December 31, 2025
Day 2: Vancouver to Cancun
Happy New Year, everyone!
Large indigenous carvings or artworks are a major part of the decorations at the Vancouver airport. Every time we pass through we seem to spot something new, and these show up in the blog. This time around, my attention was on an old but most impactful one - the Spirit of Haida Gwaii. I was looking for it specially because my brother had recently asked about it. He asked, because he found an old Canadian $20 bill among our parent's effects, that featured this and other works by Haida artist Bill Reid. Bill Reid was not born on Haida Gwaii but rather in Victoria. His father was Scottish, his mother Haida.
The Spirit of Haida Gwaii has two main installed versions - one at the Canadian embassy in Washington and one here at YVR. The Washington one is black and this one is green. One website claimed that while the black one is bronze the green one is fibreglass. To check on that was my mission. I stepped past the many "Do not touch" signs and gave the huge statue a quick "flicky". It resonated satisfyingly. So I can report to my brother that it is indeed bronze. I can also report that at "flicky" range, the statue is extra large and impressive.
From the Spirit of Haida Gwaii I moved on to one we had not seen before. This is called Fog Woman and Raven. The back story is that Raven saw that Fog Woman had salmon, and married her for it. But Raven became bored and mistreated Fog Woman. So Fog Woman left Raven, taking away the salmon as well. Raven tried to find her, but she turned to Fog. Fog Woman still wanted the people to have salmon, so she returned them in the form of the spawning runs.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
The flight on Flair, though only six hours long, was still rather tough. They offer not so much as a glass of water, the seats are narrow and not comfortable, and there is not only no entertainment but not so much as a charging plug. Since it is a red eye, if you can sleep through it's great. If not, errrph.
As we approached Yucatan we could see the coast line, and the air almost visibly warmed up and became smoother. The plane just seemed to happily glide in. This is what we can expect to happen with us, as we are suddenly returned to easy living Summer weather.
The Cancun airport is quite familiar to us by now, and we observed its glitsy marble floors and fancy duty free without surprise. We did expect customs to search thoroughly through our bags, and to question stuff like our hot chocolate powder. But no. In the past we have seen teams of agents going through every last bag. But now there were just two fellows observing the flow of people leaving the plane, and asking just a few questions. Our guy wanted us to promise that our bike cases were not full of cigarettes. And so quickly, we were in!
I got stationed at the oversize luggage belt, while Dodie went to collect our other checked bags. I looked gloomily at the disheveled pile of previous deliveries, and waited.
But luck was with us a lot this day, and Dodie quickly appeared with all our stuff, which had arrived on the main belt together.
We were quickly outside to find our pre-booked shuttle driver. But before we could do that, we spotted - Scott, wait for it - a Tropical Mockingbird! The Tropical Mockingbird is what got us seriously identifying birds a couple of trips ago. We kept seeing this bird and forgetting what it was, asking for advice over and over in the blog. Each time Scott patiently replied "Tropical Mocking Bird". I finally started saving and labelling the bird photos to avoid seeming so lame on the identifications.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 weeks ago
We found the shuttle driver, and got delivered to "Mansion Giahn" in the Bonfil district near the airport. The "mansion" is truly something of a mansion, standing out a bit in an otherwise run down area.
We quickly dumped our gear with the Israeli/Argentinian owners, and set off on foot to reach the storage facility that was the lynch pin of our whole touring strategy this time and for hoped for return visits.
It was a dusty trudge, over broken or non-existent sidewalks, with noisy traffic featuring a lot of motor cycles and three wheeled "tuk tuks". Aside from the broken pavement and noise, the streets also had lots of loose garbage. We have been hanging out in Europe and Canada, and I had rather forgotten what a "poor" country is like. Mexico of course is not really poor, but there was still culture shock in it for me, at least at first. (Later, as we dealt with some of the wonderful people, and bought some super fresh fruit, I began to re-appreciate the benefits that balance the noise and broken streets, etc.)
The storage is on the infamous busy highway 307. We had to walk along that for a ways, until reaching a pedestrian overpass. No way to just "run" across.
Having done the hot and dusty 4 km walk to the storage, we were very happy there with the staff and the size of the locker. If we can stay healthy, it will work well for a number of future trips. On the way, we had passed through quite a food desert, so we took a slightly different route back - the one shown above. We had to make a quick stop at the "Circle K" convenience store for milk or juice, because we were getting so dehydrated. We recognized this particular Circle K, and realized that we had stayed just off this street on a previous trip. It's a little neighbourhood that is not at all a desert, featuring many restaurants, bakeries, and fruit stores.
We nipped in to one of the restaurants, and were glad of the shaded seating, with a nice breeze. And we were also pleased with the affordable menu, and the prevalence of salad, limes, guacamole, refried beans and corn chips, tortillas, and salsas with every dish.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 4 | Link |
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
We continued deeper into the little neighbourhood, and bought some fruit:
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 4 | Link |
3 weeks ago
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Near the bandshell there was a long line of three wheeled "tuk tuk" type taxis. It would have been smart to take one back to the "mansion", but not knowing the price we were shy about engaging one. Then, unfortunately, something in the lovely lunch did not agree with Dodie, and she became violently ill. That really made the remaining walk a slog for her. She is ok now, but really did not need that!
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 2 | Link |
3 weeks ago
Back at the mansion, we pulled one bike (mine) from its case. We were so tired of trudging around, that we wanted to quickly get at least one of our fast transports on the road. It was miraculously undamaged, and in almost three hours I almost got it fully assembled and tuned. (Jet lag and no sleep might have slowed me a bit!).
Tomorrow we will pull out and assemble Dodie's bike, but then will come the unavoidable foot slog with the empty cases back to the storage.
I am writing this at 9:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. For the past three hours our room has been filled with really loud (but clear!) pop music. It was so clear, we thought there must be a live performance in the street. I went for a look, and found the four or so staff of our place having a bit of a karaoke party on the mansion front porch. In Mexico, giant speakers backed by strong systems and rotten music are commonplace. They welcomed me in, and I scored some potato chips! I didn't bring any for Dodie, who was already passed out!
Our staff has now quit their celebration, but the duty to make noise has been picked up by some others, about 1/2 block away. It could bug me, but in just a few minutes more I will join Dodie in dreamland. We set our alarm for early, because it looks like birds might like the trees around our pool.
Finally, it was not just the Mockingbird that greeted us down here. We spotted Kiskadee, Pigeons, Grackles, maybe Social Flycatchers - the usual culprits. These are all very common, but we are pleased to be building our 2026 early with them. And oh, one Baltimore Oriole, and this one:
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 1 | Link |
3 weeks ago
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 16 km (10 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 7 |
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago
Glad you are better!! 👏
3 weeks ago
3 weeks ago