Category Archives: Getting Places

Experimental Car Commuting Community

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Thanks to epSos.de for the photo (From Flickr's Creative Commons)

It was bound to happen. When you have a superawesome Father-in-Law who lives in Maple Ridge and you on Main Street in Vancouver, well, sooner or later you’re going to have to live the life of a commuter.


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During our 97 kilometer, three-and-a-half hour round-trip, Michelle and I experienced a different kind of community than we usually do – the car commuter community (let’s go with carmmunity or commutermunity). Made up mostly of single-occupancy-vehicles, this community can be simultaneously fast and slow moving.  And sometimes, it doesn’t move at all. We definitely experienced a fairly speedy trip out to Maple Ridge, but were stuck in a Port-Mann-Bridge-twinning/Coquitlam-super-sprawl sort of construction-inspired gridlock during which we gazed up and around at the partially built overpasses and expanding lanes of concrete and asphalt.

First question: so, once the six or eight lanes of traffic cross the bridge – and then go into four or five lanes of traffic on the freeway – how will this traffic fit into the two or three lanes of traffic that choke Highway One about three kilometers into/past Coquitlam?

I know a few colleagues who commute each day from Pitt Meadows and Surrey (each from a different place, not from one to the other and then to UBC). And, on Wednesday, Michelle and I got a bit of a window into their worlds. Now. Not only am I on the more social side of the humans are social creatures continuum, but I’m definitely a hypertechnological, superconnected dude, too. I found it hard not to think about sending emails, text messages, and having The Daily Show or a podcast on in the background while I write a blog post and instant message Shipping Correspondent, Godfrey Tait while I read the latest selection of our book club.  On a more consistent basis, commutermunities would be a dangerous place for my socially wired, multi-tasking style.

Second question: what the heck does one do alone in a car for three hours (or more) per day?!

Finally, before leaving for Maple Ridge we filled up our 2001 Honda Civic with delicious gasoline. The cost of doing so typically ranges from about $55-$60. Upon returning home and parking our car, Michelle and I noted that the trip used up just under a quarter tank of delicious gasoline – logical extrapolation concludes that, if we lived in Maple Ridge we’d be using about a tank of delicious gasoline per week getting to and from our jobs in Vancity.

Third and final question: in a region where the collective earning potential is about 10-15K less than the Greater Toronto Area and 5-10K less than Calgary and that is also a community that is carbon taxed, property-taxed-to-pay-for-slow-to-expand-public-transit, and is in possession of the highest housing prices in the English-speaking world, how the heck does one keep up with and/or ahead of this rather perplexing mathematical equation?

Riding with headphones – illegal, immoral or irrelevant?

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I’ve had three incidents in the past month that have got me thinking about my bike riding etiquette. Twice in the past couple months friends have stopped me as I took headphones out of my ears to tut-tut me on riding while listening to music. This afternoon, on my way home from a doctors appointment, a self-identified off-duty RCMP officer instructed me (to her credit, in a kindly way) that riding with headphone on was illegal and she had pulled over dozens of people for impaired riding.

The bike shop guys I asked later in the day confirmed it was a contravention of the BC Motor Vehicle Act. Unfortunately, my legal prowess is limited and after a quick search of the Act, I wasn’t able to discover any evidence to confirm this is the case. Though I’ve yet to find the precise legal wording one thing I have found is that in all my time riding, I’ve never run into troubles with a police officer for riding with headphones (despite being pulled over several times for other infractions). What’s most striking is that if it is actually a law, it’s one of the most ignored ones in history. Sitting at the Union St Cafe at the corner of Union and Hawkes, it’s hard to find a cyclist (particularly during the morning commute) who isn’t listening to tunes on a small portable i-phone or music player.  For me it begs the question of the relevance of such a rule. Is this another road rule that everyone (including the cops ignores) or is it something we all really should be paying attention to?

Fun tech friend or public enemy #1?

On the one hand, I understand how listening to music at a moderate volume can a) distract you from your environment and b) take away from your peripheral hearing. But is that really so different from the car radio (particularly at a high volume)? If you’re hands free and you are alert and listening to a music at a low volume, is this really so bad? And if this is the case, what about joggers? Should they not be held to the same standard?

What is most frustrating about this issue is that this prohibition isn’t really clear to cyclists (or anyone for that matter). It’s hard to find evidence one way or another on the ICBC website and there certainly seems to be a gap in public education around all matters of proper riding ediquette (apparently it’s also illegal to ride without a bell – really!?). In any event, if the rule isn’t being enforced, is it really a good rule to have? Practice seems to be very different from principle on this issue.

Canoe Baby

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Over the weekend Jim and I went canoe camping with a group of friends, which included an 18 month old.  Summers over the past 5 years for us have been centered on weddings so it isn’t surprising that there are an increasing number of infants and toddlers in our community of friends.  We were understandably a bit skeptical about how this trip would go.  It seemed ambitious of his parents to propose such a trip, which included an almost kilometer long portage.  I’m happy to say that it went well and since I promised a report back on how it went to others hoping to do similar trips in their future, I thought I’d share my findings here on the Gumboot.

Practice Before You Go – In the weeks leading up to the trip it is a good idea to get out in the canoe for shorter trips, which can be a good indicator for whether or not such a trip is a good idea.  It also helps sort out things like the best place everyone should sit and if old enough what activities can occupy the young passenger.  It is likely also a good idea to pull out the tent early to get used to a new space for quiet time and napping.

“Special Jacket” – A PDF is a must on these trips and not always the most comfortable for little ones.  From what I learned from my friends, PFDs are fine for when infants are so small that they don’t move much and also fine for when fuller mobility is gained.  But there is definitely a period in between when a PFD makes babies with partial mobility really unhappy because they can’t move, meaning that a trip might not be an option.  Making sure that a PFD fits and is comfortable is essential to a successful canoe trip.

Tethered Paddle (or whatever else might be the object of play) – It sounds like infants will just sleep in the canoe, which means entertainment isn’t much of an issue.  But toddlers need an activity to keep them occupied.  Our friends got a small paddle for their son to play with and quickly found on their practice trips that he liked throwing it in the water.  Rather than constantly turning around to retrieve the paddle, they drilled a hole in the handle to tie it to the canoe, making it easily retrievable.

Keep the Schedule – napping, eating and whatever else is essential for daily good moods should be maintained on the trip.  It meant leaving really early so that we could arrive at the campsite for lunch and the early afternoon nap, as well as eating dinner by 6.  But the rigour of his parents knowing and maintaining the schedule made it a more pleasant trip for everyone.

Be Prepared for Learning – While you might think that your little one is secure in a tent because they haven’t yet mastered zippers that changes quickly.  By day 2 of 3, our friends’ son had figured out the zipper well enough to escape the tent when he was done his afternoon nap.  A possible solution we though up was a carabineer to attach the zippers on his side of the tent to make sure he didn’t go exploring that night.

Flexible Adventures – this goes for both parents and fellow canoe campers, since the terms of the trip are dictated by the youngest traveler.  Having a little one along might mean sticking closer to the base camp or setting off on adventures of different scales.

Hiking is Awesome

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This past weekend, John and I went on an awesome hike in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park. After parking our car at the trailhead, we hiked 5.5 kilometers and about 250 vertical meters to Greendrop Lake. We encountered many different types of terrain and many different kinds of hikers. Here are our observations about what we recommend as a pretty darn fantastic overnight camping experience:

John & Michelle’s Favourite Things About the Hike

1. Diverse Terrain. The trail literally had it all. From typical Pacific Northwest muddy rainforest to rockslides that we had to scamper across to raging creeks that washed out the trail to a harrowing rocky pathway to Mordor or wherever the Gunslinger is headed, the trail really ran the gamut of sensation. It was listed as an intermediate hike, and you never knew what to expect.

2. Path-Plotting Creativity. As mentioned above, much of the trail – especially the half-hour before arriving at Greendrop Lake – was washed out by an overflowing and raging Post Creek. This inspired some pretty creative trail navigation, which invariably involved scurrying across logs acting as makeshift bridges, leaping across rapids and, one time, going about 300 meters in the wrong direction before serendipitously finding the path back to the lake.

3. The Destination (See Photos). Clearly, John and I had a really, really awesome campsite. It was secluded (until a really nice couple and their dogs arrived nextdoor), was a meter away from the icy blue lake, and had a gorgeous view of a cascading waterfall that fed the lake from the top of the mountain. In spite of our tent being pitched on an angle – which made sleeping fairly hilarious – it was the perfect campsite.

John and Michelle’s Observations of the Hiking Community

Garbarge-Throwing Partyers. John and I picked up our fair-share of litter along the trail. Shame on you, “hikers” – and we use the term loosely because camping and hiking should involve an instinctual love for and appreciation of nature, which you just don’t seem to have. Judging by the cans and wrappers that we saw along the way, what you do have is a love of beer and candy.

Danger Family Nature Awesome! Should an eight-year-old boy be balancing three feet above raging water on a wobbly and slippery log? According to some families (and, for the record, John’s dad would’ve been on this list back in the day), absolutely! For this is a fantastic way to build character and an appreciative respect for Mother Nature (or absolute fear)…either way, no one in this group is littering!

Team Hardcore. Maybe you walk across boulders in barefoot running shoes. Or perhaps you bushwhack your way past the end of the trail with hopes of finding “Hicks Service Road.” Or perhaps you get a bit lost, but intuitively know that a creek comes from a lake, so you just walk in waist-deep water up the creek until you arrive at your destination. And maybe you arrive at your destination, only to realize that all the camping spots are taken, so you eat your dinner and then hike all the way back to the first lake, Lindeman, only to return the next day so that you can find some fish in Greendrop. #hardcoreawesome

Friendly Folk. Most people we met fit into this category quite nicely. Nearly everyone said “hello” as we past, sure. But it’s the Friendly Folk who stopped to chat a bit. During the big incline at the beginning of the trail, a young lad encouraged us with a nice “you’re almost there!” Very friendly.

Jeans in the Wilderness. You read on the Internets that the first leg of the hike – to Lindeman Lake – is a “day hike” with a few camping spots. This informs your wardrobe choice as well as your decision to hike sans-eau. Also, when juxtaposed to people hiking in gear to Greendrop Lake (The Bornks!), it makes the latter folk seem so much more hardcore.

What John and Michelle Learned About Each Other

John: Michelle Bornk! is a good camper with a ton of spirit and mettle. What I learned about her is that she cannot yet read my mind during camping experiences. There were a few times when, for example, I would be holding the tarp or tent fly and then would look at her. She would smile and say, “Hi!” What I was thinking about and hoping for, though, was for a silent acknowledgement that it was time to shake out and fold up our campsite. These little nuances will take care of themselves following future forays into the wilderness. Exciting!

Michelle: John is an experienced camper, whom I can learn a lot from. He also has a lot of hilarious stories from childhood camping expeditions, which give me a hilarious glimpse into his past, his family, and who he is today. I also learned that John Horn is a man on a mission. There would be numerous times when I would have to ‘remind’ John that I was not directly behind him (usually by yelling or throwing things), as he would be so focused on making it to our destination. Perhaps, at the end of the day, I have learned that I should bring a whistle!

Going Interior: Driving and Big Boats

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For at least two federal and one provincial elections, I have been frustrated to see a large portion of the so-called ‘left coast’ support an anti-environmentalist, conservative agenda.  A recent visit to Kelowna, located in the interior of BC has made me understand why:

We experience the Wonderful World of Nature / our Rental Car

driving is king

Driving is fun.  There is relatively little traffic in town and the main highway between Kelowna and Penticton swoops widely around the lake shore.  A speed of 100 km/h or more is easy to safely maintain.  The average resident drives 35000 km/year [vs. a 14100 km/year as a province-wide average!].

Recent urban growth has focused on highway-oriented strip malls with panhandle suburbs on the hillsides, two of the worst culprits for massively increasing greenhouse gas emissions.  Human-to-human community building is difficult at best with these ex-urban patterns.

An individualist political agenda that minimizes personal income taxes and social expenditure makes sense to isolated monocultures of individuals.

Big White People with Golf Shirts looking at Big Boats

big boats are good; bigger boats are better

The lake has a huge psychological presence; boats are a huge part of life.  Boating does not mean sailing, kayaking, or rowing.  Massive rigs are required to wakeboard or booze cruise.  The faster and bigger the better.  The poor ride dirt bikes or ATVs.  A carbon-centric lifestyle means an average individual carries additional kilograms of body weight; mass that makes low-carbon walking or biking still more difficult.

A population that depends on the hyper-consumption of fossil fuels for daily routine and recreation does not appreciate a carbon tax, or understand subsidizing public transit.

golf shirts = fashion

Male fashion is dominated by misshapen corporate golf shirts and khakis.  Pop the collar if you want to be authentic.  Organic cotton shirts, re-used vintage pants or locally-tailored, trim suits are verbodden.

Golf shirts should be worn when golfing.  Corporate golf shirts should be worn when golfing with that corporation.  Wearing this outside of these important moments indicates a lack of imagination and creativity.

Imagination is not typically associated with political conservatism.

Kelowna is Anglo-Canadian white

Racial and cultural diversity is low in Kelowna.  The only non-Anglo Canadian culture I observed was drunken separatist Quebec fruit pickers.  This is unlikely to encourage cross-cultural tolerance, immigration friendly policies or support for a distinct french presence within a united Canada.

In short, this Vancouverite now understands why progressive politics have a hard time in the interior.  Urban patterns encourage isolation from the community of human suffering and facilitates the influence of traditional media.  An excessive personal dependence on fossil fuels derails the environmental agenda.  Low cultural diversity confirms long-held beliefs in the correctness of ones opinions.

And boy, does Ron Cannon, the Conservative MP for Kelowna look good in a golf shirt.

Travellers: Consider Yourself Labeled

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Labels are bad. But then again, we love them. Oh, do we ever love them. Without labels we couldn’t classify things and fit them into the hierarchy. Everything has a stepped grading system of better and worse. How else would we know how to value things? Hmm? And don’t get all Zen on me and say that all things are equal. If that were true I’d buy a vintage Harley for the same price as a used Piaggo. They’re not the same thing.

After a recent hiatus from the Daily Gumboot in the south of France, I embarked on a wee trip in Western Europe. What I saw? The hierarchy of travellers. Now this isn’t necessarily how I see it, but wow do travellers love to grade themselves.

For those status oriented people (meaning, most of us), let’s start with the lowest on the food-chain:

Pre-packaged Group Tours: The Tourists

“Now everyone please get off the bus. Anyone need a bathroom? Plug in your radio headsets and tune into channel #1, because we’re the best tour group in Paris! [waits for laugh]. Versailles was built by blah, blah, blah…please try and stay with the group everyone  —”

And the group checks off their list of tourist sites like a dabber on a foreign bingo card , The Louvre = B3, Eiffel Tower = G46, etc. This group flies in to see 12 cities in 10 days, by bus, talking with nary one local person, then jets back home. Typically between in the older of travellers, these groupsters will finsih their travels with hundreds of pictures and videos as proof of presence, and a garage sale’s worth of Union Jack coffee mugs and Mona Lisa keychains.

Bonus points for: number of pictures taken, number of stars on hotel, horror stories about hotels and airports, darkness of suntan, and full bingo card.

ALSO INCLUDED IN THE TOUR GROUP: resort resters, hotel tv-watchings vacationers, and timer-sharers isolationists.

The Young and the Dirty: The Backpackers

“You can totally save 20€ if you sleep on the train, or just sleep at the airport. I did Prague and just stayed out all night. No, I was just there for a few days, but it was awesome. Not as, like, open as Amsterdam, but cool. I’m totally going to Barcelona next. You can’t leave without doing Spain. Oh man, check out that tour…man, those people don’t see anything.”

This group spends between 1-6 months with rail passes and newly purchased behemoth bags, hiking boots, bandanas, and moneybelts hopping from city to city with other backpackers. They will “do” 16 cities which will serve as the backdrop for their mind-opening experiences they’ll talk about for years to come. Hostels and sex, you will find them in either a haze of drunkenness or hangover. Sure they go to the same museums as the tour groups, but they tend to smell worse and their cameras are smaller.

Bonus points for: dreadlocks, braided beards, number of flags on backpack, not having Lonely Planet in hand at bus station, and the possession of Moleskin notebooks full of ticket stubs.

ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS GROUP: post-university mates hitting up the world before “real life starts,” people searching for something (most often getting away from something), thrill seekers who prefer the thrill of beaten paths but sound exotic, and introductory globetrotters

Life Experiencers: Exchange Students and Volunteers

“I know it’s the best Indian restaurant around, but they just don’t do the spices right here. Hawaii is great, but the nothing tops the surf in Oz. He’s cute, but you should’ve seen Raphael in Milano. Of course I speak fluent Spanish…oh, I don’t understand that, I learned in Madrid.  Sorry, I can’t come tonight I have to go to my capoeira class.”

For a semester or a year, these students of the world pack their books and laptops and head out to have their rite of passage experience of a lifetime.   With incredible opportunity to truly immerse themselves into the culture and enrich their lives with a first-hand look at living histories this group of travellers unfortunately performs minimum scholastic or actual volunteer work.  Yes, they have a few local friends, can tell the difference between a Bavarian and Belgian brew, and have developed a solid distaste for tourists and backpackers. They may have lived with a local family, can speak the language at a decent level, and have opinions on why the country is like that.  Much like the backpackers there is a lot of partying, but sometimes includes local parties.

Bonus points for: having local friends/boyfriend/girlfriend, speaking language, less-travelled-to or more-difficult-to-say-countries are better, more time spent away = more bragging rights

ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS GROUP: do-gooders who tend to spend more time at Big Milly’s Backyard than their “boring” volunteer project, high school and university students looking for foreign fun away from watchful eyes of parents, intermediate globetrotters

Expatriates to the Rescue (and Michael Ignatieff)

“I have to wake-up at 4am to be sure I can talk with Seoul and get specs by the ends of the day. I just wish the property values here would go up before we sell and go back home. The bureaucracy is terrible, it’s really incredible, but the health care system is so much better. I think the money’s about the same, but you just can’t get the same ________ back home, which makes it totally worthwhile.”

Foreign assignments, contracts with overseas companies, working from home anywhere in the world, this jet-setting group is monstrous. 3 million Canadians overseas right now. Expats, they like to call themselves.  Michael Ignatieff was one before he tried to become the prime minister.  You’ll find them at the Irish pub watching whatever sport doesn’t air on local television, excessive time on the internet talking with friends back home, and speak with a certain authority about their host country, as cultural/political/social interpreters that are basically experts in this esoteric field. This group complains about all the lower classes of travellers because they usually make their home culture look brutish and stupid to the locals. They don’t do “touristy” things because it’s beneath them.

Bonus points for: being married to a local, having children with said local, having local friends, using correctly strange and subtle slang and cultural jokes, knowing the “best” places to do anything touristy for visitors, and having a super-cool job that doesn’t exist at home.

Emigrants are just Immigrants in Reverse

It was brought to my attention that people who move across borders aren’t always travellers.  There are people who actually move overseas…for good!  Since an emigrant (or conversely, immigrant) are not really travellers but rather residents, I thought I’d leave them out, like the government tends to do. It’s actually a whole can of worms that I’d really rather not open.  And then there are all those politics and power and integration and problems, problems, problems to address. I think I’ll just stick to the nice, easy, privileged people who travel for fun and bum around the world under the guise of becoming worldly. They’re a far easier target.

In Conclusion…

So where does this leave us in understanding the movement of people around the world? It tells us that hierarchy certainly exists and that travellers love it like everyone else. So many people want to feel superior to others. No, we shouldn’t all live overseas for years just to prove we’re better than your friend Jim who did his PhD research in Belize.

Yes, tourism has real inherent problems. That doesn’t mean we all stay at home either. People should just stop being such jerks about how their experience is better than someone else’s. That’s the moral here. So grow up and enjoy travelling already.

Oh, and if your city attracts tourists, makes you millions of dollars, perhaps consider a halt to complaining about the tourists?

My friend Iain hates platitudes, but really this is a situation of “it is what it is.”

Sustainable Shipping: the Wave of the Future

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Solar/Wind powered marine system

“Sustainability”, “low emissions”, “saving fuel” – these are the buzz words in global shipping circles these days. With jacked up oil prices and pressure on ports to “Green” their operations, ship owners are frantically casting about for new technologies to lower the footprint of their vessels. Basically, the key players are getting innovative  both for the good of the planet and their pocket books too. This was the dominant message coming out of the Baltic and International Maritime Council’s General Meeting held last week in Vancouver.

It was no coincidence that this old boy’s maritime club held its first North American pow wow in green champion Vancouver, whose world class port is gamely singing from the same sustainable song book. For two days,  I sat in on enthused discussion between shippers, demographers, climate change academics and ex-heads of state on how shipping is doing and and where it still needs to go to lower its footprint.   The main consensus was that the economic benefits of going green are irrefutable; the technology is almost there to make it happen; keeping pace with demand, however, is questionable.

Interestingly, shipping is the most efficient form of  transportation on the planet, accounting for over 90 per cent of global goods movement, but just 3% of transportation’s fossil fuel emissions. Local presenters from Teekay, Seaspan, Robert Allan Naval Architects, and BC Ferries championed their efforts to lower these emissions even more through innovation in hull and motor design. The importance of better trained crew to operate more sophisticated vessels and new fuel management challenges were also emphasized.

Expect more of these ships on the horizon, cutting up to 35% in fuel use.

Tall Ships in English Bay, June 7, 2011

Basically, the technology is out there to create a greener world fleet and reduce its carbon emissions by up to 20% in the next decade. But is all this will and know-how a case of too little too late? World population continues to explode creating immense pressure to churn out more ships cheaply and quickly keeping the eye of many shippers on short term necessities rather than long term environmental goals.

Almost in pseudo recognition of the dilemma in which shippers currently find themselves – forced to navigate the contradictory imperatives of growth vs. green – these two beauties sailed unannounced into English Bay last week in stark, sustainable contrast to  the diesel monsters behind them.

Manyana en Bolivia

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[Editor's note: Stephanie Bowen is radical smothered in awesomesauce. She's a great writer. And she's a generous person. One particular example of her exceptional verb-against-noun-pushing lies below. Thanks very, very much for sharing your experiential learning of the Bolivian community, Steph. We're happy to have you home soon!]

In the beginning, there was trekking

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not you enemy. This will transform your whole life.”
-Eckhart Tolle

Yesterday I spent 8 hours on a transport truck, wedged between sacks of potatoes, bales of corn, chickens, farmers and their children. I had been trekking through the Maragua Crater with a stellar group of guides and volunteers from Condor Trekkers (my ethical tourism volunteer gig) when wooziness set in. By the time we stopped for the day I had a spiking fever, and by morning it was determined that catching a camion home was my only course of action.

While disappointed to miss out on waterfalls, hot springs, sleeping under the stars and good company, I was relieved that in four short hours I would be back in the comfort of my little apartment.

Given my luck with transport, I´m sure you can guess where is this is going.

When I climbed aboard the camion (ostensibly a pickup truck with 5-foot walls around its bed, used for all manner of transport between country and city), a Bolivian guide named Henrry explained to the passengers that I was very sick. When I smacked my head on the overhead scaffolding, he explained that I was also very tall. My co-passengers nodded and smiled sympathetically, unsure which was a worse affliction. I laid my newly aching head on my pack and tried to ignore the obvious bad omen.

Crowded Camion

Camions are notorious for their cramped, dusty quarters, death-defying driving, and cheapness, with trips costing little more than a dollar. They’re also the perfect metaphor for Bolivia in general: inexpensive, inefficient, surrounded by beautiful scenery and a total test of patience.

The trip from Arapampa, where we’d slept, to Sucre, where I am currently residing, is a mere 65km, which translates to roughly 4 hours of bumpy driving. For no discernable reason, however, that Sunday driver elected to circle the same loop of the crater for four hours before even approaching the perilous switchbacks that would take us into the city. With every stop, new 50lb bags of crops were piled under, beside, and sometimes on top of me as I attempted to steal some precious moments of sleep.

The trip might have caused fond memories of my Mexican highway nightmare had it not been for another Bolivian staple: kindness. After an hour of dodging bags of crops and banging my lolling head against the truck’s walls, I was offered sugar cane to chew by a farmer, to help clam my churning stomach.

Perilous country-to-city switchbacks

When the truck came to an unexpected stop at noon due to a car rally on the mountain, an elderly lady gestured for me to sit beside her in the vehicle´s limited shade. Stumbling awkwardly over bodies and livestock, I curled myself around a bag of potatoes next to my adopted grandmother. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she gently stroked my hair as I drifted off to sleep.

Beyond the camion walls

An hour later when the obstruction finally cleared, I was woken by the soft cooing of fellow passengers, who grinned as I returned to my place in the sun.

I don’t mean to romanticize my experience. It was hot, dusty, smelly and rough. Dirt roads, virtually no shocks and no seats to speak of do not make for a comfortable 8 hours in any vehicle, let alone one piled 60 deep with bodies. I arrived at my apartment at 5:30 at night, coated in a layer of grime and ready to collapse. Like so many experiences I’ve had thus far in this wonderfully bizarre country, my journey home had been fraught with confusion and discomfort. But the trip was also a testament to the calm stoicism and warmth of the people here.

While in Sucre I’ve befriended a host of lovely, quirky folks, one of whom is an inspiring young woman in the throes of opening a restaurant. She attended one of the world’s finest hospitality institutions, is passionate about healthy, well prepared food, and wants her restaurant to bridge some fairly obvious gaps between locals and travelers. When she arrived in Sucre she was armed with an airtight business plan and had a location all but secured. 6 weeks later, she’s finally been able to nail down some of the specifics of renting her space.

Nothing in Bolivia happens quickly. In fact, nothing in Bolivia happens today. When enquiring about business dealings, administrative protocol, transport schedules, or the cessation of near-daily political protests, the answer is always manyana – tomorrow. Want to rent a vacant space and open a restaurant? We’ll look at the contracts manyana. Need a residents’ ID card? It’ll be ready manyana. Want to know when you’ll at long last be able to disembark from the flatbed of a truck and dead faint into your sickbed? Probably manyana.

Perilous Switchbacks

It can be frustrating to leave a home that prizes efficiency to a fault, and attempt to go about your business in the Land of Manyana. It’s hard to get a lot done here (witness the complete cessation of this blog during my 5 weeks tenure in Sucre). But the upside of all of that inefficiency is that it’s hard to get a lot done here. When things move slowly, so do you. And when you move slowly the world can be a far more interesting place.

Curled up on that bag of potatoes, I realized that my apartment might as well be in Toronto for the amount of time it was going to take me to get there. Bit by bit, the anxious longing I often feel for impossible outcomes ebbed away, and when it did something remarkable happened. I was finally able to feel the relief of the cool breeze that was sweeping through the camion. I cracked open my fever-swollen eyes and stared at the rolling green hills and blue sky beyond the truck’s walls. I marvelled at the comfort of a stranger’s weathered old hands sweeping the hair off of my sweaty forehead with all the gentleness of my mother. And I was overwhelmed with gratefulness for that improbable moment.

In Bolivia, where everything is happening tomorrow, you might as well enjoy what you´re dealt today.

Horn in the World: Plugged-In and Un-Plugged

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A few weeks ago – back when he wrote for this blog and before he abandoned it to gallivant around “Europe” – my main man Steve Sloot wrote a column/article/post/whitepaper about traveling socializers who put it out there. Particularly ones named AJ. For the record, I think that Steve is a traveling connector conversationalist, too.

Anyway, in the comment thread of Steve’s column/article/post I began a little self-reflection and introspection about my own socializing with strangers – or future-friends, as I call them – on buses, in the street, on my bike, in coffee shops, and many other public places. The reflection basically involved how I interact differently when I’m plugged-in to headphones that are plugged-in to my ipod as opposed to when my ears are open to the world around me.

These are my initial observations.

John Plugged-In

  • Information saturation - listening to my ipod satisfies my love of learning new things, be they sports and pop culture facts from The BS Report with Bill Simmons or ideas from, um, Ideas with Paul Kennedy or hilarious edutainment from the boys at Stop Podcasting Yourself. Without conversational distractions, I can also read several pages of my The Walrus or The Book of Awesome or Your World is About to get a whole lot Smaller.
  • Rising fun level - starting my day on the bus with some Michael Franti and/or New Pornographers puts me in a great mood and fills me with shareable positive energy.
  • Pedal power – when I cycle whilst plugged-in I feel as though I can harness my boom boom pow and go faster.

John Un-Plugged

  • Smart people - as it turns out, people outside of the podcast community are great sources of information, too! Chatting with future friends see many interesting narratives unfurled; the only downside is when said narratives turn into one-sided, uninformed, possibly-drug-and/or-alcohol induced rants about the government. Though this can be entertaining.
  • Energy creation - I get much of my energy from other people, so un-plugging and opening myself up for myriad conversations is a great way for me to share in the smiles, laughter and passionate debate of others.
  • Bicycle safety - if she read this publication, my fantastic former boss, Denise, would walk over to my office and hit me with my Masai job finding club. She is, after all, a strong advocate of non-earphone-wearing-bicycle-safety. And I can’t say that she’s wrong on this one.
  • Clarity - speaking of bike riding, I basically mapped out this entire post in my head as I pedaled home from UBC today; such are the possibilities when music and other peoples’ words and ideas aren’t dancing around in my head. One gets a bit closer to the natural world by listening during travels through it.

But that’s enough about me. What are some difference that you notice when you plug-in or un-plug?

Beer. Funny outfits. Conquering Cancer.

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My good friend and Daily Gumboot collaborator, Natasha Moore, is doing a very good thing. She’s participating in the Enbridge* Ride to Conquer Cancer, which goes from June 18-19 and involves a fairly epic route from Vancouver to Seattle. All proceeds go to the BC Cancer Foundation

Here’s what the organizers of the event have to say about it:

It is a unique fundraising event benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation, a B.C.-based charity that raises funds for the BC Cancer Agency – a province-wide, population-based cancer control organization. The funds you raise stay in B.C. and benefit cancer patients across all of British Columbia.

Funds from The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer support groundbreaking cancer research at the BC Cancer Agency, focused on advancing new understanding of cancer with the goal of developing new therapies to extend and save more lives.

And here’s what Natasha has to say about it:

I’m riding for our lovely Book Club-ett, Michelle in memory of her Mum and for my friend and tri pal Sarah who also lost her Mum to cancer last year.
My team, Powered By Noie is geared up to raise $25,000 and it would be just awesome if you could help me reach my fundraising goal by sharing the link to my personal page on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media you happen to be on.

Michelle and I are grateful and appreciative of Natasha’s efforts, particularly because her recent fundraising event on Saturday night at the Greedy Pig involved a seven-hour pedal, funny outfits and delicious beer. The pictures in this post do much to tell the story.

Thanks, Natasha, for taking on this cause in honour of Michelle’s mom. If you’d like to donate to Natasha’s ride, just follow this link: Natasha’s Pledge Page.

Theo Lamb shows some support of Natasha and her funny outfits!

*Enbridge sponsoring the event makes things a bit awkward, which was recently best emphasized by a good friend of mine who grew up in Sarnia, Ontario, a town with way, way, way above-average cancer rates that are linked directly to the oil and petro-chemical refineries that make up the bulk of the city’s economy; so, I guess you need to ask yourself, first, how you feel about irony and, second, if you believe that good things can come the world of big oil before donating like I did.