. (...) We took highway 33 and got away from the Okanagan. Soon it was just dense forests of green pines with the occasional meadow and ranch around. After the mountains it became less picturesque, as we headed South. We passed thourgh Beaverdell. I thought I had seen the Faroeste [Portuguese word for Western North America cowboy-atmosphere ]. No, THIS was it. A couple of houses (plus the ranches around) along the highway. Quite literally in the middle of the forest. There was a "department store" with a 20'/30's sign on top. I saw a group of teenagers in a car. The "I will want to get drunk twice a day when I'm legal" type. I wonder: if someone pays me a lot of money, will I then even consider moving temporarily to a place like that? It was slightly surreal. We went further south. (...) We stopped in Rock Creek for a little while. That was also tiny. It had very weird looking people. Well, we stopped at the gas station, the biggest center in these places. They had in big letters an add saying they sold Fireworks. They had that in many of these small places. Interesting.

A couple more of these ghostly towns followed. Midway seemed the perfect setting for a Hitchcock murder case. Greenwood was the ultimate Western site. We stopped at the desolate Grand Forks, now well into highway 3. As many of these places, and a lot fo ranches along the way, it resembled an old car cemetry, with so many automibile junk parks on the side of the road. We had a "dinner stop" at A&W. Now I get why I've never been in those places. But I was hungry so I said: eat a "chubby chicken" burger (oh, originality...) and shut up. I went outside to get away from the "deep fried" smell. There I started talking with a guy named Shy/Sly/Sky, whathever it was. It started with my sandals, instead of my necklace. Good to have some variety in the way my attire gets interesting strangers to address me. He was amusician, played "wicked keyboards" and had been with his band accross Canada and Europe. he was particularly fond of Ireland.(...)

Next up: Christina lake. Very very pretty. I really loved it there, with the mountain landscape and the snow still lingering on the bottom of the trees. It was at about that time that I started talking to the guy in front of me. I think he had wanted to talk wih me for a while, but he got an excuse to ask me where I was going when I very obviously tried to figure out where I was on the map. He was going to Nelson, grew up over there. He worked in New West. and he was coming to visit his mother and brother. (...) He looked like Keanu Reeves but darker, skinnier and with the attire that I have noticed to be typical of boys of this region. Pseudo-gangster hip-hop inspired stuff. (...) He was nice and interesting (...) He told me about the logging business in the Kootenays how it was being reduced but it had still logged a lot of areas recently. He was quite emotional about it. After all, it was the forest he took for granted. While we talked we passed very beautiful lakes and breathtaking mountains around Castelgar. He also took it all for granted, having done the trip so many times. So I think he enjoyed my childish enthusiam (...).

After that ride we got to Nelson. Small but pretty (...) [Lilith and Maia and I] talked over a nice bowl of curry and then went to a place called "the cocoa-nut lounge". (...) I was half in love with this town of alternative people. The café had live music and an interesting group of 60's woodstock looking people.

The next day was a blast (...). We had breakfast on the local trendy place "Orso Negro": an amazing latte and muffin. We talked about Feminism and housework and I think I learned a lot from Lilith. Later, after lunch, Maia took me along to her friend's place, where she would be doing some henna tatoos on her back. (...) Her father was from Quebec ad her mother was from Czech Republic. I ended up getting a really lovely henna swan on my hand too! (...) i went downtown and then saw the lake, strolled around the beach and the park. Nelson is so much more interesting, even though it is smaller. With a car, I could stay here for a while. It was lovely.

At night we went to a local "rave party", but I will write about that later.

Filipa