We rose in the morning to make our way to the Pantanal, via Boca da Ounca, Panther's Mouth, and featured an impressively high water fall, with an option to rappelling down part of it. At something like 100 metres straight down, I was rather glad it was closed. The fact that three large vultures were perched on top of the lower pulleys only reinforced this feeling.

Then it was on to Pousada refugio do ilha, in the Pantanal, a wetlands as big as Victoria.

The pousada is in a stunning location, surrounded by the Rio Solumbres. We have now had three days here and it will be incredibly hard to leave. We have been busy on every single day. We have ridden horses through the wetlands on sunset and had two early morning boat trips through flooded forests, met wonderful people and, of course, seen plenty of wildlife.

I had come to the Pantanal to acquire animals. Flagship animals like capybara and maybe some water mammals. What I hadn't counted on, was the staggering number of bird species we would see. They have over 600 species in the Pantanal, pretty much the same number as encountered across all of Australia.

On our first boat trip with travelled with the owner's son, Leonardo, and Trevor, an American bird enthusiast, who volunteers at this pousada during his summer break.

The two could spot a bird at a thousand spaces and name it despite seeing only its left wing tip. I began to realise that there passion for birds easily trumped mine for mammals and that perhaps it represented an even more sophisticated form of mania. Is there a hierarchy to animal spotters, starting with if mammals as the most rude, working your way through birds, down to insects? Of course, an exciting animal discovery trip for an insectologidt is probably a packed lunch into back yard.

I found myself getting into the swing of things, though we were so out of league. "No, that's not the Lesser Banded Heron, it's the Slightly Larger Banded Heron. You can tell because it's got a small crimson ring around it's anus rather than a red one.". Damn.

I even found myself being disappointed when I failed to see the green banded woodpecker. nevertheless I reached a point where I would have rolled all the birdlime up into a ball for one descent mammal. Fortunately it didn't come to that. As we were just about to head home what should pop up besides us but an otter. A neotropic otter to exact. It swam beside us and disappeared. Then on our return home we scored a capybara hidden under a bush. Later the next day, as if for a joke, a couple of otters swam around the building we had lunch and entertained us for some time. Coming out on the land at one point to eat a fish.

That afternoon we took a horse ride, the first for decades for both of us, and watched the sun set across flooded plains.

This morning we headed down river, this time with Olaf on board as well. Olaf is a garrulous, interesting and friendly soul who was thrilled at everything we saw, no matter how mundane the creature was. His enthusiasm was infectious, though even he ran out of puff in the end.

There is really no way you can adequately describe the beauty of this place as you drift through fields of water hyacinth, or over bushes that had been on dried land not so long ago, and you begin to realise why Leonardo was happy to take us out again and why Trevor keeps coming back. All of us on that boat had come to the Pantanal to acquire something, birds, mammals, life, piece of mind and quietly, almost unobserved, the Pantanal had acquired us. It is a trade I'm more than happy with.

Later the afternoon there is an option to take a jeep ride to see giant anteaters.

For the record, at the Pantanal, we acquired a giant otter (on the road coming in), neotropic otters, a capybara, countless species of birds, spotted swags of brown capuchin monkeys and got within touching point of loads of caimans. Not so long ago I was watching a kingfisher catch a fish, whilst a hummingbird was dashing from flower to flower in the bush besides me. 

I wonder what we'll see the next time.

Our last night in Iguassu turned out to be a Saturday night and lived up to expectations. Our sleep was regularly broken by cars roaring around, loud stereos, fireworks that could have been gunfire and the sound of police cars. Foz do Iguassu by night - a different kind of tourist experience.

Nevertheless we survived, and began our journey to Bonito. The reality of travelling around brazil is that travel is a significant part of it. After two plane trips we were treated to a three hour car trip before we made it to our destination, with a driver who could hardly speak a word of English.

This wasn't as bad as it sounds. We could dispense with dialogue and take in the wonderful scenario, which included our first giant ant eaters!

A word on driving around this country. Brazil does have the same road rules as us. Stop signs, yellow lines, speed limits, it's just that they must be optional, and judging by the way people drive, most choose not to take up the option. It made my hair stand on end, and as I don't have any on my head you can imagine how uncomfortable that experience is. The only thing that seems to receive full respect is a speed bump, so they've got plenty of these in the most unexpected places. In the city lights are also respected and they have a really cool feature. Pedestrians can see how many seconds left of walking time there is, but beware. So can the drivers, which means when they count down to zero you better be on your skates.

Anyway, back to Bonito. Bonito is one of the great ecotourism centres in Brazil. In classic Jones fashion it appears that I had indicated to the travel agent who organised our trip to cram in as much as possible.

Our digs have been really cool. bonito has a populate of 17,000 and plenty of style about it, though a drive on their local roads would indicate that Australia clearly over-invests in this department. Tar with potholes is standard and secondary roads are red dirt with potholes, and not just woosy potholes. must raise this with Council. There could be some more funding for public libraries out of it.

We seem to have done just about everything in Bonito. The first day involved a walk into a cave with an awesome blue lake, complete with Harry Potter style owl. This was followed by a snorkel down a spring-fed river. This was bucket loads of fun, though Kate greeted it with bladder-clenching trepidation (which is handy in one sense as it's considered bad form to relieve oneself in a hired wet suit). Of course it turned out brilliantly and Kate proved to be a supreme snorkeller. We saw oodles of fish, some up to a metre long. There is something really cool about snorkelling along a Brazilian river with monkeys in the branches overhead.

The next day, today, we reversed the order. We went snorkelling in the morning and walking in the afternoon. Once again Kate was confident she wouldn't snorkell and, once again, she was wrong. We spent a wonderful hour snorkelling down a fast moving river before strolling around some beautiful waterfalls in the afternoon.

And for the record, animal bingo now also includes macaws, toucans, rheas, caimans and crab eating foxes, along with a host of other birds. It's a strange thing about travel. People speak a different language, and you expect that and that's not surprising. The same can be said of the scenery and the animals. It's the everyday that takes you by surprise. It's waking up to bird calls that you have never heard before that makes you feel most like an interloper.

And surely that's a wrap. Thanks for your patience.

The next day we headed out to the airport, picked up by the guide organised by our travel agent. She was the same one who had dropped us at the apartment two days earlier. Her English was good and her favourite topic was the traffic. At one point she turned to me, gesticulating expressively, and spoke about how a bus driver had had a fatal accident because he was always turning to talk to his passengers and taking his hands off the wheel. There was a moment when we both noted that she was looking at me and waving a hand around and she gave me a quick apologetic smile grabbed the wheel with both hands and continued the story whilst looking firmly ahead. The whole driving experience was further enhanced by the presence of literally hundreds of vultures watching you from their lamposts ... And waiting.

Of course, we arrived safely in Iguassu and were meet by one othe most intense, fascinating and generous people I have ever met -our guide for two days - Ortiz.

Ortiz took us straight to the falls, there being no time to book into the accommodation. There had been significant rainfall for the past week and later in the day the mist from the waterfalls would obscure visibility.

It turned out that the cloudy weather we had experienced in Rio had meant significant rainfall in the catchment of Iguassu. If we hadn't had this in Rio we would have missed out on what turned out to be incredible conditions in Iguassu. Only a month earlier the conditions had been so dry that the falls had dropped to one fifth of the size we saw them at.

We had two days planned in Iguassu and on the first day we were to see the falls from the Brazilian side. The day was cloudy but clear and Ortiz was thrilled that we were going to have good viewing and good levels of water.

I do not believe that I have ever seen a more making natural sight that the Iguassu Falls. Their sheer size and force simply belie description. So much water. Enough water for every single person on the planet to receive at litre every few minutes! It is a scale that seems incomprehensible and yet there it is in front of you.

And to top it all off we saw capuchin monkeys up close, coati and agouti.

A word of warning though, Foz do Iguassu (the city near the Falls) was the first place that felt dangerous. All the houses seem to have high walls and barbed wire is common, as are security systems. Ortiz told us that up until recently 15% of local youths died a violent death before the age of 20. And you could believe it. The government had sent in extra military to try and bring some sanity back to the place.

That night we were dropped off at the hotel and the best advice was not to wander too far. We decided to eat in and we had an unexpected bonus. Our room had been upgraded to a suite, and it was pretty awesome.

The next day we headed over to the Argentinian side of the Falls. again we traveled with Ortiz and he continued to a source of fascination. He had grown up in incredibly poor situations in Paraguay. He had seen the importance of education and had left home at the age of 14, against the will of his father who wanted him to continue to be a wood cutter.

Ortiz now spoke a swag of languages, had a much better lifestyle than he would ever had had at home, but he never forgot his roots. Though only on a modest income he still had 8 foster children that he helping to educate back in Paraguay. What a man.

A quick note on how good we have it in Australia. There are just so many poor people in this country and things cost so much more. This is particularly the case in Brazil, where taxes are very high. For example, Ortiz was looking at a new Kia Rio car and because of taxes it cost the equivalent of $36,000 Australian. And I think the average salary of somebody in a good job is likely to be around $500 a week.

Back to the Falls. The Argentinian side is simply staggering. We took a boat ride to the Falls, and if you come this far it really is a must. Whilst the day before had been awe-inspiring, today was simply so much more. you end up right at the base of falls in the boat and the lookouts are literally right over the waterfalls. And there are so many of them and the sight and sound of them just cannot be captured in words. So, I will stop now.

Tomorrow we head towards Bonito and water of a different variety.

Picking up from the last email we awoke in rio, with a tour lined up for the Christ the Redeemer statue and Mount Sugarloaf. We'd had perfect weather in Santiago (not even smog), but this day was overcast. Little didwe know that this cloudy weather would pay the most amazing dividends two days later.

So, our tour took us up to Sugarloaf, from which we did get am awesome view of the city, though the very peak was clouded in. On the upside though, we saw our first monkeys, marmosets. And in the skies around us vultures and frigate birds wheeled. The game of animal bingo had begun.

Next we drove up to Christ the Redeemer. This is a pretty fantastic drive in itself as you wind through rainforest, right in the middle of the city. The statues is as remarkable as it looks, especially for us as we saw it through great banks of fog. So Christ kept disappearing and remerging. It was really quite eerie, though the view was of total cloud. By the end of the day we'd seen more quality cloud up close than you could have possibly dreamed of.

That night we went the whole tourist hog. We bought tickets to a barbecue and dance show. When in brazil you have to have a barbecue at least once. The amount of quality meat was simply outrageous. They kept bringing some for of meat out on skewers the whole time. I'm pretty sure by the end of the evening we'd had every species that didn't move quickly enough. I would be surprised is jaguar was on the menu. And because we were new to the game we'd filled our plates up at the salad bar before hand. Soooo much food and the knowledge of Brazil's challenging toilet system preying on our minds.

Suitably bloated we were bussed off to a dance spectacular, covering 150 years of Brazilian history. It turns out that for nearly all that 150 years women wore clothes that seem to have shrunk down to nothing. And then they'd shake around a lot. I didn't mind that much. They also had some amazing male dancers but mostly they wore more clothes, and they seriously knew how to dance. There was a cool band playing as well. A top night, plenty of drinking,eating, entertaining and scantily clad women - all in the name of culture!!! Woo hoo.

The following morning we arose for another tour of the old city. Things ran and hour late due to the ludicrously bad traffic but he weather was good and the city was remarkable. I actually enjoyed this tour more than the sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer.

First we saw the classic old buildings and, of course, they were suitably grand and opulent. Nothing like kings, emperors and dictators to make for opulence. The cathedral was an outrageously decorated affair. baroque carvings, high ceilings, stunning pictures, lifesize figures of Christ in glass cabinets. The concept of restraint goes right out the window - which is why Brazil is such a great place to visit.

It is hard to describe rio. It's a riot of buildings, with no apparent building codes, all in different colours and states of decay. And you'll see just about all styles of buildings. We passed native style grass-roofed cottages, palaces, haciendas, a Swiss chalet and what looked like an Indian palace. And through all of this the jungle winds.

Now all the guide books tell you that rio can be a dangerous place and to stick to main roads and don't wander off on your own. Today was the day we would buggerup this completely. In a moment of madness we hopped off our tour and headed off through the streets of the old town. It only took long enou for the tour bus to disappear before we had re-evaluated our decision but by then it was too late. There followed an amusingly stressful period (though we kept smiling those grimaces of pleasure so the other person didn't know how nervous we felt). Ten minutes later having wound our way down the hill and wound our nerves uptight as a drum we reached a street corner where on old man asked us if we'd like a taxi ride.

This seemed like a good idea, though a minute later we were re-evaluating our decision but it was too late. He had no English and we had no Portuguese of any note. On top of this we had no idea where we going. Remember also, that rip is the kidnap capital of the world.

We tried naming a few places and pointing on maps and the old fellow said a place name with confidence. We shrugged and nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later we were re-evaluating our decision. We now found ourselves in a totally new area. Couple this with the fact that we had limited money on us (the guidebooks had said we shouldn't carry much money and we hadn't, but then we hadn't counted on a random taxi ride either) and we were a little concerned. Kate said to the driver "Bank de Brazil", meaning somewhere we could get cash out. At this point we think the taxi driver got concerned that maybe we didn't have enough money so I pulled out my wallet to show that I probably had enough to cover the fare. He stared at me a very politely pushed the. Wallet back in my pocket and though I couldn't understand a word he said the meaning was clear - put the money away you goose,you're in rio and you don't flash money around. Aaaauuuggghhhh. I'd been hiding money for days and carrying it around in small lots and just once, under extreme circumstances, I'd shown off a pittance, really to satisfy his concerns, and been told off.

Anyway, there followed a further lengthy taxi ride, deeper into the unknown before we arrived at a bank. We paid the driver, withdrew some money and tried to remember why on earth we'd got off the tour drive in the first place. We gave up, wandered around until we found a subway, figured out how to use it and staggered home. If we'd stayed on he tour we'd have been there already.

And that will do for now. Tomorrow would hold Iguassu Falls and we simply didn't realise what an experience this would be.

I can't even come close to doing justice to our experiences in the last week in this space but I'll do my best and you'll have to imagine the superlatives yourselves.
 
we began in Santiago, which is a city in two parts -the old and the new.  This really sums up so much of Santiago.  It is a city with a history of strife.  wars and the military abounded and it is rocked by a major earthquake every two decades.  Buildings are often in four parts and our guide was proud of one building that had stood for over 100 years.
 
As for wars, South America is riddled with them, often driven usually by foreign powers and dictators.  Imagine a war that kills 80% of the male population of a country?  That happened to Paraguay.
 
Santiago is filled with statues to famous generals and as they've had so much strife there's hardly a street corner in the old town that doesn't sport some general on a horse.
 
The next day we headed to Rio and found ourselves staying in a really cool area of the city, just back of Copacabana Beach.  Our apartment was an old establishment, with little in the way of facilities but rich with character.  Mind you, when you were having your third cold shower you could have swapped some character for comfort.
 
We were just across the road from a wonderful park and the Brazilians used it night and day, to relax in, play soccer, walk dogs, play cards etc.  I mean literally night and day.  The first night they were playing soccer until 1.30 am and they were setting up a market by 4.30 am that morning.
 
The city traffic was utter bedlam.  Apparently, this is pretty normal, but while we there the bedlam reach targeting new heights.  Brazil was hosting a major climate conference (I think Julia Gillard attended) and they shut down whole sections of roads for dignitaries.  I've never seen more men in suits standing around doing feckall.
 
I know this email is getting long already so I'm going to end it soon, but I might as well do it on an amusing note.  Using the toilet facilities in brazil to do anything serious, is a major challenge.  The pipes are now and water pressure low so you're not supposed to flush toilet paper and waste together.  Can you see the problem? You can throw the paper in a bin besides the toilet but this is not something I could ever warm too. To help alleviate this they provide you with a hose beside the loo to squirt yourself clean.  Maybe if you've grown up with this it all works beautifully but for a beginner all you end up doing is spraying the ceiling and creating an unpleasant stinging sensation in parts unmentionable.  and another thing.  You have to go regularly, otherwise, toilet paper or not, you're guaranteed to have a rather horrifying toilet experience.

I'm currently sitting in a quaint library in Tofino, having really lucked out on accommodation and weather.  Following is just a range of things that have struck us as rather amusing/different.

Food
Portions
Don't believe sizes in canada.  This is a more realistic conversion table:
Small = Large
Medium = Extra Large
Large = Coronary

Also, entree doesn't mean entree - it means main.  Entrees are called appetisers.  It must really disappoint canadians when they come to visit Australia and order an entree.

And by the way, everything is just plain huge in proportion (which may explain the weight problem).  We never seem to learn but you could probably get by on an appetiser each.

Meal Types
Meals I hope never to eat again:
Cream-cheese coated mushrooms (this wasn't the description - they just lied)
Chocolate-coated jubes (they may have been the second best seller in the shop according to the lady behind the counter but they were plain nasty)
Hot chocolate (innocent enough you might think, but no way - it is laden with sugar - and I mean laden)
Poutaine (deep-fried cheese curds - actually I never tried them at all - the description was enough)

The canadain diet does have plenty of good stuff, especially seafood, but there is a trend for salty, fatty and sugary - I'm really going to have to hit the gym when I get back.

Taxes
Don't think that the price advertised is the price.  They have the GST (I think it 11% but it seems to vary and some things don't attract any but most are up around the 11% and sometimes higher) over here, BUT they add it after the purchase.  This means that a $2.50 hot chocolate (which I should never have bought - see above) actually costs $2.63.  Totally nobby and it means you never know how much change to get out and in the end you have piddling amounts of change to deal with.  In fact, the cents involved as so frustrating that mostly people don't bother too much and simply throw loose one cent pieces in a bowl at the counter and the cashiers round up and down from the bowl as they need.

And the GST gets even more confusing.  Let's see if I can make this make sense.  Alberta just has the GST.  The other provinces, excluding British Columbia and Ontaria, have a PST - Provincial Tax.  But here in BC (and Ontario) they have an HST - a Harmonised Sales Tax - this is the combination of both the GST and the PST (plus a bit more of course).  Confusing enough?  Took a while to find all this out.

So what you pay is the price + HST?  Nope - there's more.  Many people work on low/minimum wages (the minimum wage in Canada is just $8/hour!!! There's a big fight going on because somebody actually mentioned that this might be a bit low - woah - business were horrified - keep it at $8/hour or we'll vote you out).  So you're expected to tip for waiters, cleaners and a whole range of people who work in the service industry (which you kinda don't mind doing in one sense because they get such lousy pay).  How much extra - usually around 15%.

So what you pay is the price + HST + 15%?  Not always.  Some local government areas seem to apply a Municipal tax as well.  The one upside to this is that usually this isn't for a service but a room, so you don't pay the 15%.

So what you pay is the price + HST + municipal tax/15%?  Almost.  I've noticed that in a couple of high tourist areas there's also a Tourism Levy.  I'm not sure if these are the same as the Municipal Tax or not.

Driving
This one is not so much about the right-hand side of the road but more about driving habits.  First up, Canadians are really polite on the roads.  Haven't heard a horn yet and I've seen some crazy things.  They also have htese 4-way stop signs.  Whoever get's there first get's to go first - second goes second etc.  It means there's lots of polite "after you" kind of signals going on.

The other thing involves the speed limit and overtaking lines.  These appear to be optional.  If you don't do 20km over the limit you're holding people up, but don't worry too much as they overtake you across double yellow lines, no problem at all.

Gotta go now as the library is closing.

On the day we were due to leave Jasper by train (the skeena) we got an email to say that high seas had cancelled our boat out to Queen Charlotte Island.  Whilst this was a shame the upside was that if we could wrangle it we could score some extra time on Vancouver Island.  After many mad phone calls we managed to shift out booking out of Prince Rupert to Port Hardy (on Vancouver Island).

So, off we headed on the train, a hopeful that all the elements for the trip would fall in place (we had to change car bookings, grizzlie watching bookings, accommodation bookings and ferry bookings - all of which did work out in the end).

The skeena was a wonderful train trip (saw three more black bears on the train trip).  It took two days and we overnighted in Prince George - which proved to be a bit like a cross between Mount George and royalty (and based on the glorious history of european royalty not necessarily a good thing).  Prince George was wild, dark and windy when arrived - we had to drag our baggage several blocked through charming downtown PG (but we lived to tell about it).  The accommodation and the Ramada Hotel (which was labelled Rama since two of the lights were out) turned out to be actually fine and the dinner in the pub was great as was the service.

Next day we rolled across Canada to Prince Rupert (there seems a fascination with naming things after royalty) and chatted with some really pleasant people on the train.  dined that night in PR and then caught the ferry the next day down the Inside Passage (still sounds painful every time I say it).

The Inside Passage really is an amazing journey.  Stunning scenery and even saw some porpoises (not dolphins) and a Minke Whale.  Arrived at Port Hardy that night in the pouring rain (this was the weather that had cancelled our Queen Charlotte trip).  Had a really wonderful seafood dinner (you know they candy salmon?  Sounds horrific but actually isn't too bad at all).

The following day (honestly can't remember which day of the week this was - maybe Monday (over here)) we got a hire car and motored down to Campbell River, pretty much in the rain, which cleared by the afternoon.  That night we stayed in a floathouse - which is literally a floating house - it was above the office of the company that was taking us to see grizzly bears the next day.  Wild and windy night meant it really felt like we were on board again.

We got up to fine weather (which just got better as the day wore on) headed downstair and went on a boat trip to see grizzlies.  This was simply awesome.  It took a wille to boat over to the inlet and then we went in on one of the rougher roads you're likely to see.  We had two indian guides and had to sign all sorts of waivers regarding being mauled by grizzlies bears.  Slightly un-nerving.  At first we didn't have great viewing so it was decided we walk through the forest down to where to rivers met.  We all had to keep eyes open and be prepared to behave appropriately if approached by a grizzly (which turns out not to involve running away screaming - an appealing option that apparently just encourages them - nor should you consider any accidental voiding of the bowels - odours just attract them).  Mostly, just try and back away cautiously - which simply doesn't seem to cut the mustard.

Anyway, after a while of staring down a river this bear just appears out of nowhere.  It was a female and she'd been lying down behind a log.  Next thing you know a cub appears.  They wander around for a while being quite photogenic and then the mother decides to swim over to our side of the river.  Ok - remember no running or bowel movements.  We quietly climb up into a tower - the efficacy of which had been greatly diminished by the flood water that had been through.  It had been spun around so that the stairs were actually pointed towards the bear playground and it had been tilted on its side so that one end was within easy bear-reach of the ground.

Of course, nothing dramatic happened other that the bear ending up quite close by.  Then ensued a rather amusing episode with the cub.  He was not amused at all that mother had swum across this strongly flowing creek/river.  He howled and howled for about 5 minutes and then you could see him make up his mind.  He barrelled straight into the creek and there followed a rather nervous minute when we watched him almost swept downstream before he clambered ashore.  Then he literally bolted after his mother - running right past us (probably on a few feet away at most).

The whole grizzly thing was just fantastic.  After these two bears we wandered around and saw two bull grizzlies - seriously big suckers and another mother with two cubs.

We went for a drive to a nearby lake in Banff, and lo and behold we saw stacks of elk, including one impressive stag on the side of the road.  Then things got even more interesting, climatically.  It snowed, and snowed and snowed.  We had a weird-@rse dinner at a fondue restaurant, complete with bison head wall displays and then we gambolled in the snow.
 
The next morning the snow was thick on the ground and it looked like we might actually be snowed in - but, taking the bull by the horns we headed up the Icefields parkway to Jasper.
 
This is the most staggering piece of road I have ever driven.  You cannot imagine the grandeur of the mountains and the fact that it had snowed the day before gave the trees and amazing white dusting, turning mountains into giant silverbacked beasts.
 
And, to throw a bit more into the mix, we saw a mountain goat along the way.  We thought things couldn't get much better but we had no idea what the next day (yesterday) would bring.
 
So, yesterday dawned bright, sunny crisp blue-skied.  We took a tramway (which is actually a sky gondala - amusing name really - they even called the trips flights) right to the top of Whistler's Mountain.  Then wandered around in the snow as close to the heaven's as you'd want to get (quite short of breath due to the thin air).  The views were, of course, spectacular.
 
Then we headed into town and, thanks to both feeling tired and me having one of my trademark headaches we took a breather for an hour or so - and it was truly fortunate we did.  This meant when we took another drive - this time to Medicine and Maligne Lakes - it was later in the afternoon - and we were in for an amazing treat.
 
When we got to Medicine Lake (named because its actually a lake that comes and goes depending in the glacier melts - it disappears from Ocotber until around March - the natives thought it was bad luck place so the name Medicine Lakes comes from bad medicine) - lo and behold walking out in the middle of the late was a moose!  Yep - you can spend all you time looking into the trees and then Canada slaps a moose in a lake.  It's like some grand joke at tourists expenses.  Give yourself a headache peering into trees for hours and then we'll send you an aquatic moose.
 
So, first moose - woo hoo.  And then about 1 km down the road, right on the side of the road (2 metres away) there was a hoary marmot (yeah - amusing name I know) - kinda dog-sized guinea pig).
 
Two new animals up for the day and feeling happy with ourselves.  But it just got better.  10 minutes up the road a swag of cars were pulled over - we stopped as well (this seems to happen a lot up here in Jasper) and - strike me pink - it was a black bear ambling along just off the road.  More amazing shots - again - couldn't get better.
 
Wrong - once we'd got out to Maligne Lake (which was stunning, as everything seems to be up here) - we'd pottered back along the road and again swa a car pulled over.  We stopped as well and this time in the bushes there was a caribou and her calf.  What makes this doubly special is that there were only 8 caribou in the this whole area and it's rare to see them at all.
 
An amazing day - following on from two previously amazing days.  We even saw more mule deers and elk but they are so passe now.
 
Our animals now include:
 
Squirrels (by the bucketload)
Chipmunks (also in household appliance quantities)
Elk (till they are coming out of our ears)
Mule deers (like the elk)
Orcas
Seals (harbour, californian, Stella)
Humpback whales
Racoons
Mountain Goat
Bighorned sheep
Black-tailed deer
Pine Marten
Hoary Marmot
Moose
Caribou
Black Bear
 
Tomorrow we hop on the train across northern Canada to Prince Rupert.

Since my first email we've done a fair bit of interesting wanderings, mostly avoiding the wet weather.  We returned to Vancouver and this time stayed in a really cool hotel in the Westend, near Stanley Park, which is huge and abundant with squirrels and raccoons.
 
After Vancouver we drove to a strange little town of Oliver (near Osooyos).  This was one of those weird places and nights that seem to crop up on a trip.  Oliver was, essentially, pretty darn ugly, though the countryside getting there was awesome (a bit like queenstown in Tasmania).  We stayed in a strange little motel, ate largely unpleasant food and amired the bizarre decore of the place (right down to a bedspread with killer whales on it, with one of the whales having the sort of impossible fin on its back guraranteeing it was destined for a short life swimming in circles).
 
The upside of the drive was that not only was the scenery magnificent we were off the tourist travel and slap-dab in both the wine and fruit country.
 
The next day we drove to Nelson - and that really was a beautiful town.  Quirky but steeped in cool built heritage (right on a lake too).
 
Next day we drove to Revelstoke where the locals informed us of where we could see bears.  Tunred out that the locals were clearly on drugs and not a bear was to be seen (though there was an impressive bear scat (a.k.a. dump) which showed that the red berries were both a favourite of the bears and not good for their digestion).
 
Spent the night at Revelstoke and then headed up to Lake Louise for two nights.  LL was pleasant enough but we were definitely back in mainstream tourist land.  The Lake itself was beautiful though Lake Moraine, nearby, appealed more to the eyes and had less tourists.  The second day in LL was the first time we hit really inclement weather.  Amusingly, it was this day that my mania for doing too much seemed to rise to the occassion and we drove wet, mist-filled and rough roads in search of impressive animals.  Not one did we see any, except a measly chipmunk in the car park before we left - lol.

Today we got to bamff and finally saw a new critter - a pine marten.  Like a big stoat or weasel - ran across the road.  Weather is not good today but we're doing touristy shopping stuff and sending emails from public libraries/
 
Animal count:
 
Day 1 - zero
Day 2 - Canada Geese, harbour seals
Day 3 - Harbour seals, squirrel, woodpecker, black-tailed deer, killer whales (heaps of), humpback whales (rare over here), californian seal lions, Stella sea lions (huge critters).
Day 4 - Killer Whales, squirrels (two types), great blue herons, racoons
Day 5 - Chipmunks (Oliver)
Day 6 - more chipmunks, mule deer (Revelstoke).
Day 7 - bighorn sheep (LL)
Day 8 - 1 measly chipmunk
Day 9 - pine marten (so far).
 
Another amusing fact:
 
How can a nation truly want to tackle obesity (as Canadas proclaims) and run ads for children's breakfast foods that feature breakfast strudels - with extra icing!!

We landed successfully despite flying 9/11, twice, into the US.  It turns out that LA airport sucks.  If NZ is the land of the long white cloud, the US is the land of the long wait queue.  10 queues we ended up on getting through the airport out to Alaskan Airline - 2 hours of rivetting experience.
 
Got here in the end though.  The first couple of days were overcast and damp, though I think that's pretty normal for this area.  You begin to appreciate subtle variations in rainfall and it was never more than a misty sort of rain you could wander through.
 
Vancouver was a pretty town, at least downtown, but Victoria is much nicer (downtown).  We had our fun getting here though.  Canadians are obliging, just not always actually helpful.  We needed to hop the ferry to Victoria from Vancouver and a nice person at the motel directed us nortwards to a ferry stop 40 minutes out of town.  Unfortunately it was the wrong one.  Turns out Vancouver has two ferry terminals and you'd be insane to go to the one we went to (like flying from Newcastle to Sydney via Brisbane).  Anyway, we got the scenic tour, which was actually quite pretty.
 
Got to Victoria four days ago - saw seals along the way (the ferry ride is beautiful).  Spent the evening wandering around and watching local seals taking food from tourists much as gulls do over there.
 
Next day we went to the Bouchart Gardens - and they really are something.  Absolute must-see.  It was drizzling again but, surprise, surprise it started to clear.  Then we got back into town and went on a whale-watching tour.  Saw Killer Whales - awesome.
 
The following was another beautiful day and we saw Victoria in the morning in all its glory.  Then had a mad, fairly stressful rush before we got back on the bus which too us back to the ferry for another magic crossing to Vancouver.  This time sunny and this time more killer whales (woo hoo) just hangin' out.

Along the way we had a sudden realisation that despite what we thought we'd told our travel agent he hadn't book a motel room in Vancouver and we were meant to pick up the car that day instead of today (my mistake too because I hadn't read the documentation correctly).  Despite this causing further angst it actually turned out to be a really cool mistake.  We picked up our car early and booked into a different motel in Westend Vancouver and this is a seriously cool part of the city (kinda like Newtown).  We loved it here.  Close to Stanley Park which is huge and awesome and the motel is charmingly old and nearby restaurants are cheap and interesting.  On top of all of this the weather was magic and we saw bucketloads of squirrels and racoons.
 
Yesterday we hit the road - practicing some interesting driving skills.  Downtown Vancouver is ugly but then we got into some amazing countryside heading to Osooyos.  It's the fruit and wine belt of BC and we samp[led plenty of fruit and had some nice wine.  We stayed at a bizarre little place called Oliver last night.  Talk about a weird little motel we kipped in.  Decore straight out of the manual of off-kilter taste.  Uncomfortable bed, lumpy pillows - but hey - you've got to have a least one of these nights on a trip.  Oliver  itself wasn't a charming town though the countryside was fascinating.
 
This morning hit the road early (nothing to keep us at Oliver) and we meandered through to Nelson.  Really picturesque countryside - had morning tea in a charming and quirky bakery in a place called Greenwood (the bakery was the Copper Eagle).  Had a great chat with the part owner (vanessa) and left her some weird foreign money as a tip (she collects it).
 
Nelson is so cool - you'd love it her.  We've changed our plans and are aiming ti head up to Revelstoke tomorrow so we don't have a huge trip to Lake Louise.
 
Animal count:
Day 1 - zero
Day 2 - Canada Geese, harbour seals
Day 3 - Harbour seals, squirrel, woodpecker, black-tailed deer, killer whales (heaps of), humpback whales (rare over here), californian seal lions, Stella sea lions (huge critters).
Day 4 - Killer Whales, squirrels (two types), great blue herons, racoons
Day 5 - Chipmunks
Day 6 - more chipmunks (so far).
 
Amusing little thinks learned along the way:
* Don't presume people know what they're talking about despite their enthusiasm
* When asking for a meal deal - don't ask for a meal - you get the hamburger and that's it.  It turns out that if you want a drink and chips - you have to order a combo - meal means meal kiddo (this combo was acutally with a coffee and donut - only in America - didn't really want all that but sometimes you've just got to go with what's available)
* There's no such thing as white coffee or coffee with milk.  It just confuses people when you order it.  Coffee with cream - that's what you order - that's what you get (18% cream to be exact).
* Bottomless cups of coffee are great but think twice before you have two cups and then wander around a garden when the toilets are in short supply and though there are many wonderful bushes you don't get the privacy of using them and I'm pretty sure the locals frown on misuse of their shrubbery (the situation was compounded by the drizzle and many interesting and trickling water feature).