Category Archives: Ecotourism

New Brunswick Roadtrip: Mesmerizing Hopewell Rocks

Walking on the ocean floor at low tide. No place demonstrates the drama, the power of the “highest tides in the world” as at Hopewell Rocks, the stellar attraction of New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, with Dave E. Leiberman, Laini Miranda & Eric Leiberman

Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

What does it mean that the Bay of Fundy “has the highest tides in the world?”  Until you actually walk on the ocean floor one hour, then scurry back to kayak through openings in the sea stacks which have turned into sea caves the next, it is hard to wrap your head around. And no place demonstrates the drama, the power of the “highest tides in the world” as at Hopewell Rocks, the stellar attraction of New Brunswick, Canada.

We have been traveling along the Bay of Fundy Coastal Road, starting in St. Andrews, where the incoming tide nipped at our feet as we stood on breakers; we had to dash off Ministers Island before the sand bridge was submerged; we saw the force of the tide at the Reversing Falls in St. John, boats laying on the ocean floor until the tide returns in Alma; and at Cape Enrage, experienced once again how a rocky beach where we had just been walking, seemingly moments later, was totally submerged. Now at Hopewell Rocks, we see more intensely, what “highest tide in the world” means.

The picturesque country road from Alma to Hopewell Rocks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Depending on where you are on the Bay, the water level difference between low and high tide can be anywhere from 35 to 56 feet (equivalent to a five-storey building). Compare this to the most parts of world, where the average tidal water differential is 6-8 feet. In Hopewell Rocks, the tidal change is 46 to 56 feet, depending upon the season, moon phase, sun and stars, even asteroids, and stormy weather.

There are two high tides and two low tides every day in the Bay of Fundy, with  a tide change every six hours and 12 minutes. It doesn’t come in like a tsunami, but flows in, rising one foot every five minutes which is faster than you realize. Consider this: A six-foot person standing on the beach with the water just up to the edge of their toes will be completely under water 30 minutes later.

The amount of water – 160 million tons – that comes into the Bay of Fundy for one tide change is enough to fill the Grand Canyon twice. With two tide changes each day, that is enough water coming into the bay each day to fill the Grand Canyon four times.

Or consider this: the amount of water that comes into the Bay of Fundy for each tide change is equal to what flows over Niagara Falls  in one year and nine months.

The picturesque country road from Alma to Hopewell Rocks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

With this in mind, we know we have to arrive at Hopewell Rocks by 8:50 am, a 35 minute drive from Alma, in order to have time to literally walk on the ocean floor amid the famous “Flowerpot Rocks” – enormous free-standing rock formations or sea stacks that have trees growing on top – and walk through the openings that have been carved out, before the tide comes in. (“Ripley’s Believe It Or Not dubbed them the Flowerpot Rocks,” Neil Hodge at New Brunswick Tourism, who organized our itinerary, said.)

We meet Johnathan, our guide for an interpretive tour, who takes us for a brief visit in the Interpretive Center which explains the geologic phenomenon, but only briefly before we go down to the ocean floor. We will only have access until 11:15 am.

Walking on the ocean floor at low tide. No place demonstrates the drama, the power of the “highest tides in the world” as at Hopewell Rocks, the stellar attraction of New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The first view, from the top of the staircase is dramatic – you see these famous Flowerpot Rocks and sea cliffs, with the people looking so tiny. The beach extends for almost 2 miles.

“The Bay of Fundy is an anomaly – a series of coincidences that have added up to create our miracle,” Johnathan tells us. “The Bay is the perfect length, width, size and shape for this to work, and a perfect storm in the last Ice Age. The glacier formed rock and when it melted, 160 billion tons of salt glacier filled the Bay and over time, pushed the rocks together (conglomerate).

Walking on the ocean floor among the “Flowerpot” formations of Hopewell Rocks at low tide © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The shape and length of the Bay (the Bay extends 200 miles) is like a bathtub – the water in the bay doesn’t have enough time to level out with the ocean – the only place to move is up. Other places have a slack tide – when the highest and lowest tide stops. [We saw this in St. John, at the Reversing Falls, where the slack tide would last 20 minutes] Here, there is never slack – a micro second at the highest point when the tide pushes back against the ocean.”

You can walk almost 2 miles along the beach at Hopewell Rocks for three hours before and three hours after low tide; “tide sweepers” are there to corral people back © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

You can walk on the beach 3 hours before low tide and three hours after (tourists think they can only cross at one time). The tide flows in at the rate one foot per minute, horizontally, one foot per 4-7 minutes vertically, up to a height averaging 46.2 ft., and as high as 56 ft.

These colossal rock formations are actually fairly fragile; areas are marked off where there could be rock falls © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The interesting shapes of the sea stacks are because they consist of compacted sedimentary conglomerate that erodes at different rates. “What is inside the conglomerate weighs more on the right than on the left,” which is why it can collapse.

The daily ebb and flow, rush and crush of all this water carves the sea stacks and many seem to precariously balance, likely to collapse within only a matter of a decade or two. Imagine that. These rock formations have been carved over millennia and may be at the end of their life. In fact, we see the crumbling, the cliff face collapse – areas are sectioned off. Geology is an ongoing process, and it isn’t necessarily slow motion over millennia, millions or billions of years, but in a moment.

The day in, day out twice daily flow of 160 million tons of water has shaped the “Flowerpots” at Hopewell Rocks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There are barricades around areas where there have been rockfalls, and we see numerous examples of boulders that have fallen into crevices, and precariously balanced boulders.

Many of these formations have names related to their shape – Elephant (since it split in two, Ella and Phant), Bear, ET, Jay Leno, Dinosaur, Mother-in-Law.

Lovers Arch is the most famous of the Hopewell Rocks formations, named because of the co-dependency of the two sea stacks – if one falls, both will fall © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The most popular – and famous – formation is Lovers Arch, named because the two formations lean next to each other and if one falls, so will the other; they are only still standing now because of this co-dependency. “It’s the most romantic spot,” Johnathan says, adding that there is at least one proposal a week here, and sometimes weddings.

The beach extends 2.4 km, depending on the tide. We see Tide Sweepers at cut off points, who begin to herd people back off the beach as the tide begins to roll in. There is actually an emergency tower for those who find themselves trapped.

The fantastical experience of walking on the ocean floor at low tide at Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick’s most famous attraction © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We walk through Castle Cove where there are four caves, Diamond Rock, and come to a skinny Sentinel Rock, which Johnathan tells us, may fall in the next 20 years or perhaps 200 years.

These rock formations are not even that old (at least when we compare to the 350 million year old fossils we found just down the road at Cape Enrage.

The fragility of the Hopewell Rocks is seen at how many have collapsed, are precariously balanced, or eroding at their base © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Hopewell Rocks were formed from glacial action 6000-10,000 years ago. And it seems that even on a daily basis, they are eroded just a little bit more. Johnathan says that some believe this park will last 2000 years, but some of the formations may be gone in just 20, like Sentinel Rock.

Johnathan, one of the Hopewell Rocks guides, points out the rockweed (you can eat the bulbs– delicious!) and the bladder wrack which contains super-rich moisturizer © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Johnathan points out rockweed growing on the rocks – you can eat the bulbs (seed pockets – delicious!). The bladder wrack (seaweed), yields aloe which is the most marvelous moisturizer, with 200 times more collagen than many commercial skin products (we try it).

We see peregrine falcons nesting in the rock faces.

The highest cliffs are 100 feet high. ”Adrenalin –junkie geologist rappel down – so they put up barricade.”

The water is notably brown (not blue) because the motion of the 160 million tons of water, mixing with silt from the mud flats. “The water is brown here but 20 km away, in Moncton, it is blue because of shellfish that filter the soil. You won’t find shells here.

The water off of Hopewell Rocks is brown because the constant tidal action keep churning up the silt. Also, the mudflats have billions of mud shrimp that is food for sandpipers that stop on their migration to South America © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

But the nutrient-rich mud flats produce another amazing sight: Hopewell Rocks is on the flight path of sandpiper birds migrating from the Arctic to South America for winter – hundreds of thousands of sandpipers, 35% of the world’s population– stop to feed in the Bay of Fundy for three weeks in late August/early September each year. The huge mud flat that extends for miles teams with billions of microscopic mud shrimp. The sandpipers feast and double their body weight, then fly 72 hours direct to South America without stopping. “We are heavy into conservation, sustainability so we don’t want kids or anybody to walk in the mudflats, killing the microscopic mud shrimp, the food source for the birds. A size 10 shoe, if they walk on mudflat, imprint would kill 10,000 mud shrimp.”

It’s an extraordinary experience to take Baymount Adventures kayaking tour among the Hopewell Rocks “Flowerpots” where we had only less than 2 hours earlier been walking on the ocean floor © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Speaking of food, we rush back to the cafeteria in the Visitors Center to get something for lunch (you can take a shuttle or walk the 15 minutes) before racing over to get to our two-hour sea kayaking tour with Baymount Adventures by 11:50 am, to get outfitted, get oriented, and get to the sea kayaks on the rock beach (everything is very time dependent) for “The Highest Tidal Paddling Experiences on Earth.”

It’s an extraordinary experience to take Baymount Adventures kayaking tour among the Hopewell Rocks “Flowerpots” where we had only less than 2 hours earlier been walking on the ocean floor © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is the most amazing experience to paddle right up to the giant “flowerpot” rocks, sea cliffs, twisting and turning through small tunnels and narrow passageways in these amazing rock formations which we had just walked around on the ocean floor.

It’s an extraordinary experience to take Baymount Adventures kayaking tour among the Hopewell Rocks “Flowerpots” where we had only less than 2 hours earlier been walking on the ocean floor © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Our guides are concerned about the strong winds today, but as we paddle, a fog picks up over Nova Scotia which dampens the wind, so we have a wonderfully calm time on the water, but we still have to paddle vigorously to get back onto the shore.

It’s an extraordinary experience to take Baymount Adventures kayaking tour among the Hopewell Rocks “Flowerpots” where we had only less than 2 hours earlier been walking on the ocean floor © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

A really marvelous adventure, a highlight of our New Brunswick roadtrip, especially pairing the kayaking with the walk on the ocean floor.

Baymount Adventures, 131 Discovery Rd, Hopewell Cape New Brunswick  E4H 4Z5, (506) 734-2660, [email protected], https://www.baymountadventures.com/

Paddling through the Elephant formation at Hopewell Rocks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In the 1950s, Hopewell Rocks was a diner and a campground; it was turned into a provincial park in 1996.

Hopewell Rocks is the most famous attraction in New Brunswick, which before COVID, drew 380,000 visitors a year [this year 350,000 are expected] from around the world. There are especially large groups of fans in Japan.

Truly a highlight of our visit to New Brunswick: walking on the ocean floor, then kayaking through the Hopewell Rocks formations © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“A Japanese textbook has a whole unit on the Bay of Fundy and photo of Lovers Arch. Visitors say it was a ”lifelong dream” to come.

Hopewell Rocks is designed to be a self-guided park but there are helpful Interpretive staff throughout the grounds to answer  questions. And the Interpretive Center provides an excellent orientation.

The Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park has three primary access points to the Ocean Floor. Main Deck is a tall metal staircase with a spacious viewing platform, where you descend 99 stairs to the ocean floor and after exploring,  A little further towards North Beach you can access by a ramp with benches strategically placed along the incline (the ramp is suitable for wheelchairs, but the ocean floor is not). You can also take Desmoiselle Beach trail from behind the Interpretive Centre.

Truly a highlight of our visit to New Brunswick: walking on the ocean floor, then kayaking through the Hopewell Rocks formations © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Hopewell Rocks park admission is valid for two consecutive days to ensure you have the flexibility to see both high and low tides. Sturdy footwear is recommended for exploring the trails and shoreline (they provide places to rinse your shoes/boots). Be sure to check the tide times prior to your visit to see when it will be safe to explore the Ocean Floor.

Hopewell Rocks, 131 Chemin Discovery, Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, 1-877-734-3429, https://www.nbparks.ca/en/parks/33/hopewell-rocks-provincial-park

A view of Moncton from the lounge at Delta Hotel Beausejour © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

When we leave Hopewell Rocks we drive 45 minutes to Moncton, a small city that’s the gateway to Northern New Brunswick (it also has the airport), where we stay at the Delta Hotel Beausejour (750 Main Street, 506-854-4344).

Moncton has a load of great restaurants and we have the best time at the Pump House Brewpub & Restaurant (5 Orange Ln, Moncton, NB E1C 4L6, Canada,+1 506-855-2337, pumphousebrewpub.ca) for its great food and fun ambiance.

Moncton is the end of our Bay of Fundy coastal adventure. Next up: Miramichi, gateway to northern New Brunswick.

Travel planning assistance from Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca.

Next: New Brunswick Roadtrip: Miramichi and Metepenagiag

See also:

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP BEGINS IN ST. ANDREWS

NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA ROADTRIP: SAINT JOHN, CITY OF FIRSTS, OLDESTS, AMAZEMENTS

NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP: DISCOVERING FUNDY TRAIL PARKWAY, FUNDY NATIONAL PARK, CAPE ENRAGE

____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

New Brunswick, Canada Roadtrip: Saint John, City of Firsts, Oldests, Amazements

Reversing Falls Rapids, one of only two reversing falls in the world, is where the Saint John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy. The force of the tide of Fundy Bay – 160 million tons of seawater at high tide – overpowers the river, pushing it backwards. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, with Dave E. Leiberman, Laini Miranda & Eric Leiberman

Travel Features Syndicate, www.goingplacesfarandnear.com

Our roadtrip through New Brunswick, one of Canada’s Maritime Provinces, continues in Saint John, a city of firsts, of oldest, of amazements worthy of Ripley’s or Guinness, like the wondrous Reversing Falls (one of only two in the world), and Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark, where we will actually see remnants of Pangea – primordial earth before the continents split apart.

A City of Oldests, Firsts

Saint John is only about an hour’s drive from St. Andrews where we meet Doug Scott, who is taking us on a walking tour to best appreciate the history and heritage of Canada’s oldest incorporated city, the province’s second biggest city with a population of 135,000, the only city on the Bay of Fundy, and a major cruise ship port, which served as an major immigration center for 200 years.

It was into this port that explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed in 1604 –claiming it for France.

Fort La Tour National Historic Site, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We follow a beautiful waterfront walkway that is taking shape around to Fort La Tour National Historic Site, built in 1631 by Charles La Tour to trade with First Nations people. This has been an archeological site, but more recently, they have reconstructed the fort, “the site of treachery, intrigue and a memorable battle in early Acadian times,” the literature reads. It is also “commemorates 5,700 years of changing ceremonial, commercial and industrial uses.” (Harbour Passage, 506,607-7171, www.placefortlatour.com)

The “treachery” and “intrigue” comes from the fact that during her husband’s absence in 1645, Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, Madame de La Tour, unsuccessfully defended the fort against their chief rival, Charles de Menou d’Aulnay, who promised that if she surrendered, he would spare the lives of her people; she surrendered and he killed them anyway.

Though claimed for France, the British had different ideas, seeing Saint John as an important defensive port, and, when the British and French were embroiled in the French & Indian War (1754-1763) over control of the colonies, in 1755, expelled the French Acadians who did not swear an oath to Britain.

Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution founded Saint John in 1783, incorporating the city in 1785 (Canada’s first).

From Fort La Tour we can see out to the 24 acres of Partridge Island in the harbor, “the most historic chunk of rock in Canada,” Scott says.

Partridge Island had New Brunswick’s first gas-powered lighthouse (1791), North America’s first quarantine station (1785) and the world’s first steam-operated fog alarm (1859).

Much like Ellis Island in New York harbor, 3 million immigrants passed through here to make Canada their home. A flood of Europeans came through in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars; and from 1812-1850, 70 percent of immigrants were Irish, peaking in 1845-47, because of the Irish Potato Famine. There was tension between the British (Protestants) and the Irish (Catholics), that climaxed in an 1849 riot which led to the formation of Canada’s first police force. (You can visit the Saint John Police Museum, 56 Prince William St., 506-674-4137, www.saintjohnpolicemuseum.ca)

Saint John’s role as the gateway for immigrants is notable. There is the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum (91 Leinstar St., 506-633-1833, http://jewishmuseumsj.com/), focusing on the development and engagement of Saint John’s Jewish community since its founding in 1858, through its “Golden Years” (1919-1960s), when there 1400 Jews and 85 businesses.

From 1858 through 1947, Partridge Island was used for defense and still is a Canadian Coast Guard base. People used to be able to go to the island for concerts but today, the island is closed to visits.

Much of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada’s oldest incorporated city,had to be rebuilt (in brick) after the Great Fire of 1877 Canada © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
A white cross indicated a building that had been rebuilt after the 1877 fire © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

1877 was a pivotal year for Saint John: a Great Fire destroyed everything from the waterfront to King Street (you can even see the difference in architecture). 19 died and 7 newspapers, 16 churches and 2600 buildings were destroyed. The city brought in architects from New York and within one year, rebuilt 1,300 buildings using brick. Today, you see many buildings with dates from 1877, 1878, 1879; many also have white crosses to show that were rebuilt to a new fire standard.

Loyalist Cemetery, in King’s Square, Saint John, New Brunswick. Canada’s oldest incorporated city, it was founded by Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution in 1783 and incorporated in 1785 fire © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Scott takes us to a street which is pretty much the dividing line where the fire stopped. On one side are all the brick buildings. But just nearby, you can still visit Loyalist House (120 Union Street, 506-652-3590, www.LoyalistHouse.com), built by local merchant David Daniel Merritt around 1810, which is the city center’s oldest standing wooden structure. We also visit Loyalist Cemetery, in King’s Square, just behind the City Market, which is a beautiful park.

Another interesting place to visit is the New Brunswick Museum which houses historic and geologic exhibits (Market Square, 1-888-268-9595, 506-643-2390, www.nbm-mnh.ca) and its Archives & Research Library (277 Douglas Avenue), housing death and marriage records that draws people from all over to research.  (While the museum itself is in the process of undergoing an extensive renovation and the collections are currently inaccessible, you can still access the Archives & Research Library by appointment.)

City Market, Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We have lunch at the Saint John City Market. At one of the entrances, a sign lists St. John’s City of Firsts:  oldest continuing operating farmers market in Canada; first police force; first public high school, first museum, library, paved street, banking district in Canada. The market is itself housed in a historic building, dating from 1876, its ceiling is in the shape of an upside down ship’s hull (a shipbuilder built it).

Stonehammer Geopark’s Amazements

Saint John is not only Canada’s oldest incorporated city, it is built on some of the oldest geology on the planet. For the geology part of our Saint John exploration, we meet up with Wanda Hughes who runs the Inside Out Nature Centre inside Rockwood Park (55 Lake Drive), and has been involved with the Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark since its founding in 2010, the first geopark in North America.

Stonehammer UNESCO Geopark, the first in North America, contains some 60 sites of geologic significance, including some of the oldest geology on the planet and evidence of Pangea, as well as some of the oldest fossils © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There are now 177 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 46 countries around the world (the first opened in China in 1980s; Canada has five). But Stonehammer is distinguished because while most geoparks are a single site (like a cave or volcano), because of the extraordinary diversity and scale of geology here, Stonehammer contains 60 different sites, spanning 965 sq. miles up the coast to St. Martins, each site with a different geological story. During our visit, we get just a taste.

In Stonehammer Geopark in Saint John, you can see evidence of Pangea, primordial Earth before the continents split, and rocks that come from present-day Africa and South America in one place © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

350 million years ago, the earth was one super continent, Pangea, that through ice ages and other geologic forces, separated into 7 continents. But when the world was Pangea, New Brunswick was located where Africa is today, a tropical paradise south of the equator.

“Our geology is unique,” Hughes tells us. “As the continents drifted apart, a new Atlantic Ocean was created here.” You can see rocks facing each other, one that would have been in Africa (today), and the other that would have been South America today – two different continents.

Our Stonehammer Geopark experience starts in Rockwood Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites. Spanning 2,200 acres with 10 lakes and 55 trails, it is one of the largest urban parks in Canada and was designed by Frederick Olmstead in the 1800s (who also designed NYC’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate). Before heading out, we actually get to try out hydrocycles! You can also do geo-caching, rockclimbing, kayaking, and mountain biking from the Nature Center.

Trying out hydrocycles in Rockwood Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Enroute to one of the major Stonehammer sites, Reversing Falls, Hughes takes us through a wealthy neighborhood of Captain’s Houses and notes that Abraham Pineo Gesner (1797-1864), a Canadian physician and geologist who lived much of his life in Saint John, invented kerosene, saving whales from extinction and basically founding the petroleum industry.

Reversing Falls Rapids, one of only two reversing falls in the world, is where the Saint John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy. The force of the tide of Fundy Bay – 160 million tons of seawater at high tide – overpowers the river, pushing it backwards. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Reversing Falls,  one of only two reversing falls in the world (the other is in Norway), is a series of rapids (not really waterfalls) where the Saint John River runs through a narrow gorge before emptying into the Bay of Fundy. The force of the tide of Fundy Bay – 160 million tons of seawater at high tide – overpowers the river, pushing it backwards.

The tide can rise as much as 26 ft – how high depends on moon cycle, season (higher in spring), and the gravitational pull. But for about 20 minutes at a time, there is a “slack tide” when the river and bay meet, “when the ocean stops the river,” Wanda tells us. It is only then that you can safely bring in a boat. “American sailors who didn’t realize they had to change their clock [Atlantic time is one hour earlier than Eastern time] would get stuck.”

Reversing Falls, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites, Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is hard to make out (you would really need to know where and what to look for), but there is evidence of an ancient ocean and the formation of the supercontinent Pangea under the Reversing Falls bridge: billion-year-old light gray marble from South America on one side and 500-million-year-old dark gray shale and sandstone from northern Africa on the other. They came together 480-430 million years ago. (See: Southern New Brunswick rocks tell a billion years worth of stories, says geologist.)

Not surprisingly, considering the power of these falls, there is a local legend from the Mi’kmaq people who lived here well before the Europeans that tells of Glooscap (the Creator), who was angered  that a giant beaver was damming up the river, harming fishing, and refused to stop. Glooscap used a giant club to smash the dam, which created the small islands we see, and then shrank the beaver to the size it is now.  (I gather this is the source of the name, Stonehammer.)

“At low tide, you can see Glooscap’s club and face in rock. And then they found fossil of giant beaver,” Wanda tells us. A banana-sized beaver tooth displayed at the New Brunswick Museum is evidence that giant beavers, the size of black bears today, actually existed.

Historically, such fast-moving waterways as Reversing Falls were used for manufacturing and commerce, like the Irving Paper & Pulp Mill © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

On the other shore of the Reversing Falls is the Irving Paper & Pulp Mill, a key industry and employer in Saint John, which seems incongruous but like so many factories, was built on such dynamic waterways because of the water power and transportation and that Saint John was an industrial city.

The bridge over the Reversing Falls gorge and rapids is notable. There were three previous attempts: the St. John Bridge Company tried in 1837, but the partially completed bridge collapsed, killing seven workmen. Finally, Edward W. Serrerell, who designed the first bridge to span Niagara Falls, was hired in 1849, and three years later, the first successful bridge opened, becoming a principal north-south trade link to the United States. (The current bridge was erected in 1915).

For a different experience, you can walk “The Plank,” an observation deck 110 feet in the air overlooking the Reversing Falls Rapids (https://theplank.ca/). 

Irving Nature Park, one of the Stonehammer Geopark sites in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We next visit the Irving Nature Park, a 600 acre wooded park located on the City’s west side, which is a Stonehammer Geopark site, owned and maintained by J.D.Irving Ltd. That offers beautiful views of the Fundy coastline, groomed trails and a gravel road for walking, hiking, and biking. And just outside the main entrance is a Children’s Forest, playground, and life-size mazes. It is also a “dark sky” preserve. Be mindful of the tide!

The full complement of 60 Stonehammer geosites presents almost continuous geological history of the planet over a billion years. Of the sites, about a dozen are easily accessible by the public and are presented as parks and recreation centers.

Dominion Park, for example, is where billion-year-old stromatolite fossils in the marble that formed in South America and evidence of an ancient cyanobacteria, was where the oldest evidence of life on Earth was first identified in 1890; it also offers some of the best beaches for swimming in Saint John https://stonehammergeopark.com/geosites/dominion-park/

“This was the most violent place on the planet 250 million years ago, but not now. Here, [the continents] stabilized.” She says this place is an example of a “failed continental rift”, where the continents stopped separating, creating a narrow bottleneck which traps the ocean. “It’s why we have the highest tides.”

Stonehammer Geopark has an interpretation/visitor center at Area 506 Container Village which displays some of the fossil collection, and can provide map and guidance on how to best visit (Open June-October, 85 Water St., 1-506-471-1310, www.stonehammergeopark.com).

Wanda Hughes’ company, Go Fundy Events, offers a variety of ecotourism and adventure programs for individuals and groups (712 Dominion Park Road, Saint John, NB E2M 5S8, 506.672.0770, 1.866.672.0770, [email protected], www.gofundyevents.com.

Saint John’s Quirky Vibe

With all this history and serious geology, what is especially notable is the quirky vibe of Saint John, which you feel especially in the project to redevelop the waterfront to host shops, a skating rink and concert venue.

Area 506, the Waterfront Container Village, offers fun boutiques, eateries, pop up art, and music and movie space © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Area 506, the Waterfront Container Village, located next to the cruise ship terminal, opened in summer 2022 with some 60-plus shipping containers converted into retail spaces that showcase New Brunswick creativity. There is also a large stage performance and movie space, a three-level patio that provides great views of the stage and Bay of Fundy, a beer garden,  food trucks, a graffiti alley for local and international artists, and pop-up activities.

For all its history and 19th century architecture, Saint John, New Brunswick, has a young, quirky vibe © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Saint John also “punches far above its weight in terms of dining experiences,” Scott tells us. There’s a vibrant food and beverage scene in Saint John with 80-plus bars/restaurants within 10 blocks downtown near the cruise ship terminal – all of them local and independent, offering an amazing diversity of cuisine from around the world (reflecting Saint John’s heritage as an immigration center and cruise port). 

For all its history and 19th century architecture, Saint John, New Brunswick, has a young, quirky vibe © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We’ve even gotten a list of recommendations:

Port City Royal (45 Grannan Street), where we savor handmade ravioli filled with whipped feta and ricotta cheese, topped with buttery glazed fiddleheads, crispy guanciale and Egyptian walking onion oil;roast pork & chick shoyu ramen and Japanese spring noodle salad. It also offers an imaginative cocktail menu.

Saint John, New Brunswick, ”punches above its weight” in cuisine. We enjoy a dinner at Port City Royal © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Saint John Ale House (owned by celebrity chef Jesse Vergen, from Top Chef and Wall of Chefs, 1 Market Square, https://www.saintjohnalehouse.com/

Lemongrass Thai Fare / Peppers Pub, 1 Market Square.

Five and Dime, vinyl record bar, 34 Grannan Lane, https://fiveanddimesj.com/

East Coast Bistro, local cuisine prepared with French techniques, 60 Prince William Street,

Pomodori Pizza – for a casual night out – attached to Picaroons brew pub, 34 Canterbury Street.

Picaroons Brew Pup is a popular spot in Saint John, New Brunswick © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It’s appropriate to mention that (at least during our visit) the US dollar goes about 25% further than the Canadian dollar, so what we buy – like a fancy meal – is at a 25 percent discount.

Being a major city, Saint John offers lots of choices of accommodations. We enjoy our stay at Hilton Saint John, an upscale property with its own parking garage, ideally located right on the waterfront, with indoor pool, fitness center, restaurant, pet-friendly rooms (1 Market Square, +1 506-693-8484).

Travel planning assistance from Discover Saint John, 1 866 463 8639, [email protected], https://www.discoversaintjohn.com/ and Tourism New Brunswick, 800-561-0123, www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca.

Next: New Brunswick Roadtrip Takes Us On the Newly Completed Fundy Trail Parkway

See also: NEW BRUNSWICK ROADTRIP BEGINS IN ST. ANDREWS

____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

Granville Island, Vancouver’s Nearby Getaway, is Cornucopia of Art, Culture

One of the most photographed scenes in Vancouver: “The Giants” at the cement factory on Granville Island, painted by Brazilian graffiti artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo (known as OSGEMEOS). Granville Island is a mecca for arts and culture © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

I have cleverly arranged for a late flight from Vancouver, so I would have a whole day to continue to explore.

Indigenous Tourism BC which has arranged my itinerary has offered a number of suggestions: rent a bike and riding around the seawall at Stanley Park; visit the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St, Vancouver); visit Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut St, Vancouver) to see Indigenous micro-exhibition Spirit Journeys: Walking with Resilience, Wellbeing and Respect; visit Granville Island.

Rick, the Skwachàys Lodge manager, just the evening before, had raved about how much he loves visiting to Granville Island – it has the best public market – and was planning to go himself.

I map out a delightful 3.3 km walk from the hotel to David Lam Park where I hop the cute Aquabus ferry for the few minutes ride to Granville Island. (Aquabus, $6/roundtrip, which also offers a 40-minute ferry ride tour)

Arriving on Granville Island by ferry © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

As soon as I climb the stairs from the ferry dock, I appreciate why Granville Island very properly boasts of being a “magical escape within a city.” I would add: playful, whimsical, fantastical, a place of endless delight, a non-stop smile.

The public market on Granville Island is one of the best, most fun in the world © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The public market on Granville Island is a place of endless delight © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The charm of Granville Island lies in its unexpected mix of uses which reveal themselves as you simply wander around. People come for the most spectacular public market (open daily 9am-7pm) with 70 purveyors of all manner of fresh produce and fine foods (some famous, like Lee Donuts, where as Rick tells me to expect, there is a line outside to get in).

People queue up to enter Lee’s Donuts in the public market on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Bringing his child back to the Granville Island public market he enjoyed as a child © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is the Net Loft featuring “offbeat artisan goods” and marvelous boutiques and shops with local creations and imported crafts from Latin America, Asia and Africa like Mondo Company (“Step into our world and discover fairly traded, ethically sourced, handcrafted products from artisans around the globe”, www.mondoandcompany.com); a bustling Artisan District where you see and meet artists at work in their studios and galleries; a children’s district (toy stores!); and performance venues (Ballet BC coming to Granville Island), plus special events and festivals, all taking over vacated (and for a time decrepit) industrial buildings. There is even a hotel.

Granville Island has an entire Children’s District © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Silk weaving on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Art (and music) is everywhere- even the cement factory (one of the few industrial uses that remains) has painted “Giants”on its gi-normous silos (painted by Brazilian graffiti artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, known collectively as OSGEMEOS (Portuguese for THETWINS), which was commissioned in 2014 by Vancouver Biennale as part of an open-air museum, and were only expected to be up temporarily. It cost $180,000 and 1400 cans of spray paint and costs $17,000 a year to maintain. (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/giants-on-granville-island-silos)

One of the most photographed scenes in Vancouver: the Giants at the cement factory on Granville Island painted by Brazilian graffiti artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, known as OSGEMEOS © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

But before Granville Island was a cultural mecca, before it was an urban wasteland, before it was an industrial hub, it was the meeting place for three First Nations summer potlatch.

“The xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples are indigenous to the area around Vancouver and have lived on these lands for thousands of years…” Chief Janice George, Skwxwú7mesh, writes. “The Salish, the Indigenous people of the area, used a large sand bar (later filled in to become an Industrial Island, then Granville Island), and the surrounding areas for traditional purposes such as hunting, gathering, travel, and everyday living and cultural activities. The resources were so plentiful, the Salish people had a saying, ‘when the tide went out, the table was set,’ meaning that when the tide went out, they could walk with the tide and have enough food for their families.”  

Re-creating the meeting place the indigenous people who occupied this land for thousands of years, on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

As Vancouver was colonized in the 1860s, it became shipping port (there are still the railroad tracks), but as industries shuttered, it descended into a derelict industrial wasteland from 1950-60s. A few artists squirreled away, making art in studios within the Quonset huts.

Silk weaving on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

A historic marker notes that Granville Island was created between 1913 and 1916 when the government of Canada and the newly created federal Vancouver Harbour Commission contracted to pump and dredge over 1 million cubic yards from the bottom of False Creek and deposit the material behind pilings ringing several sandbars and First Nation fishing weirs. “Over the next 50 years, heavy industry waxed and waned” on Granville Island. By the early 1960s it had become a squalid, seedy and derelict industrial area.” For the next 10 years, while politicians debated, four entrepreneurs began buying up four buildings which they renovated into “The Creekhouse,” interestingly, retaining the industrial look.

“Creekside” that spurred the repurposing and redevelopment of Granville Island, from a dilapidated industrial wasteland to a mecca for culture and art  © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Granville Island has been redeveloped and repurposed from a dilapidated industrial wasteland to a mecca for culture and art, food and fun © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In the 1970s, MP Ron Basford arranged for the Canadian government to buy the land and experiment with public spaces and venues for food, culture, and  artists. Today, Granville Island provides space for 300 businesses employing more than 3,000 people and is “an active public space showcasing Vancouver culture to locals and rest of world,” a marker states.

On Granville Island you see artists and artisans at work in their studios, like this art glass studio © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In the Artisan District, I meet artists Cheryl Hamilton and Michael Vandermere in their enormous, factory-sized studio space, ie creative artworks (her imaginative sculptures lately have been themed about climate change); BC Blacksmith Miran Elbakyan (www.bcblacksmith.com); Benjamin Kikkert who works in hot glass and mixed media sculpture; carver Todd Woffinden; silk weavers (www.silkweavingstudio.com), broommakers Mary and Sarah Schwieger (broomcompany.com). There are also indigenous art galleries.

One of the indigenous art galleries on Granville Island © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

At my last stop, I find myself in front of a gold plaque identifying this place as the site of renowned artist Bill Reid’s studio, where he created the sculpture that is now at Vancouver Airport.

A gold plaque marks the former studio of acclaimed Haida artist Bill Reid where he created some of his famous monumental works© Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

This is now the Nutter Studio, where glass artisan John Nutter does the etching in glass that many of the indigenous artists design. He even created the glass windows for Young Israel Synagogue in Hillcrest, Queens NY (my old neighborhood!) and seven windows for Atlantic Beach Jewish Center on Long Island (my brother’s neighborhood!) Small world! (www.johnnutterglassstudio.com).

Glass craftsmanJohn Nutter now occupies Bill Reid’s studio © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We have a vigorous discussion of art versus craft, the revival of indigenous arts (or is it crafts?) and artists who feel obligated to re-create traditional symbols, images and techniques, versus developing their own style and statement.

Glass craftsman John Nutter now occupies Bill Reid’s studio © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Throughout Granville Island, there are homages to its Indigenous origins, and the website offers this statement: CMHC-Granville Island would like to acknowledge that we are located on the traditional territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.

Glass craftsman John Nutter, whose studio is the site of Bill Reid’s studio on Granville Island, shows a $20 bill featuring Bill Reid’s famous “The Spirit of Haida Gwaii” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Check the Granville Island website for events (Sunset Dragonboat and Saturday Dragonboat drop in Sessions!), https://granvilleisland.com/

Skwachàys Lodge, Canada’s First Aboriginal Art Hotel

Staying at the Skwachàys Lodge – Canada’s first Aboriginal Art Hotel – enhances my experience in Vancouver with this immersion into local Indigenous art and culture.

Vancouver Native Housing Society (VNHS opened the Skwachàys Lodge, the Urban Aboriginal Fair-Trade Gallery, and the Artists in Residence Program in June 2012, transforming a derelict SRO hotel into a social enterprise consisting of a boutique hotel with a street-level art gallery and on-site housing and studio space for 24 Indigenous artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Vancouver Native Housing Society (VNHS opened the Skwachàys Lodge, the Urban Aboriginal Fair-Trade Gallery, and the Artists in Residence Program in June 2012, transforming a derelict SRO hotel into a social enterprise consisting of a boutique hotel with a street-level art gallery and on-site housing and studio space for 24 Indigenous artists.

“VNHS identified the vulnerability of many urban Indigenous artists – artists in need of housing, artists who for various reasons are not able to properly represent and market themselves or their work. Often these artists are commercially exploited through a long established ‘street or underground’ market that takes advantage of their vulnerability. They try to live ‘off their work’ by selling on the street or in the bars or through the commercial dealer network that purchases original, gallery quality art for, at times, only five or ten cents on the dollar,” the notes state.

“By creating a live/work supportive complex with a built-in gallery and community production space, VNHS took a lead role in addressing the social and economic inequities that Indigenous artists can face.”

The Artists in Residence Program provides up to three years of affordable housing, 24/7 access to workshops, and opportunities for personal and professional development that help artists develop their craft and move into the next phase of their careers. To date, 110 Indigenous artists have participated in the program.

The Lodge, the Urban Aboriginal Fair-Trade Gallery and production space are operated as a self-sustaining social enterprise. Artists are paid a fair price for their work (30%-60% of the retail price depending on the artist’s reputation and the cost that is underwritten by the gallery (framing, marketing and promotional expenses).

The gallery at Skwachàys Lodge is part of the social enterprise that supports indigenous artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In this way, each hotel guest’s travel dollars, and each purchase of art at the Skwachàys Lodge has a social impact.

“A simple purchase fights cultural misappropriation and ensures that Indigenous artists are paid fairly for their work. Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism sector and there is absolutely a place for our urban Indigenous artists to participate in this industry as a means of reclaiming their lives and independence.”

Skwachàys Lodge goes way beyond living in and supporting art – there are also opportunities for guests to engage in authentic Indigenous cultural experiences  

Sweat Lodge Ceremony: Skwachàys has a traditional First Nations Sweat Lodge and offers private Sweat Lodge Purification Ceremonies lead by a Sweat Lodge Keeper. The Sweat Lodge, located in the rooftop garden, is a domed structure constructed from inter-woven willow branches symbolizing Mother Nature’s womb. During the ceremony, the Keeper places heated rocks –known as “grandmothers and grandfathers” – to cleanse and purify the participant’s heart, soul and spirit, bringing life balance and connection to Mother Nature.

Traditional Smudge Ceremony:  Skwachàys has an authentic Indigenous Smudge Room on its Raven Level. In a Smudging Ceremony, sacred plants are burned, surrounding the participants’ body and senses in the aromatic smoke to purify body, spirit and home. Three different kinds of plants are used: cedar bows are burned for cleansing; sage to drive out ill feelings or influences, protecting the place of ceremony; and sweet grass, one of the most sacred plants, is burned to bring in positive influences and energies.

These ceremonies are personal and private, so arrangements must be made in advance. A minimum number of people is required. (For more information and costs, [email protected]).

Studio Visits With Artists: Visitors can also arrange studio visits with Indigenous artists in residence. Artists including jewelers, painters, carvers, sculptors work on projects in the shared Artist Studio, located in the basement  throughout the year.

Kayachtn Room (the Salishan word for “welcome”) is a space where the Lodge community can come together to connect, create memories and share a meal – and is where breakfast is served at Skwachàys Lodge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The Skwachàys Lodge has a Kayachtn Room  (the Salishan word for “welcome”), a space where the Lodge community can come together to connect, create memories and share a meal – and is where breakfast is served.

“Indigenous culture rests on a communal social structure, one that values living in harmony with one another, as well as with the natural world.”

Skwàchays Lodge 31 W Pender St Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3 604.687.3589,   1 888 998 0797,   [email protected], https://skwachays.com/.

Indigenous Tourism BC

With 204 Indigenous communities and more than 30 Indigenous languages – about one-third of Canada’s First nations population – British Columbia offer extensive authentic Indigenous experiences on reserves, in remote areas and even cities like Vancouver.

The best guide to these experiences is Indigenous British Columbia, a tourism development and promotion organization that connects visitors with Indigenous-owned, operated and staffed lodges, museums, culture centers, restaurants, wineries, hiking (indigenous guide), bear viewing, whale watching, outdoors adventures, wellness and other experiences.

Indigenous Tourism BC connects visitors to experiences such as Vancouver’s only indigenous restaurant, Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In addition to the experiences I have (the Bill Reid Gallery, Talaysay Tours, Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro, Granville Island, the Skwàchays Lodge in Vancouver, and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre and the Audain Art Museum in Whistler), other entities include:

  • Takaya Tours: Open during summer, guests can experience an array of tours, from cultural experiences, to canoe tours and even multi-day experiences
  • Great River Fishing Adventures: Another great tour company where guests can learn about the history of BC, as it started in this area from the mining era. A top experience is going sturgeon fishing, and these are not normal-sized fish!
  • Gulf Island Seaplanes: New this spring, they have introduced scenic cultural tours which involve a flight over Vancouver, along with the history and story-telling of the land

Multi-day itineraries are available. For example, a two-day Kamloops-Chase-Barriere-Merritt itinerary features a stay at Quaaout Lodge and Spa on Little Shuswap Lake in Squilax (Chase, British Columbia), Indigenous fusion cuisine, golf and spa facilities, visit to Tsutswecw Provincial Park and a 14-km Moccasin Trails Canoe Journey from Lafarge Landing to Valleyview with a local knowledge guide, down the South Thompson River along the traditional Secwepemc water route to Tkemlups.

“Immersive Indigenous destinations and experiences are expansive and transformational. Augment your reality with an Indigenous point-of-view and see old places with new eyes. By their nature, Indigenous perspectives cannot be understood as a bystander or simple witness. Step out of ordinary time and daily routine with Indigenous hosts around BC,” the tourism office says.

Indeed, the indigenous peoples’ respect for Mother Earth that is so fundamental to their culture and society – that the colonizers so intentionally sought to eradicate – is being validated as human-caused climate change is wreaking disaster after disaster. It is important that this sensibility, these philosophies, this approach to living in the world be elevated and embraced in modern terms. Travel helps us see and experience and take lessons back to our own homes and communities.

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries. Download a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/indigenous-bc-trip-planner-app/)

Indigenous Tourism BC, 100 Park Royal S #707, West Vancouver, BC V7T 1A2, 604-921-1070, https://www.indigenousbc.com

See also: 

ON THE TRAIL TO DISCOVER VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

WALKING TOURS, DINING EXPERIENCES REVEAL VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

TRAIL TO DISCOVER BRITISH COLUMBIA’S INDIGENOUS HERITAGE WEAVES THROUGH WHISTLER-BLACKCOMB

____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

Trail to Discover British Columbia’s Indigenous Heritage Weaves Through Whistler-Blackcomb

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, is a world-class art museum with one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s and British Columbia artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

My whirlwind odyssey to learn about the renaissance of British Columbia’s indigenous heritage takes me to Whistler-Blackcomb, the world-famous ski resort. The mountain resort, one of the largest in North America, is on First Nations land and is where a cultural center, a joint endeavor of the Lil’wat and the Squamash nations, has opened.

I hop the Skylynx shuttle bus, packed with skiers, that leaves from the Hyatt Regency Vancouver downtown (also close to the Bill Reid Gallery and the Fairmont Hotel) for a pleasant, scenic two-hour ride to Whistler Village Centre.

The skiing even this late in the season looks fantastic but I am here to continue my study of the indigenous heritage – past and present – that permeates this place. The spirit is very strong here in Whistler. While the skiers all head to the gondola, I find my way to a trail that leads to the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.

The idea for a world-class cultural center originated with the Resort Municipality of Whistler in 1997, which met with the Lil’wat Nation to discuss its participation and presence in Whistler. Mindful of its historic collaboration and shared interest in land stewardship with the Squamish Nation, in 2001, the two nations signed a historic Protocol Agreement, the only one of its kind in Canada. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre opened in 2008. In 2020, a framework Agreement was signed between the Nations and the Resort Municipality of Whistler, providing for collaborations on economic development, tourism and promotion of cultural awareness.

Dalilah conducts a “What We Treasure” tour of Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The building is a beautiful space with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out to the woods. I join nine others for the center’s signature tour, “What We Treasure,” which are led by cultural ambassadors who share their own stories and first-hand cultural experiences. The tour begins with an excellent 15-minute orientation film.

Our guide is Dalilah, whose Lil’wat name is T’ac T’ac , or “sweet sweet” like sweetie or sweatheart. She is a 17-year old high school student interning on her spring break. She begins by singing in her native language, “We belong to the land, the land is our people, we belong to the land.” We view artifacts and hear stories that give us a sense of the past and present way of life of the Squamish and Lil’wat peoples. 

It is fascinating to seen the differences in clothes at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

As we go through the center, I am struck by how different the clothes, foods and therefore the traditions and daily habits are for these two peoples who live “where rivers and mountains meet.”  It is starkly clear how culture and lifestyle is linked to the ecology and topography of their land and the materials and resources at hand. The Squamash are coastal, the Lil’wat live on the mountain.  Culture is a manifestation of the ecosystem we inhabit – even and especially today.

It is fascinating to seen the differences in clothes at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is these traditions and lessons of living in close harmony with nature (Mother Earth), to the point of spiritual devotion, that the indigenous people impart today, all the more relevant in light of the climate disasters of a planet out of sync with nature.

The displays are less historic artifacts and more contemporary examples of the traditional arts and crafts being revived; often these are not just re-creations of centuries-old design and form, but with modern twists.

We learn how their societies were so careful to live in harmony with their environment – their canoes are made from red cedar bark, but they only harvest a precise section of the tree – hugging the tree so that there are two hand-widths.

“We make sure to only take a piece of the tree so we don’t kill it. We are connected to the cedar through the things we make with it,” notes Joy Joseph-McCullough, a Squamish weaver.

Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is an element of mythology, mysticism, handed down from the ancients, that continues to underpin their worldview, reflected in the urgency to save language, and the oral tradition, and resurrect traditional arts and crafts.

It is reflected in Joy McCullough-Joseph’s notes about the traditional Coast Salish Blanket she named “The Message.” “I twilled and twined on a Traditional Coast Salish Loom. I named my blanket, “The Message’ because the design for the blanket came to me in a dream. In my dream our Ancestors told me to weave in Mother Earth to remind us of our responsibility to the Earth. The second message is to honour and remember the sixteen families that amalgamated to form the Squamish Nation. The last message is to honour our Ancestors who were weavers.”

Another note reads “when you wear the blankets, you feel the protection of all who have been called to protect you… We feel the prayers offered by the weaver and our ancestors, when we wear the robes.”

You have to wait a year before you can weave cedar bark and it can three apprentices six months to weave a cedar mat, Dalilah tells us. “When we are sad, we don’t weave, otherwise it would transfer negative thoughts.”

Dalilah the importance of weaving at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We learn how mountain goat wool was used in Salish weaving, an ancient art form that dates back to the ice age. A mountain goat wool blanket in those times could mean the difference between surviving or succumbing to the elements. The inner wool of the mountain goat was gathered during spring molt, collected off of bushes from wool shed by the goat or from harvested animals. “It takes 5 to 10 years to collect enough for a blanket,” she tells us.

The wool was mixed with hair from a specially bred dog. Natural dyes were derived from plants, berries and clays. Intricate geometric designs reflected elements of nature and families held the rights to use those designs.

I am lucky to see a special photography exhibit on view: “Unceded – Photographic Journey into Belonging”. This temporary exhibit makes graphic the meaning of “unceded” – land that was considered stolen, taken by force, without a legal treaty. The photos show contemporary indigenous people in places like downtown Vancouver. But it is actually speaking more to the First Nations people, prodding them to see themselves in this modern world, but retaining their connection to their heritage. Unceded “doesn’t mean our people aren’t still there.”

“As urban cities, farmland, towns, and recreation parks built up around us, our Ancestors are still here, living in the blood of the people of this land. While pop culture, fashion trends and global connection are influencing how people move through society, people residing on and off reserve are living deeply in their culture, engaged socially and politically with the world around them, reviving ancient traditions, re-enforcing a stewardship that guides their climate and lands safely through the first 50 thousand years before contact.”

I have a delightful lunch at Thunderbird Café, and survey a marvelous gift shop at the center before heading off to do a bit of sightseeing on Whistler’s famous Peak 2 Peak Gondola.

Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, 4584 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, 1 866 441 SLCC (7522), https://slcc.ca/.

Peak 2 Peak Gondola

Considering how vast Whistler-Blackcomb is, it is actually surprisingly easy to get around (once I figure it out).

Whistler-Blackcomb, the site of 2010 Winter Olympics events, is a world-class ski resort and one of the biggest in North America © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

I take the Blackcomb Gondola from the base of Blackcomb Mountain for the ride to the top of Blackcomb Mountain. From here it is a short walk – skirting the skiers and snowboarders – to the Peak 2 Peak Gondola which links Blackcomb Mountain to Whistler Mountain. I’m feeling jealous of the skiers but I am sightseeing today and this is an absolutely gorgeous ride. A man I ride up the Blackcomb Gondola with tells me to look for special sightseeing gondolas that have a plexiglass bottom you can look through – we sightseers stand on a separate line so we get first dibs when the car comes around.

Sightseeing on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola linking Whistler and Blackcomb mountains © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

After opening on December 12, 2008, the massive gondola revolutionized the way skiers, riders and hikers experienced the mountains. The Peak 2 Peak Gondola, as part of the world’s longest continuous lift system, isn’t just to move skiers, it also gives summer guests access to Whistler Blackcomb’s high alpine for sightseeing, hiking and mountain-top dining.

The Peak 2 Peak Gondola travels a span of 2.73 miles giving sightseers and hikers a serene aerial flight showcasing flora and fauna (even black bears in their protected habitats), Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains; the Coast Mountain Range’s many glaciers and peaks; and Whistler Village, surrounded by lakes.

Sightseeing on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola linking Whistler and Blackcomb mountains © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is notable that Whistler Blackcomb (now part of Vail Resorts, which means the resort is part of the Epic Pass) is consistently ranked one of the top ski resorts in North America. With more than 8,100 acres of terrain, variety is an understatement: there are steeps, deeps, chutes, bowls, glades, long cruisers, and high alpine and gentle rollers. And the numbers speak for themselves: one vertical mile drop; two side-by-side mountains connected by a pedestrian village, more than 200 trails, three glaciers, 37 lifts, and 16 alpine bowls – all of it top quality.

Sightseeing on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola linking Whistler and Blackcomb mountains © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Even this late in the season, the snow looks great and the trails look gorgeous– plenty of easy, intermediate runs!

Riding the Peak 2 Peak Gondola is such fun and the view so beautiful, that I actually ride it back and forth and back again for an hour before downloading via Whistler Village Gondola into Skiers Plaza in Whistler Village. (Whistler Blackcomb, https://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/)

Audain Art Museum

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, is a world-class art museum with one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s and British Columbia artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Back down in the charming village, I pass lovely shops and eateries on my way to the Audain Art Museum. Outside is the invitation to see the “Masters of Print: Rembrandt and Beyond”- a clue that this is a world-class museum. I did not expect to see Rembrandt prints at Whistler. Nor did I expect to see what is arguably the world’s finest collection of First Nations masks, dating from the mid 1800s.

Sure enough, the Audain Art Museum delivers on its promise of a transformative experience for appreciating the art of British Columbia as well as exhibitions from around Canada and around the world. It’s in this part of the world but very much of the world. It is as local as local can be but brings the reaches of the globe into this small section of it.

The Audain Art Museum’s Permanent Collection of some 200 works  – nearly all of it from the collection of Michael Audain and his wife, Yoshiko Karasawa, or purchased with their funding – is a visual journey through the history of art from coastal British Columbia.

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Most astonishing is the room housing Audain’s collection of Northwest Coast First Nations masks. They are extraordinary because you see the individualism of the artist as well as the subject (many seem to be representations of actual people rather than mythic figures) and different techniques. I wonder if this reflects changes over time (spanning the mid 1800s to the present), regional differences and styles or perhaps just the artist’s own creativity.

Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases one of finest collections of indigenous masks going back to mid-1800s © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

A truly monumental piece, an exquisitely carved red cedar “Dance Screen” (2010-2013) by Haida Chief 7idansuu (James Hart) who was a friend and collaborator of Bill Reid, takes up an entire wall of this room.

James Hart’s striking ‘The Dance Screen (The Scream Too)’, 2010-2013, red cedar panel takes up an entire wall at the Audain Art Museum Collection, gift of Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The next room has a huge collection of a beloved British Columbia artist, Emily Carr. You see her in her Impressionist phase, when she studied in France in 1911; how she incorporated First Nations elements into her landscapes when she returned in 1912. There are also post-war modernists including E.J. Hughes, Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt as well as works by internationally renowned, contemporary British Columbia artists including Jeff Wall, Dana Claxton, Marianne Nicolson, Rodney Graham and Stan Douglas.

Emily Carr is a beloved British Columbia artist who studied impressionism in France, then integrated indigenous subjects into her landscapes when she returned © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Audain Art Museum, Whistler, showcases a stunning collection of Emily Carr’s work © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

I’m told that Audain had never even been to Whistler before, but his friend, who designed Whistler Village in the 1980s, encouraged him that he could build a museum in Whistler which would connect to nature, where people could quietly contemplate art. They worked with award-winning architects John and Patricia Patkau. The museum opened in 2016. (Open Thursday to Monday 11am – 6pm).

It is fascinating to see traditional symbols, subjects reflected in contemporary indigenous British Columbia artists work, on view at the Audain Art Museum, Whistler © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
It is fascinating to see traditional symbols, subjects reflected in contemporary indigenous British Columbia artists work, on view at the Audain Art Museum, Whistler © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The website includes this statement:  “Audain Art Museum is grateful to be on the shared, unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation and Lil̓wat7úl (Lil’wat) Nation.”

Audain Art Museum, 4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, V8E 1N3,  [email protected]  604-962-0413, https://audainartmuseum.com/

The stunning design of the Audain Art Museum, Whistler, provides an exquisite ambiance to experience art © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

I have a rushed dinner at Caramba! Restaurant (#12 4314 Main Street (Town Plaza), Whistler, BC V0N 1B0 Phone: 604.938.1879 www.carambarestaurant.com/), a fun, casual place before I get back on the Skylynx shuttle for the 7 pm departure back to Vancouver (get there early because the bus fills up), arriving back to downtown Vancouver at 9:30 pm.

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries and a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/)

Next: GRANVILLE ISLAND, VANCOUVER’S NEARBY GETAWAY, IS CORNUCOPIA OF ART, CULTURE

See also: 

ON THE TRAIL TO DISCOVER VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

WALKING TOURS, DINING EXPERIENCES REVEAL VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

Walking Tours, Dining Experiences Reveal Vancouver’s Revived Indigenous Heritage

Totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park are the most visited attraction in British Columbia, but few visitors realize they tell the personal stories of First Nations families © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Vancouver’s Stanley Park is much like Central Park in New York or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco – an incredibly vast (1001-acre) green oasis in a metropolis. It is absolutely stunning, on a point that juts into the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, with scenic views of water, mountains, sky, the natural West Coast rainforest, and the Park’s famous Seawall.. You can ride a miniature train, rent bikes, go to the Teahouse, take a ride on a horse-drawn carriage, visit the Vancouver Aquarium (65,000 animals, 120 world-class exhibits), walk the many marvelous trails and paths. Most of the manmade structures present in the park– like the lighthouse – were built between 1911 and 1937 by then superintendent W.S. Rawlings. Additional attractions, such as a polar bear exhibit, aquarium, and a miniature train, were added in the post-war period.

A horse-drawn carriage tour is one of the many ways to enjoy Stanley Park, Vancouver’s oasis © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

But the tranquility of Stanley Park belies its history. The park occupies land that had been used by indigenous peoples for thousands of years – it was one of the most important salmon fisheries in the region and was rich in other resources, including beaver and lumber. British colonizers came in force to British Columbia during the 1858 Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and extract other resources including lumber. The British then set up military fortifications at Hallelujah Point to guard the entrance to Vancouver harbor (there is still a Navy outpost and the city’s marina).

(A federation of colonies in British North America – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario – joined together to become the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867; Canada only became wholly independent of Great Britain in 1982.)

In 1886, the city incorporated the land and turned it into Vancouver’s first park. It was named for Lord Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, a British politician who had recently been appointed Canada’s Governor General. Lord Stanley (better known today for hockey’s Stanley Cup) became the first Governor General to visit Vancouver when he came in 1888 to officially open the park.

And that is what brings me together with Patrick, an indigenous guide from Talaysay Tours, who leads me and a woman with her two daughters on a “Spoken Treasures” walking tour of the park.

Talaysay Tours guide Patrick explains the significance of the totem poles and gateway portals at Brockton Point during a Spoken Treasures” walking tour of Stanley Park © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Patrick says that Indigenous peoples have occupied this area for 8,000 years and there is still a 4,000-year old shell midden within the park. Where Lord Stanley gave his speech was an indigenous burial ground.

Indigenous people who had already been pushed out of their villages in the north had migrated here to the point they outnumbered the settlers, so there was a campaign to force them out or decimate the population. Smallpox was intentionally spread, Patrick says. One way was to inoculate, but not vaccinate people (those who were inoculated could still spread the disease). One cartographer alerted the indigenous people to what was happening.

The park – in fact all of Vancouver – is on “unceded land” – Canada never signed a treaty to acquire it, which means that under Crown and Canadian law, the land is still illegally occupied.

(By way of mitigation, if not restitution, on various websites including Stanley Park, you find a note like this, “The City of Vancouver acknowledges that it is situated on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation.”)

The view from the seawall at Stanley Park across Burrard Inlet to West Vancouver, where indigenous peoples had lived for thousands of years taking advantage of rich fishing and hunting before being forced out of land considered “unceded.” Expression of indigenous culture was banned in Canada for more than 100 years © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is a marker at Hallelujah Point that describes this place as a thriving settlement which for several millennia was inhabited by the Coast Salish people. From the 1860s, Europeans, Chinese and others built houses and lived along the shoreline. After Stanley Park opened in 1888, the Chinese, who were brought in as laborers and built the park road and the yacht club, were removed; others lived here until evicted in 1931, with the last person leaving in 1957.

Hallelujah Point was taken over as a military fortification to protect Vancouver Harbor and the Canadian Navy still has a small outpost. Patrick says that this was the site of a battlefield with war canoes and was a burial site.

Beaver Lake, one of the park’s major attractions and a place of urban tranquility, “was a sacred site where they brought in beavers,” Patrick said.

Patrick brings us to a grouping of nine Totem Poles, set near Brockton Point and the Brockton Point Lighthouse – considered British Columbia’s most visited tourist attraction.

Totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park are the most visited attraction in British Columbia, but few visitors realize they tell the personal stories of First Nations families © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The collection started at Lumberman’s Arch in the 1920s (originally the village of X’ay’x’ay, which would have had long houses and in 1885, held a great potlatch ceremony attended by 2000 First Nations and European residents of Burrard Inlet), when the Park Board bought four totems from Vancouver Island’s Alert Bay. More purchased totems came from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) and the BC central coast Rivers Inlet, to celebrate the 1936 Golden Jubilee. In the mid 1960s, the totem poles were moved to Brockton Point. Several of the poles are re-creations, replicas or replacements.

Totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park are the most visited attraction in British Columbia, but few visitors realize they tell the personal stories of First Nations families © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Each has a story.

The Ga’akstalas was carved by Wayne Alfred and Beau Dick in 1991 based on a design by Russell Smith. “We wanted this pole to be a beacon of strength of our young people and show respect for our elders. It is to all our people who have made contributions to our culture,” Beau Dick wrote.

The Chief Skedans Mortuary Pole was carved by Bill Reid with assistant Werner True in 1964 to replace an older version that was raised in the Haida village of Skidegate about 1870, to honor the Raven Chief. The pole has two tiny figures in the bear’s ears to represent the chief’s daughter and son-in-law who erected the pole and gave a potlatch for the chief’s memorial. A rectangular board at the top of the original pole covered a cavity that would have held the chief’s remains.

Patrick isn’t exactly happy with the totem poles being here, which he considers appropriation (exploitation? a balm to soothe a guilty conscience?) rather than a way of raising awareness, respect and honor for indigenous heritage.

A totem pole, he explains, was like legal title to property, marking the land as yours, and would be carved with symbols that basically tell the story of that family.  

The Rose Cole Yelton Memorial Pole, erected in front of the house site where the Cole family lived until 1935 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Only one of the totem poles is legitimately where it should be, he says: the Rose Cole Yelton Memorial Pole of the Squamish Nation, raised in 2009, to honor Yelton, her family and all those who lived in Stanley Park. It was erected in front of the home site where the Cole family lived until 1935. She was the last surviving resident of the Brockton community when she passed away in 2002.

“The Totem was the British Columbia Indians coat of arms,” a bronze plaque reads, using language that might be considered inappropriate today. I had not realized that these poles are unique to the northwest coast of B.C. and lower Alaska. Carved from western red cedar, each carving tells of a real or mythical event. “They were not idols, nor were they worshipped. Each carving on each pole has a meaning. The eagle represents the kingdom of the air; the whale, the lordship of the sea; the wolf, the genius of the land, and the front, the transitional link between the land and sea.”

Totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park are the most visited attraction in British Columbia, but few visitors realize they tell the personal stories of First Nations families © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Such skills, though, had to be resurrected because the government criminalized indigenous art, language and culture, with the intention of eradicating indigenous culture and assimilating the people into Christian society. Because art – the shapes, line and symbols – took the place of written language, the practical effect was cultural genocide.  

“Art was criminalized – it is hard to relearn it, but people found other ways to preserve their art,” Patrick tells us. For example, people would make bentwood boxes but weren’t allowed to give them away (that would be considered an illegal potlatch), but could sell them.

“For 100 years, indigenous people were forced into residential schools,” Patrick says. “Oral history made it easy to eradicate. Potlatch, language was criminalized, but people practiced in secret. We have to relearn history.” These house poles, he says, tell the story of that family.

One of the three carved red cedar portals created by Coast Salish artist Susan Point, installed in 2008 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Three beautifully carved, red cedar portals welcome visitors to the Brockton Point Visitor Centre and to the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people. Installed in 2008, the gateways were created by Coast Salish artist Susan Point, in collaboration with Coast Salish Arts; Vancouver Storyscapes (a City of Vancouver Social Planning project to encourage Indigenous people to share their stories through a variety of media); the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations; and the Vancouver Park Board.

“Shore to Shore” carved in cedar then cast in bronze by Stz’uminus Master Carver Luke Marston, is a tribute to the ancestral connection between the area’s aboriginal and Portuguese communities. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“Shore to Shore” carved in cedar then cast in bronze by Stz’uminus Master Carver Luke Marston, is a tribute to the ancestral connection between the area’s aboriginal and Portuguese communities. Joe Silvey came to BC from the Azores around 1860 and married Pqaltanat, a high-born matriarch of Musqueam and Squamish descent, who died; Silvey then married Kwatleematt a Sechelt matriarch who is depicted in the sculpture. The Silvey family lived at Brockton Point in a community of First Nations, Portuguese and Hawaiian people.

Founded in 2002, Talaysay Tours is owned and operated by Candace and Larry Campo, Shíshálh (Sechelt) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation members. “Our goal is to support culture revitalization, education and reclamation.”

Talaysay Tours, 334 Skawshen Rd, West Vancouver, V7P 3T1, [email protected], 1 (800) 605-4643, 1 (604) 628-8555, www.talaysay.com.

Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro

Celebrating a birthday at Salmon n’Bannock, Vancouver’s original indigenous restaurant © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

From Stanley Park, I take an Uber across a bridge to a neighborhood that reminds me of going to Brooklyn from Manhattan.

Salmon n’ Bannock Bistro is (so far) the only indigenous restaurant in Vancouver (though Inez Cook, the owner, has just opened a second location at the international departure terminal at Vancouver International Airport).

“It was always a dream,” she tells me – not just to have a restaurant, but to revive and share indigenous culture.

Inez says that like so many of her generation, she was not raised with native heritage.

She shows me a children’s book, “Sixties Scoop,” she has written which describes how she is Nuxalk, born in Bella Coola, BC, but was taken away when she was one year old and adopted by a Caucasian family in Vancouver.

“I am part of what’s called Sixties Scoop, when the government took native kids and adopted them out to non-native families. Our native status was given up and we were supposed to grow up without our culture, without our heritage,” she writes. The “Sixties Scoop” began in the 1950s and lasted until the 1980s.

As an adult, she went to find her native roots and discovered she had a younger sister who was also given up for adoption.

That has made her all the more purposeful in showcasing her heritage with pride. (Inez also serves on the board of the Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia.)

Cook says she was inspired after seeing the Kekuli Café in Kellown, a Canadian Aboriginal bannock restaurant with contemporary twist – bannock, burgers, Indian Tacos, and espresso. (Kekuli Café, which also has restaurants in West Kelowna, Kamloops, and Merritt, BC, has decidedly 21st century marketing techniques including franchising, apps, rewards points and clever slogan, “Don’t panic, we have bannock” https://www.kekulicafe.com).

Cook was raised with the foods of her adoptive mother’s family who were Dutch Mennonite, so when she decided to open an indigenous restaurant, she needed to research native ingredients and First Nations cooking techniques.

“I wanted the restaurant to showcase food from the land and sea that the Indigenous people had traditionally hunted, harvested and eaten – everything from fiddlehead ferns to bison and sock-eye salmon,” she told the BBC. “I wanted to incorporate their traditional methods too: how they smoked food or preserved it over the long winters. I did a lot of asking and learning, then began to improvise.”

“The Olympics was coming. I dove in.” She opened Salmon n’ Bannock in 2010 to offer native cuisine with a modern twist.

Her team is indigenous, the menu based on what’s in season and available. She would ask them, “What’s your favorite dish?” and bring modern inspiration.

Inez Cook opened her indigenous restaurant Salmon n’Bannock to revive and share First Nations culture, which she had to discover for herself © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Some of the more interesting items on the menu this evening: pemmican mousse with bannock crackers; game sausage (this evening it is elk and huckleberry which is sensational); bison bone marrow served with sage rub and bannock crostini; bison pot roast with mash; smoked sablefish on Haudenosaunee corn polento,. I have the Fish n’ Rice” – wild sockeye with Anishinaabe wild rice.

She will take a native ingredient like soapberries or kelp, or a traditional recipe, and turn it into something new.

Her twist on pemmican, a staple for her ancestors, is an example.  The traditional way of serving pemmican was as a mixture of dried meat and berries, which were buried to provide food on a journey. Instead, here the pemmican is made of bison meat, smoked, dried and ground before blending it with cream cheese and sage-infused berries.

Cook worked for airlines for 33 years which enabled her to experience other cultures around the world including Saudi Arabia, India,Egypt, Chad, Nigeria, Indonesia and England, returning to Vancouver in time to open her second  2nd location, at Vancouver airport.

“I’ve lived all over the world- I wanted to take people on a journey to experience the culture of land…Food and culture bring people together,”

She doesn’t miss an opportunity to share the experience and educate. Even the menu features these interesting facts:

  • Present day Canada is set on land of 600 indigenous nations, over 200 of them in present day British Columbia. “There’s a cousin behind every corner and a Cree behind every tree.”
  • “Indigenous” is an umbrella term that represents First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples –distinct groups with distinct cultures.
  • There are more than 70 indigenous languages, coast to coast in Canada, “many of them endangered due to systemic efforts to separate indigenous people from their culture.”

(I subsequently learn that 1,807,250 Canadians identify as Indigenous, according to the 2021 Census, accounting for 5% of the country’s total population, of which 290,210 live in British Columbia. The population that identifies as Indigenous is the fastest growing demographic group in Canada, increasing by 42.5% between 2006 and 2016.)

For Inez, the restaurant is a chance to show indigenous culture and real people in a contemporary setting, rather than as displays in a museum or separated on a reserve. “We could be your doctor, lawyer, your neighbor,”

It’s an intimate bistro setting – only about eight tables (24 guests) – but its reputation is going global. Time, Elle Magazine have raved and on this evening, seven media people from France have arrived, and Inez greets them in French.

Salmon n’ Bannock Address: 1128 W Broadway #7, Vancouver, BC, 604-568-8971, [email protected], www.salmonandbannock.net

The famous steam clock in Gastown © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

I leave the restaurant and have Uber take me to Gastown – with its famous steam clock – to enjoy that nighttime vibe and then take the 15 minute walk back to the Skwachays Lodge just after dark. (Skwàchays Lodge 31 W Pender St Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3 604.687.3589,   1 888 998 0797,   [email protected], https://skwachays.com/)

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries and a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/)

Next: Trail to Discover British Columbia’s Indigenous Heritage Goes Through Whistler-Blackcomb

See also: ON THE TRAIL TO DISCOVER VANCOUVER’S REVIVED INDIGENOUS HERITAGE

_____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

On the Trail to Discover Vancouver’s Revived Indigenous Heritage

The view from the seawall at Stanley Park across Burrard Inlet to West Vancouver, where indigenous peoples had lived for thousands of years taking advantage of rich fishing and hunting before being forced out of land considered “unceded.” Expression of indigenous culture was banned in Canada for more than 100 years © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Who could have imagined such an immersive experience into British Columbia’s indigenous culture revival in the heart of a bustling, modern metropolis like Vancouver?

I come to Vancouver intent to see how indigenous heritage culture is being resurrected, revived, and coming to the forefront of national consciousness and respect.

My trip is very much a voyage of discovery, in so many ways so surprising, illuminating and enriching, especially once I am sensitized to look.

My itinerary is arranged by Indigenous Tourism BC, one of Canada’s oldest (at 25 years) provincial entities to promote the economic and social benefits tourism brings to revive and sustain a heritage that had been relegated to shadows.

These efforts have accelerated after Canada signed its historic Truth and Reconciliation Act, in 2014, acknowledging the harm of 140 federally run residential schools that operated from 1867 up until 1996, and other laws, like the Indian Act, banning the practice of indigenous culture that amounted to cultural genocide.

It was only in 1951 that amendments to the Indian Act removed restrictions on rituals, customs and culture. Canada’s indigenous peoples – who account for five percent of the population – could not vote until the 1960s.

Skwachays Lodge, Canada’s First Aboriginal Art Hotel

Skwachays Lodge, Canada’s first aboriginal art hotel, affords the nearest thing to staying in a First Nations community you might find in a major modern city © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

My voyage of discovery starts as soon as I check in to my hotel, Skwachays Lodge, the nearest thing to staying in a First Nations community you might find in a major modern city.

Skwachays Lodge, Canada’s first aboriginal art hotel, opened in 2012 as a social enterprise that turned a derelict building into a boutique hotel combined with an artist-in-residence program supporting indigenous artists with housing and studio space.

Skwachays Lodge, a social enterprise, provides housing and studio space for 24 indigenous artists © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Even though it is late, Rick, the night manager, is eager to show me around to the art studios and introduces me to two of the 24 artists in residence who live for up to three-years in apartments on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors. The hotel also has a gallery and a superb shop.

The 18 guest rooms and suites, which occupy the 5th and 6th floors, have been individually designed by six indigenous artists – there is the Water Room (502), the Sea Kingdom Suite, Northern Lights Room, Forest Spirits Room, Earth Room, King Salmon Suite.

The gold-painted ceiling in the Moon Room. Each of the 18 Skwachays Lodge rooms and suites has been designed by an indigenous artist © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Mine is the Moon Room (505), designed by Sabina Hill and Mark Preston, equipped with a kitchenette, desk/workspace, and a giant round bed on a platform. The ceiling is decorated with the moon’s radiance in gold, and the wall, in gold calligraphy, tells the legend of the trickster god Raven who stole the sun, the moon and the stars, and released them into the sky. “Delivered to its heavenly perch by the daring Raven, the Golden Moon watches over the world below.” It’s almost like finding yourself in a painting, in the story.

The gallery and shop at Skwachays Lodge © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The hotel also offers opportunities to do a Sweat Lodge ceremony in the rooftop garden; a Smudging Ceremony in the traditional Smudge Room; as well as studio visits with the artists in residence. Its Kayachtn (“Welcome”) room, where breakfast is served, also provides a traditional community gathering place as well as a gallery.

Atop the hotel is a totem, a marvelous counterpoint to the arch that marks the entrance to Vancouver’s Chinatown, a half-block away.

The Kayachtn (“Welcome”) room at Skwachays Lodge, where breakfast is served, also provides a traditional community gathering place © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It should be noted that the hotel is one block over from East Hastings, considered Canada’s “Bowery” – but I had no problem walking everywhere, including to the marvelous Gastown district – the historic district offering boutique shopping and dining famous for its gas-spewing clock – just 10 minutes walk away. Actually, I was able to walk everywhere.

Skwàchays Lodge 31 W Pender St Vancouver, BC V6B 1R3 604.687.3589, 1 888 998 0797, [email protected], https://skwachays.com/.

Bill Reid Gallery

My first morning, after a marvelous breakfast (served 8-10 am in the Kayachtn “Welcome” room), I walk over to the Bill Reid Gallery, which is just around a corner from the Vancouver Art Gallery and the historic, grand Fairmont Hotel.  

The Bill Reid Gallery opened in 2008 to celebrate Haida cultural heritage, diverse living artists of the Northwest Coast, and the life and work of master artist Bill Reid (1920-1998). Reid arguably was responsible for bringing indigenous art from the shadows (after having been suppressed for 150 years) into the national consciousness, awareness and respect.

The Bill Reid Gallery celebrates Haida cultural heritage, diverse living artists of the Northwest Coast, and the life and work of master artist Bill Reid © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Bill Reid, I learn, is a national treasure. Two of Reid’s most popular works depict a canoe filled with human and animal figures: one black, “The Spirit of Haida Gwaii,” is at the Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C.; and one green, “The Jade Canoe,” is at Vancouver International Airport (and was featured on the Canadian $20 bill).

Here at the gallery, you not only trace his own artistic evolution and self-discovery, but see his most famous works, including “Mythic Messengers” (1984), a multi-ton, 8.5 meter long frieze referencing folk stories that is the gallery’s piece de resistance.

Bill Reid’sMythic Messengers” (1984), a multi-ton, 8.5 meter long frieze referencing folk stories,  is the gallery’s piece de resistance © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is an artist’s proof in white onyx of another famous work, “Raven and First Men” that depicts the Haida creation myth – how the Raven discovers a massive clamshell on the beach with humans protruding from it and coaxes the humans out, unleashing civilization. (The full-sized, cedar wood version is at the Museum of Anthropology on the University of British Columbia campus; Reid depicted this myth in many forms and sizes throughout his career.)

Another famous Bill Reid work, “Raven and First Men” that depicts the Haida creation myth, in white onyx © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Bill Reid, probably more than anyone, is responsible for resurrecting indigenous art, raising awareness, appreciation and respect, and bringing this heritage that had so long been subject to cultural genocide, into Canada’s cultural mainstream. His story is remarkable and I soon come to appreciate why he was uniquely able to achieve this.

Bill Reid represented “Raven and First Men” myth in many versions and genres © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

As I look at a miniature (I mean really tiny) tea set that Reid carved from chalk in 1932 when he was 12, my guide, Wayne Louie, explains that Reid’s father was of German-Scottish descent and his mother was born to the Haida nation. She was part of the residential school system which took First Nations children from their families and put them in prison-like boarding schools designed to “kill the Indian inside the man” (as I learned at the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum in Banff).

“His mother didn’t reveal her ancestral roots – that was the effect of residential schools, aimed to culturally cleanse the indigenous side,” Louie tells me. “He didn’t discover his ancestral roots until his teens.”

He began exploring his Haida roots at the age of 23. He visited grandparents and slowly and deliberately rediscovered and incorporated his heritage into his art. This journey of discovery lasted a lifetime and shaped Reid’s artistic career.

Glass artist John Nutter, whose studio is the site of Bill Reid’s studio on Granville Island, shows a $20 bill featuring Bill Reid’s famous “The Spirit of Haida Gwaii” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Reid became a pivotal force in building bridges between Indigenous people and other peoples. Through his mother, he was a member of the Raven clan from T’aanuu with the wolf as one of his family crests. In 1986, Reid was presented with the Haida name Yaahl Sgwansung, meaning The Only Raven. Many of his works incorporate the raven.

“Reid’s quest for understanding the essence and the roots of a unique art form led him to discover his own ‘Haidaness’ and, in the process, restored much of the dynamic power, magic, and possibility to the art. In doing so he became the catalyst to empower a whole Nation,” the gallery notes say.

Reid’s story also shows how an artistic spirit cannot be suppressed. Even later in his life, when he contracted Parkinson’s, he created wire sculptures, some of which are on view –art is irrepressible, it must be expressed.

Bill Reid carved this tiny tea set out of blackboard chalk when he was 12 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“Somewhere along the line, I developed a unique art: blackboard chalk carving,” he reflected in 1982. “I started it in school because I was very bored. Round chalk was such a fine medium that I made little tea sets, cup and saucers, and finished them with nail polish…It showed me I could do fine work. The first totem pole I ever made was out of blackboard chalk.”

But the reason he was able to spur a renaissance in indigenous art is that Reid had become a popular CBC announcer with a national audience. He got his first job in radio in 1939 and became a radio broadcaster for the CBC in Toronto in 1948. As a CBC announcer he had a platform, was known and accepted, and connected to more people.  I imagine promoting his indigenous identity was almost like “coming out.”

Bill Reid was perhaps uniquely positioned to revive indigenous art and bring it into mainstream of Canadian culture because of his celebrity as a CBC broadcaster © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

His interest in making art had already been ignited. In 1943, he made his first visit to the Haida Gaiia since his early childhood. “He was a goldsmith at heart and hoped to build a career focused on modernist jewelry,” the notes say. “He was fascinated by the simple engravings his grandfather made and bracelets by John Cross his aunts wore. When he later saw the deeply carved bracelets by his great, great uncle Charles Edenshaw, he said, ‘Life was not the same after that’.”

Bill Reid was a goldsmith who incorporated French repousse technique to gold bracelets with traditional Haida elements he learned from his relatives © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

He set up a studio in his basement, and then on Granville Island (which I later come upon almost by accident). He combined traditional Haida forms and figures with contemporary innovations, notably the European technique of repousse – pushing the metal out from behind, to bring a three-dimensional quality to his Haida-inspired work.

“Well, I don’t consider myself Haida or non-Haida or white or non-white,” Reid wrote. “I am a citizen of the West Coast of North America and I have availed myself of all the inheritance I got from all directions.”

Bill Reid infused Haida traditions with his own modernist aesthetic to create both exquisite small as well as monumental works that captured the public’s imagination.

“Reid was biracial,” Louie tells me. “He had to learn who he was – observe art of his ancestors, reinterpreted into his art. He started with jewelry, small pieces, then large, monumental works.”

Reid was in the vanguard of the revival of indigenous art, Louie tells me. “During the time these pieces created no other indigenous artist was doing this – now there are many.”

Throughout Reid’s life, he encouraged young artists as he was encouraged, and that is reflected in this gallery, which features exhibits of a dozen contemporary artists.

James Hart’s totem pole is the centerpiece of the Bill Reid Gallery © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The centerpiece of the gallery is a full-scale totem pole carved by James Hart of Haida Gwaii, featuring the Wasgo (Haida Sea-Wolf).

What strikes me as interesting is how some of the artists seem intent on reproducing the traditional symbols and techniques (like weaving), while others veer off into modern forms, like graffiti. But when you think about it, for these First Nations artists who live on lands that were never officially ceded to Canada (there was never a treaty so technically, according to Canadian law, the land is illegally occupied), the essence of street art is a form of rebellion, a means for people who feel displaced and disempowered to mark territory and establish identity, so it seems like a very appropriate form.

“Raven Who Kept Walking” (2021) by Corey Bulpitt, one of the contemporary British Columbia indigenous artists  on exhibit at the Bill Reid Gallery © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Monthly workshops, artist talks; guided tours are offered June-August. There is an excellent shop. Summer hours, open daily 10-5.

Bill Reid Gallery, 639 Hornby St, Vancouver 604-682-3455, https://www.billreidgallery.ca/, [email protected]

Indigenous Tourism BC offers travel ideas, things to do, places to go, places to stay, and suggested itineraries and a trip planning app (https://www.indigenousbc.com/)

Next: Walking Tours, Dining Experiences Reveal Vancouver’s Revived Indigenous Heritage

_____________________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

Utah Adventure Day 6: Sacred Sites, Spirits of Bears Ears National Monument

Exploring the Arch Canyon ruins, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, with Laini Miranda and Dave E. Leiberman

Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa is the highlight (out of so many) of our Utah Adventure – hitting on all cylinders of stunning landscape, fascinating cultural heritage, and the opportunity to really explore, adventure and discover for ourselves on some of the most wonderful hikes (Kane Gulch!) anywhere.

Wild camping in Arch Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Finally! I get to do wild camping that I have been so intrigued about ever since Dave and Laini spent much of a summer exploring the West in their Subaru Forester which they converted into a campervan.

Dave drives our rental Jeep down a dirt road into Arch Canyon until we find a spot we can claim for our own (it happens to be immediately adjacent to an Indian reservation, with a warning sign posted on a fence, “No trespassing.”). There are many other wild campers in this area in the spring and we get one of the last suitable spots. (But this is still so much more interesting than going further down the road to an actual campground where you need advance reservations for official campgrounds,  recreation.gov, information at 435-587-1500 M-F, 8 am-noon. No reservation is required for any BLM land that does not clearly prohibit camping and the custom is to find a site that already has a stone circle for a fire pit.)

Wild camping in Arch Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Where we set up is just a walk down a path that leads to the Arch Canyon trailhead and the Arch Canyon Ruins, where we get to explore cliff dwellings.

Indeed, Cedar Mesa is a network of canyons that are home to ancient archaeological ruins and rock art panels – the ultimate combination of spectacular scenery and fascinating cultural sites.

Streams carve into the banded yellow-gray and reddish-orange sandstone, creating fabulous formations and arches – Mother Nature’s sculpture. Cliffs are streaked with “desert varnish” – thin deposits of minerals including iron, manganese, magnetite and clay particles, combined with bacteria – which add to the painterly ambiance. And some of these have provided the overhang for dwellings.

Hiking the trail into Arch Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

What is truly special about Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa – and what draws Laini back time and again, are the remnants, artifacts and structures left by Ancestral Puebloans – ancestors of the Hopi and Zuni – who inhabited these canyons and cliffs between 700 and 2500 years ago. Arrowheads and other artifacts dating back 10,000 years have also been found in this region. Some of these sites are at once accessible yet also feel remote – so you feel you are the first archaeologist to discover, though obviously that can’t be since the BLM Rangers have left laminated info packets in metal cases in some of the dwellings. Still, we can pretend.

Hiking the trail into Arch Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Our hikes bring us to these places that seem as if the occupants only recently vacated, leaving behind painted pottery shards, tiny corn husks, stone and bone tools, even their hand-prints, pictographs and petroglyphs that speak to us through time, as if to say, “We were here. We still are.”

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Indeed, there are a mind-boggling 100,000 known archaeological sites protected within the Bears Ears National Monument, which spans 1.35 million acres. The buttes and surroundings have long been held as sacred or significant by a number of the region’s Native American tribes.

But it has not been without controversy. 

Bears Ears National Monument was established in 2016 by President Barack Obama to preserve thousands of these indigenous cultural and archaeological sites. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, an alliance of five sovereign Tribal nations with ties to Bears Ears (the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute and Zuni Tribe), was the driving force behind its designation and are partners in managing the monument along with the federal Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service.

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In their proposal to have Bears Ears designated as a national monument, the Coalition described these canyonlands as ancestral land and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) described the Bears Ears as “the most significant unprotected cultural landscape in the U.S.”

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

But in 2017, catering to mining, fossil fuel and other extraction industry interests, Donald Trump drastically reduced the size of Bears Ears (by 85 percent) and Grand Staircase-Escalante (by half) – the single largest rollback of public lands protection in history. These changes exposed archaeological and paleontological sites to vandalism, looting and opened the door to drilling and mining. Moreover, Trump’s Interior Department, under Secretary Ryan Zinke (who left in 2019 in disgrace) offered meager plans for managing what remained of the monuments, leaving important cultural sites and wildlife habitat vulnerable.

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Various groups brought lawsuits and President Joe Biden (who appointed Deb Haaland Interior Secretary, the first native American to hold the cabinet position and the first to lead the department which historically oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs) restored the territory under protection in October 2021. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and the federal government officially signed a cooperative agreement, unveiling the first monument boundary sign on June 18, 2022,

The Bears Ears National Monument is named for a pair of buttes that rise to elevations of 8,900 feet and 9,000 feet © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The monument is named Bears Ears for a pair of buttes that rise to elevations of 8,900 feet and 9,000 feet – more than 2,000 feet above Utah state routes 95 and 261. The monument includes the area around the Bears Ears formation and adjacent land to the southeast along the Comb Ridge formation, as well as Indian Creek Canyon to the northeast. The monument also includes the Valley of the Gods to the south, the western part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest’s Monticello unit, and the Dark Canyon Wilderness to the north and west.

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Because these lands are sacred, all of us must be respectful of the dwellings and the archaeological artifacts that we come upon. And these sites truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here. And because those of us who visit do show proper respect, these mud-and-stick (jacal) constructions delicate pictographs and petroglyphs etched into sandstone and  artifacts, though incredibly fragile, are here for us to discover, as if we are among the first.

It’s fairly miraculous these sites have survived Mother Nature, let alone humans.

These sites in Bears Ears truly feel sacred – precisely because of the artifacts, the pictographs and petroglyphs, you feel the presence of those who lived here © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Indeed, we are able to see artifacts and sites that date back 1000 years, but it is mind-boggling to contemplate that this area has been inhabited since 12,000 BC to 6000 BC by the PaleoIndians; the Archaic (6000-2000 BC); Early Agriculture (2000-500 BC); Basketmaker II (500 BC to 500 AD); Basketmaker III (500-750 AD); Pueblo I (750-900 AD), Pueblo II (900-1150 AD-we see evidence of their kivas, plain gray pottery, black-on-white pottery); Pueblo III (1150-1290 AD, when the Four Corners Area was abandoned).

Arch Canyon Ruins

Hiking the trail into Arch Canyon, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Each day of our Utah Adventure, which so far has taken us through Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has been so different in highlights, experience and even theme. Today’s theme is cultural, as we go in search of cliff dwellings through these canyons.

We wake up in our “wild” campsite and after breakfast, stroll down Arch Canyon Road and soon come to the Arch Canyon Ruin.

Seeing these structures, how they were built high up in the rock overhangs, camouflaged in rock, you wonder whether they were designed for defense: Who or what were they defending against? The fact that the Navajo named the Ancestral Pueblo people who were there before them, Anasazi – “enemy ancestors” (as we learned at the Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder) suggests that there were conflicts among tribes or clans. Were these groups afraid of being attacked for their food or water? Or were they built so far above the river because of flash floods?

Arch Canyon ruins, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

A panel provides background about the Puebloan People and these cliff dwellings: Few people lived in Cedar Mesa from 700-1050 AD, but by 1050, there were many Pueblo communities throughout the mesa and its canyons. During this time, Cedar Mesa’s cultural landscapes were interconnected with those of Chaco Canyon to the southeast, Mesa Verde to the east and the kayenta region to the south. Later, smaller groups moved into Cedar Mesa’s canyons to occupy nearly inaccessible but defensible places such as cliff face alcoves and ledges. But by 1280 AD, a combination of social and environmental factors prompted the Puebloan people to migrate again from Cedar Mesa to lands to the south and east. Cedar Mesa’s descendant populations now reside among the Hopi of Arizona, the Zuni and Keres-speaking pueblos of New Mexico and the Tanoan peoples along the Rio Grande.

Arch Canyon ruins, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

I note the word “defensible” and wonder about who and what they were defending against.

In one of the structures, we see an innovation: shelves! We climb under boulders and see a pictograph of four hands.

We spend about two hours in this section, and then get the Jeep to go to the next destination. (You can hike between Arch Canyon and House on Fire, via Arch Canyon Road and Mule Canyon trail, 5.7 miles, or two hours, one way.)

Exploring the Arch Canyon ruins, Bears Ears National Monument-Cedar Mesa © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We stop for a picnic lunch at Mule Canyon Ruin site along the road (almost a rest stop, complete with two bathrooms).

Laini leads us to a trail to one of the outstanding highlights of the Bears Ears National Monument: the House on Fire, one of the most photographed (spectacular) sites in the region.

If You Go….

Day hiking in Bears Ears National Monument requires a day hiking pass (there is no limit on the number of day hiking passes issued).

Bears Ears National Monument does not charge an entry fee where your America the Beautiful Pass would typically apply. However, activity fees called “Individual Special Recreation Permits” are charged for day hiking and backpacking (typically $2 at the trailhead). Because your America the Beautiful Pass does not cover Individual Special Recreation Permits, it does not apply toward your backpacking permit, Moon House permit, nor day hiking pass. Visit the permits page for more information.

Visitor Centers:

Kane Gulch BLM Ranger Station,  UT-261 36 miles west of Blanding. Open: March 1-June 15, September 1-October 31, 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 7 days a week

Monticello Visitor Center, 216 S Main St., Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Closes early at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, Phone: 435-587-3401

Blanding Visitor Center, 12 North Grayson Parkway, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., closed Sunday

More information: https://www.blm.gov/visit/bears-ears-national-monument

Next: House on Fire, Kane Gulch Trail

See:

UTAH ADVENTURE DAY 1-2: CAPITOL REEF’S COLORFUL CANYONS

UTAH ADVENTURE DAY 3-4: GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE POSES CHALLENGE

UTAH ADVENTURE DAY 4-5: DRIVING BURR TRAIL, EXPLORING GLEN CANYON, WILD CAMPING IN ARCH CANYON

______________________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/KarenBRubin 

Wellness & Travel, the Perfect Synergy

The quest for wellness is becoming ubiquitous, especially for travelers who seek out immersive nature and cultural experiences. Having just summated the 14,000-foot high Dead Woman’s Pass on Day 2 of Alpaca Expeditions’ four-day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu, one of our group leads yoga stretches © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Edited by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Wellness travel is among the leading travel trends for 2023, as it has been for several years. But when the very act of breaking away from daily irritants, giving oneself the opportunity to rest, renew, recharge, revitalize, isn’t all travel wellness? The trend refers to the fact that people are traveling with greater intention to improve their physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual well-being.

It could be a visit to a wellness retreat or spa. But it could also be a hiking, biking, rafting, camping trip that gets you out into nature, pure air, with some physical exertion. It can be an itinerary that is spiritually uplifting or intellectually fulfilling, of doing something you love or even finding love. It could be travel that brings family and friends together, forging bonds and lifelong memories that also contribute to wellness, or even making new friends to conquer loneliness or isolation. Travel, at its essential core, is inevitably about life-enhancing, even life-changing experience. What’s new is people intentionally seeking out such experiences – and that the industry, from tour companies to hotels, cruiselines to destinations, from festivals and events to attractions – are tailoring their offerings to cater to the quest for wellness.

Not only does wellness impact how, where and why people travel, but through lifestyle changes, wellness also impacts longevity and financial security – which when you think about it, expands the market for travel with time, money and physical ability.

These themes emerged in the Global Wellness Summit’s report, “12 Wellness Trends for 2023” with implications of how travel, hospitality, even urban design, workplace policies (vacations are essential to recharge), government planning are accommodating. Among the key findings, as reported by the researchers:

WELLNESS + TRAVEL: From Global Smorgasbord to Hyper-Indigenous

By Elaine Glusac

Wellness and wellness tourism have long resembled Disney’s “It’s a Small World”: buffets of global experiences typically divorced from place. Yoga, born in India, is ubiquitous worldwide; ayahuasca retreats have departed their Amazonian homelands; you can get a Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage in Dubai.

But with a new critique of wellness as a profound cultural appropriator, a rising social justice movement, and greater emphasis on authenticity, travelers are now seeking much deeper cultural experiences and showing interest in going to the source of ancient healing and knowledge to learn how they care for the land and for themselves. Indigenous travel and going to the cultural source for wellness is our travel trend for 2023.

There interest not only in going back to the origin places for wellness programs, but also to immerse in culture and heritage, such as in the Sacred Valley of Peru © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Community-led Indigenous travel offerings are surgingfrom the boreal forests of Canada to the Australian Outbackand speak deeply to travelers seeking inclusive, sustainable and regenerative travel experiences. The fast-mounting interest in original cultures includes Indigenous wellness practices, from purification ceremonies to food and nutrition.

Concurrently, culturally-rooted wellness experiences are booming globally and inspiring travelers to go to the original wellspring for authenticity. In Japan, traditional ryokans, or hot springs inns, are having an incredible renaissance as nature-based experiences that shift with the seasons. Resorts are exploring new menus of from-the-source wellness, whether traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine in the Middle East or Druidry in England. India, which gave the wellness world yoga, is poised to lure travelers back to the source with an upcoming center for traditional medicine partnered by the World Health Organization.

[Canada has really taken the lead to support tourism enterprises among its indigenous populations, under the umbrella of Indigenous Tourism Association (ITAC). In British Columbia, where there are 204 indigenous communities, a tourism development organization IndigenousBC.com is an excellent website to plan visits. Many of the Canadian indigenous communities offer wellness programs.

Also Ponant Cruises has introduced a series of programs that feature encounters with indigenous people, including the Inuit in Greenland, the Emberas in panama, Papuans in Papua New Guinea, us.ponant.com]

WELLNESS + SPORTS: New Business Models for Hospitality

By Lisa Starr

Savvy hospitality brands are responding to demands from wellness-focused clients looking beyond the basement gym, in search of pro-athlete-level equipment, fitness classes and wellness programming, whenever and wherever they travel. Some hotel brands are even creating facilities that cater to entire amateur or professional sports teams, expanding the function of the hotel and ensuring professional quality for the rest of us. We predict businesses that support this trend will become the go-to brands for future generations.

The ubiquity of the wellness-focused lifestyles of elite and professional athletes are fueling this trend and increasing demand for pro-level wellness at hotels and resorts. Hospitality brands like Kerzner International Holdings, owner of the Atlantis Resort and One&Only Resorts, are responding to the public preoccupation with sports with new concepts like the immersive global lifestyle brand SIRO, a “fitness and recovery hotel.” Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som in Qatar, the Middle East’s first full-immersion wellness resort, offers TAIM (traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine) treatments and hosted the German World Cup soccer team in 2022.

The global sports market is predicted to hit $20 billion by 2027, and we’re going to see new, creative, profitable intersections between sports and wellness. Sports of all types are being seen as a strategy to attract and connect with wellness-oriented consumers and travelers—and this timely business trend shows no sign of stopping.

Hospitality companies are catering to the rising interest and demand for wellness experiences, including the grand, historic Mohonk Mountain House in Hudson Valley, New York, which has provided a retreat for urban dwellers since Victorian times © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

WELLNESS + WATER: Blue, Hot and Wild

By Jane Kitchen

The pandemic spurred a hunger for in-nature experiences that shows no signs of abating. But when we talk about the nature surge, we usually remain on terra firma. In 2023, people will jump into the world’s wild waters for some “blue wellness”— with an unprecedented global surge in new-look hot springs destinations and wild and cross-country swimming going global. (The film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” likely helped.)

At the steamy end of the temperature spectrum, hot springs are now poised to be the next big thing in wellness. There are an unprecedented number of new and in-the-pipeline global destinations and new life is being breathed into long-forgotten facilities–from Australia to the US (where about 50 new projects are underway). A whole new social era in hot springs has arrived, where developers are combining live entertainment, watery wellness classes, restaurants and bars with traditional soaking. At Peninsula Hot Springs in Australia, take in live bands from its hot springs amphitheaters and do some hot springs yoga; at Sky Lagoon in Reykjavik, you soak in the midnight sun while sipping prosecco from a swim-up bar; you’ll soon be able to watch a baseball game while soaking in hot springs at Hokkaidos’ ESCON Field. This is social, affordable wellness and it’s pulling in a younger, diverse crowd.

Hot springs, Blue Lagoon, Iceland. The future of wellness and nature immersion? Blue, hot, cold and wild. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

On the cold side of the trend, there is surging interest in wild, cold and cross-country swimming, once the domains of serious athletes. Wild swimming groups like the Bluetits Chill Swimmers offer inclusive group swims that foster connection, and more global resorts are offering guided wild swimming programs—whether the Hotel J in Sweden or New York’s Mohonk Mountain House. Cross-country swimming is starting to take off, epic adventures where hiking and wild swimming are combined. People are even building wild swimming ponds instead of the old concrete swimming pools.

The future of wellness and nature immersion? Blue, hot, cold and wild.

WELLNESS + CITIES: Urban Infrastructure Just Might Save Cities

By Robbie Hammond and Omar Toro-Vacay

The role of the city has been reimagined countless times over the centuries (they’ve been trading posts, political and artistic centers, and, recently, concrete jungles of retail and offices). But the pandemic served as a wake-up call for just how unwell our cities are—sparking a new recognition of the inextricable relationship between the health of the cities and the health of city dwellers. Global cities are now at another historical inflection point where they are rebuilding themselves around the wellness needs of their citizens. “Urban wellness infrastructure” is no longer perceived as a luxury—it’s a necessity.

Urban wellness infrastructure—the melding of capital improvements and business opportunities that holistically address social, mental and physical health—is being embraced around the world as a solution for accelerating growth, fueling post-pandemic recovery and cultivating healthier, happier citizens.

There are so many powerful examples. Developed 20 years ago on an abandoned railway line in the heart of Manhattan, the Highline is a pioneering example of this trend—a wellness destination in its own right where people exercise, socialize and take in natural beauty in the heart of the city, which has become one of the most popular tourist sites in the city. The Highline has inspired over 60 such projects across America. The 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, DC, a new public space project that connects neighborhoods and helps cross racial and economic divides, is an example of the new community-building urban wellness infrastructure.

The Highline, created out of a decrepit highway, is now one of the top attractions in New York City. Cities, back as a top destination for travelers, are consciously restructuring around health and wellness for residents and visitors alike. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

In Singapore, the government is striving to become an “urban wellness haven,” creating a whole slate of programs and initiatives that showcase the city’s unique natural and wellness resources. In Monterrey, Mexico, a successful collaboration between private and public organizations, DistritoTec, is creating a thriving new community with wellness at its core—a model Mexico plans to replicate.

To remain vital in the next century, cities must become places not to survive but to thrive. That’s only possible with a new wellness infrastructure.

[Indeed, cities are making a comeback as top destinations for travelers in 2023 after the pandemic steered people to wide-open spaces. But much of the adaptations that worked so well to keep people well during the pandemic – like advance purchase timed-ticket admissions to museums and attractions to control capacity – are being kept in place.]

WELLNESS + SENSES: Multisensory Integration

By Ari Peralta

Advances in neuroscience and neuroaesthetics confirm that, when combined, the senses elevate our human experience. Nature is multisensory and it turns out, so are we. The senses have always been present in wellness. In fact, we subconsciously associate many wellness activities with one sense or another… spa is touch, wellness music is sound, chromotherapy is color, healthy food is taste and thermal is temperature. This siloed approach is quickly changing in remarkable ways.

Now brands are accessing multiple senses simultaneously to better support wellbeing outcomes, amplify wellness experience and influence behavioral change—think using multiple sensory cues in a harmonious way to deepen meditation. With a better grasp on evidence, wellness brands are using multisensory integration as an approach to deepen and amplify felt experiences. From wellness brands to spas to retailers, they are experimenting with playful combinations of light and sound, light and taste, etc., to build connection and more meaningful moments.

Some examples: In Saudi Arabia, the AIUIa Wellness Festival has curated a 360-degree multisensory event allowing visitors to stimulate and elevate all five senses amidst ancient and stunning surroundings; while Six Senses has teamed with mycoocoon to create synesthetic dining experiences, enabling guests to “taste” color and sound, while, in the metaverse, digital sense is becoming a reality, adding scent and touch to sight and sound.

WELLNESS + GATHERING: Wellness Comes for the Loneliness Epidemic

By Beth McGroarty

We “know” loneliness is skyrocketing, that it kills and that the #1 predictor of health and happiness is relationships. But somehow, the recent uber-capitalist wellness market has led with two things: a sea of keep-them-spending “me time” products and “digital wellness”both lonely journeys of “self-care.” The pandemic has proven to be the breaking point. The biggest wellness trend is the development of new spaces and experiences that bring people together in real life—creatively and with intentionwhere social connection is the burning center of the concept.

Social wellness clubs with different vibes and price-points will surge, where group bonding comes first and the (sometimes dizzying menus of) wellness experiences serve as social icebreakersfrom pioneer Remedy Place to social bathhouse Othership to Six Senses Place. With remote work, people need everyday places to be and belongand younger gens, who are ditching booze and bars, seek healthier social spaces. With human “communication” having devolved into emojis, the wellness world is now teaching us how to connect and empathize more deeply. Peoplehood, the group conversation concept from SoulCycle’s founders, nixes the bikes to teach “relational fitness” through active listening. “Empatho-delics/actives” (that drive human openness) will rise: psilocybin, MDMA (in clinical trials), and ancient botanical “social elixirs,” such as kanna and kava.

Boat Bike Tours’ cycling trip from Bruges to Amsterdam. Travel affords unlimited opportunities for social interaction and engagement, bringing together people from all points of the globe © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Tackling loneliness is a huge trend beyond the wellness space. Startups are bringing connection to those who need it most, whether it’s the elderly or black men. New social apps/platforms are actually social, creating dinner parties for strangers or bonding apartment dwellers. More governments are fighting loneliness with new policies, and there’s even a new “social medicine.” The future of wellness? A move from lonely to social self-care, from buying to belonging, from URL to IRL, from ego to empathy, from Goop to group.

[Travel is the antidote to loneliness, promoting social interactions. And while solo travel is one of the biggest new trends for 2023, but there are even apps that cater to solo travelers and that match people with travel buddies.]

Wellness + Workplace: Workplace Wellness Finally Starts to Mean Something

by Skyler Hubler and Cecelia Girr

From protected time off and prioritizing vacation time to finally acknowledging women’s health needs, employee wellness is getting a much-needed rethink. Employers have been casually tossing around the word “wellness” since the 1980s. But four decades later, we have little to show for it. Worldwide, 70% of knowledge workers have experienced burnout in the past year, and a recent global study found that 38% of workers hate their jobs so much that they wouldn’t wish it on their worst enemy. Clearly, all those “workplace wellness” initiatives haven’t been working for us. But with the pandemic dramatically accelerating shifts in work models and the mental health crisis—and employees newly empowered—things are changing

Copper Mountain Resort, Colorado Rockies: company-wide vacations and outings are part of a new focus on wellness in the workplace © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Superficial wellness at work schemes are being replaced with more meaningful solutions. Better balance is being achieved through movements such as extended, company-wide vacations and the “right to disconnect” from emails after hours; employers making in-person time count with memorable offsites and gatherings at wellness resorts and social wellness clubs (meetings held in ice baths are officially a thing). The workplace wellness reform is well underway and it’s set to change everything, from how we connect with coworkers to what we look for in a job.

[Indeed, there is every indication that some variation of remote work will remain, and people will claim their opportunity to be nomadic workers.]

WELLNESS + GOVERNMENTS: The Case for Coming Together

By Thierry Malleret

Wellness policies have been years in the making, but in 2023 and beyond, they will evolve, multiply and strengthen. Governments “know” the crippling economic and societal costs that come when people don’t feel mentally and physically well. They “know” that unwellness shrinks the labor force while simultaneously hurting productivity—the worst possible combo for long-term economic growth. They “know” that preventative wellness saves public money because it always costs less than cure.

Now more governments are moving from knowing to action, pursuing diversified policies aimed at, pursuing policies—aimed at improving physical, mental, work, environmental, and even financial wellbeingfrom healthy eating campaigns to funding regenerative agriculture and biodiversity protection.

Wellness policies will become far more prominent on the political agendas of national, regional and local governments. We predict they will be: (1) more expansive, by encompassing adjacent policies that contribute to our planetary, societal and individual wellbeing; (2) more “muscular,” toughening regulations and fighting vested interests; and (3) more local, because the greatest policy-success stories happen when you empower communities at the local level.

The Future of Wellness 2023 Trends report just released by the Global Wellness Summit identifies 12 key wellness trends impacting the wellness economy in 2023 and beyond. More information or to purchase the report, www.globalwellnesssummit.com/2023-global-wellness-trends.

______________

© 2023 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures

Machu Picchu, Galapagos are Models for Responsible, Sustainable Tourism Essential for Preservation of Heritage, Environment

Getting to know you: Alpaca Expeditions’ “Green Machine” and trekkers on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

Machu Picchu, Peru’s jewel, along with the Galapagos, Ecuador’s treasure, are both national parks and UNESCO World Heritage sites. And both are models for the risks of overtourism and the rewards of responsible tourism.

Without tourism, Ecuador would not have the funds to protect the animals or the habitat of the Galapagos.

The Galapagos, Ecuador’s treasure, is a model of responsible, sustainable tourism. Without tourists, the government would not have the money to preserve, conserve and protect the animals, plant life or habitat, but without limits and regulations, the area would be destroyed  © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Without tourism to Machu Picchu, there would not be a Machu Picchu to visit, nor any of the other Incan sites along the Inca Trail, resurrected from 400 years of overgrowth. Without tourism, these porters who come from mountain villages would not have the income to supplement subsistence farming to provide a better life for their family. That was clear during the COVID pandemic lockdown.

Both Galapagos and Machu Picchu limit the numbers of visitors, require visitors to visit with a licensed tour company and be guided (otherwise they muck up the place) and, similarly, put constraints on the tour companies, as well as development. In the Galapagos, ships are limited to 100 passengers; in Machu Picchu, trekking companies are limited to groups with a maximum of 16 trekkers, two guides and 22 porters, with each porter carrying a maximum of 25 kilos.

Without tourists and trekkers coming to Machu Picchu, the Peruvian government would not have the incentive to reclaim the Incan sites from their 400-year overgrowth, and would not have the resources to preserve and conserve them. Tourism also creates new job opportunities for locals and the means to improve the quality of life © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The reality of the benefits of tourism is harshly apparent when it is taken away – as during the COVID pandemic lockdowns, or conflict, or natural disaster –  when so many lose their livelihoods and agencies and organizations lose the capital to maintain and preserve the historic, heritage and natural sites.

Tourism goes even further than that.  I believe tourism the greatest force for peace, understanding , cooperation and progress that humanity has ever devised. Tourism has provided the funding – and the demand – to unearth these Incan sites, and in the process, sparked a renewed desire for Peruvians to appreciate their heritage.

Tourism has not only provided new career paths for people like our Alpaca Expeditions guide, Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman who explains how the Inca did not have written language but used a system of string and knots, called quipu, but enabled locals to re-discover and appreciate their own heritage © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

But yes, tourism has to be kept in balance, to avoid exploitation and the negative impacts overtourism can have. That is what Sustainable, Responsible Tourism is about.

Many travelers these days have Responsible Travel in mind when they choose destinations, experiences and travel companies – down to the airlines, cruiselines, hotels and tour operators. Indeed, Alpaca Expeditions highlights its Sustainability bona fides at its website (alpacaexpeditions.com).

And on this four-day, three-day Inca Trail trek, I could really assess how well  Alpaca Expeditions’ fulfilled its lofty promise of being a “sustainable and responsible” tour company, with a “unique service philosophy dedicated to our porter welfare equally to our client services, fair and kind travel, equal employer with a focus on women’s rights in tourism.”

In fact, all of these promises were confirmed during our visit. Alpaca Expeditions can stand as a model of the importance of responsible, sustainable tourism – both in preserving Machu Picchu and the historic sites along the Inca Trail and as a model for other travel enterprises. You can see it in the comparative prosperity of Cuzco, once the capital of the Incan Empire and the epicenter of the Incan world.

Introducing ourselves to each other – the trekkers and Alpaca Expeditions “Green Machine” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

So, on the third day of the four-day Inca Trail trek – in the morning before we head out and again this evening – our Alpaca Expeditions guide, Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman, creates opportunities for us to get to know who our porters, chefs and staff are who are making this experience possible, and they to know us. This is what Responsible Tourism is all about – a connection, appreciation and an opportunity to improve the lives of the local community, and, similarly, an appreciation for the guests whose tourism dollars provide them a better quality of life as well as the funds to preserve and protect their heritage.

Alpaca Expeditions is proud of its efforts to hire women for its staff © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The porters, chefs and guides – 22 of them to 15 of us (there is actually one fellow who is the “sanitation engineer” charged with maintaining the private portable potty; two of the porters are brothers, aged 62 and 68, and one is a woman, which is still unusual) – come mostly from the same mountain village and leave their families for weeks on end in order to do these treks, but at least they have the camaraderie of their friends.

Lizandro’s own story is illustrative. On our first day of the four-day Inca Trail trek, as we walk through one of the mountain villages, he tells us that village was where he grew up – his family is among 96 who still live there. He used to lead a pack horse on the trail since he was 4.

Lizandro tells us he grew up in the mountain village we trek through on the Inca Trail, and at the age of 4, would lead a pack horse on the trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“In my community there was no school. My parents sent me for education –I stayed with an uncle for three years until my parents couldn’t pay for school. I met a chef and became a porter at 18 years old, 15 years ago.“ He learned English from the trekkers .  His first word, he tells us, was “baby spoon” when he was 18.

Lizandro tells us he grew up in the mountain village we trek through on the Inca Trail, and at the age of 4, would lead a pack horse on the trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“Fifteen years ago, porters were exploited by companies – they hired fewer to make more profit,” Lizandro tells us. “Then, they carried 40-45 kilos; companies didn’t provide uniforms, equipment, back support, not even food. They had to carry their own blanket and did not have a tent. Salaries were 50 Soles for a four-day hike – not even $15.

“My first hike was so difficult, a porter made me take coca leaves. I got 50 Soles for a tip. 15 years ago in Peru, 50 Soles was a lot – 1 sole could buy 20 breads, now it only buys 2 breads.”

Alpaca Expeditions takes care to limit the weight that its porters carry to 25 kilos © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Then, 15 years ago, the porters organized with the help of the Cuzco government, and got regulations to provide better conditions. Now the porters carry a maximum of 28 Kilos (the first 2 days are still heavier because they are carrying food supplies, and the packs are heavier when it rains, but lighten as we consume food) and guests are restricted to bringing 7 kilos including a sleeping bag in the duffel which is supplied.

Alpaca Expeditions takes care to limit the weight that its porters carry to 25 kilos © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“It’s difficult for porters (from mountain village) to be away from family for these periods of time, but typically they come from the same community so have friends. Some commute six hours by bus/train and then 2-3 hours walk back to home, so many prefer to do 5-6 groups and then go home for 5-6 days, do some farming and then come back to hike. Normally, they do 6-7 trips a month.”

When the COVID pandemic forced a lockdown and there were no tourists coming (one Japanese tourist actually had to stay in Peru a full year before he could go back to Japan, which was closed to the outside, and was the first visitor back to Machu Picchu), Lizandro had to go back to his village and do farming.

The government has yet to restore the full numbers of visitors to Machu Picchu after reopening from the pandemic – before, 7,000 were allowed per day; the number had just been increased to 5,000 from 4,000 (only 200 trekkers per day on the Inca Trail). “We thought it would take a couple of years but recovery has been quick,” he said.

Now, even though the porters are protected, some companies still make them carry heavier packs and do not provide hiking boots; some porters still hike in sandals instead of boots, Lizandro says.

Raul Ccolque who founded Alpaca Expeditions, grew up in a small town in the Sacred Valley and while he was studying tourism, worked as a porter (from 2000-2003) and later as a tour guide. Ccolque witnessed firsthand how companies exploited their porters – not only were they poorly paid, but they would also be badly bruised or injured due to carrying heavier loads than necessary, without proper hiking boots or uniforms, sleeping bags. They even had to supply their own food.

Raul set out to create a company that would remedy this inhumane situation.

Inca Trail porters have to travel far distances from their homes, so tend to do back-to-back treks. Alpaca Expeditions has built Porters House for them to have a place to stay © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“Most of our porters live in a village outside of Cusco – typically 2 to 4 hours away. We cover all entrance fees (45 soles – $15 US per porter) and transportation to and from the trek for our porters, separate from their salary,” the website says. “They are paid directly after the trek, which prevents them from traveling back to Cusco before heading home. Unfortunately, this is an uncommon practice. They receive better wages, health insurance [not a given in Peru] and all of their equipment for free. This includes hiking boots, pants, jerseys, fleeces, jackets, hats, flashlights, sleeping bags, and amazing food to eat. We make sure they have a comfortable bed in a lovely room to sleep before (and after if needed) the trek instead of crashing on a floor like others.” Alpaca Expeditions built Porters House where they stay between trips.

Whenever the Alpaca Expeditions porters pass us (!!) on the Inca Trail with their heavy loads, we step aside and say “gracias.” © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“While the government allows each porter to carry up to 25kg, we keep our limit at 20kg. Each porter will carry up to 15kg from the company and 5kg of their own personal stuff. This is why it’s so important to keep your personal duffel within weight restrictions and not exceed our allowed 7kg. You will see other companies carrying more than the allotted weight, but we will not allow our porters to carry this burden. Every year Alpaca Expeditions provides new sleeping bags and sleeping pads for each porter. We provide them all the gear they need along the hike, our jackets, for example, are all lined and warm, and our boots are all waterproof. Our porters eat the same food as the guests; the chef cooks enough for all the trekkers and porters [that’s why our platters are so enormous and there are so many dishes made]. Of course, the porters are carrying the food supplies, so with each day, at least that load gets lighter.”

Alpaca Expeditions’ chefs make a huge amount of food because they are cooking for the 15 trekkers as well as the staff of 22 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Also, “In keeping with the Andean concept of ‘ayni’, or giving back to the community, Alpaca Expeditions has numerous social projects,” the company states. “Our pride and joy has been ‘adopting’ the highland villages where our porters’ families have lived for centuries as subsistence farmers. Several times a year we go to these villages to help supply their schools with books, computers and basic hygiene supplies. We have even provided the funds necessary to employ a teacher. We have also started a tree planting project that reintroduced 3,000 of the indigenous, but rapidly disappearing Queuña tree. Alpaca Expeditions is dedicated to improving our community and sharing these social projects.” The company is also working with a local clinic in Cusco to provide dental care and skin examinations for the children of each of its porters’ villages.

Our guide, Lizandro, tells us that most of the porters and their families have never actually seen Machu Picchu for themselves; Alpaca Expeditions offers them the opportunity © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Lizandro tells us that most of the porters, even though they have done the trek umptium times, along with their families in the mountain villages, have never actually visited Machu Picchu themselves – the porters leave our group early on the last morning to make a 6 am train back to Ollantaytambo. But among the programs that Alpaca Expeditions offers is an opportunity for the porters to visit Machu Picchu with their families.

The company says it has bought land in Cusco to build dormitories, classrooms and teaching kitchens for its team. “We will have English classes, computer classes and cooking classes here for any member of our team and their family to use, free of charge. This is a huge project for us that we are really excited about.”

The Alpaca Expeditions ‘Green Machine” of porters makes it possible for us to do the Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu, a trip of a lifetime © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

People used to be able to do the Inca Trail trek on their own, doing their own camping. But they left such a mess, the government now requires every person going to Machu Picchu to obtain a permit and go with a licensed tour company. Still, Alpaca Expeditions has found the need to extend its “eco-friendly” and “sustainable” values beyond its own staff and guests. “Not only do we clean up after ourselves, but we even have campaigns where our staff cleans up the messes others have left behind. There is a key concept in the Andean cosmovision known as ‘ayni’. It means ‘reciprocity’ – that as you take, you must give back. We are dedicated to treating our beautiful Mother Earth, known as Pachamama in Peru, with respect and honor in exchange for all the abundance she gives to us.”

When it comes to my turn to introduce myself, I can’t help but reveal that I turned 71 this day, and this “trip of a lifetime” could only be possible because of them. (Later that evening, the chef presents me with the most magnificent, decorated birthday cake, which took three hours to prepare with the camping-style equipment he uses.)

Alpaca Expeditions Chef Mario shows us how to cook a popular Peruvian dish, lomas latudo © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

At the evening gathering, the night before we will reach Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail, Lizandro suggests that if there is anything that we would leave behind, that we donate it to the porters. Sarah and Eric compile a bunch of their stuff (the Inca Trail trek was the grand finale to six months of their travel odyssey) and bring it to the Alpaca Expeditions office the next day when we are back in Cuzco.

Alpaca Expeditions is clearly on the same page in appreciating the importance of responsible, sustainable tourism. But I would suggest there is still more to do, and perhaps Alpaca Expeditions, because it has become such a leader, could persuade the government to make some changes.

Alpaca Expeditions porters cheer us on as we head out for the day’s trek to the challenge of Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The trekking companies used to only hire uneducated men from the mountain villages – just as Lizandro was – whose opportunities were limited (considering how smart and articulate he is – basically learning English from the trekkers, one can only imagine all the opportunities he might have had if public education was available to him growing up). But not that long ago, the government made public education universal. And as a result, fewer are coming forward to be the porters because other opportunities are open to them. Now I wonder, whether a shortage of porters will inhibit the increase in tourism and trekking, which provides most of the dollars necessary to support the preservation and conservation, and the economic activity and jobs. In fact, all of us trekkers are not just appreciative of the porters, but feel somewhat guilty as we make way for them to pass us (!!) on the trail, thanking them as they go by.

So here’s an idea: the government, which already has campsites with public restrooms, and facilities for the Park Rangers, that they build storage sheds at the campsites so the operators can store the tents, tables and infrastructure for the season. In this way, they can reduce the loads that the porters have to carry. Then, more young people would probably sign up for the experience – if not a career – and in this way, the companies would have enough porters to support the number of trekkers, whose dollars fuel this virtuous cycle. That’s human ecology.

The permits to do the Inca Trail trek are limited to 500 a day for all the trekking companies (which includes 200 for trekkers and 300 for porters and staff) and get booked up months in advance.

More information: Alpaca Expeditions, USA Phone: (202)-550-8534, [email protected], [email protected], https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com/

See also:

VISIT TO PERU’S SACRED VALLEY IS BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR INCA TRAIL TREK TO MACHU PICCHU

INCAN SITES OF PISAC, OLLANTAYTAMBO IN PERU’S SACRED VALLEY ARE PREVIEW TO MACHU PICCHU

ALPACA EXPEDITIONS’ INCA TRAIL TREK TO MACHU PICCHU IS PERSONAL TEST OF MIND OVER MATTER

DAY 1 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: A TEST

DAY 2 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: DUAL CHALLENGES OF DEAD WOMAN´S PASS, RUNCURACCAY

DAY 3 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: TOWN IN THE CLOUDS, TERRACES OF THE SUN & FOREVER YOUNG

DAY 4 ON THE INCA TRAIL: SUN GATE TO MACHU PICCHU, THE LOST CITY OF THE INCAS

__________________

© 2022 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures

Day 4 on the Inca Trail: Sun Gate to Machu Picchu, The Lost City Of The Incas

Machu Picchu, The Lost City of the Inca, reached on Day 4 of the Alpaca Expeditions 26-mile Inca Trail trek © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, with Eric Leiberman and Sarah Falter

Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

This is the day that many of us have had on a bucket list, and for some of us, represents the fulfillment of a “trip of a lifetime”: Machu Picchu.

We are awakened at 3 am when the Alpaca Expeditions staff bring hot coffee to our tents. We have everything ready for leaving the Wiñaywayna campsite by 3:15 am (I had packed everything the night before and only kept out what I would be taking on the trail), and set out, our bagged breakfast in hand, wearing our headlamps in the dark for the surprisingly short distance walk to the check-in point for Machu Picchu where we wait until it opens at 5:30 am.

Our guide Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman wants us to get up so early to be first on line (he claims to have a 98% success rate) and also to get to the Sun Gate as the sun rises (and before it gets overwhelmed with photo-snappers), and to Machu Picchu in time for the first rays to illuminate the scene. In fact, there is only a group of six ahead of us and something like 200 behind us, checking our passport against the list of permits granted for the day.

Somehow, I wind up leading our pack of 15 trekkers and I surprise myself at the pace I set for the one-hour hike on this mostly flat portion of the trail to the Sun Gate. I am in the lead until we get to what Lizandro calls the “Gringo killer”- 50 of the steepest steps – more like a rock climbing wall – where you need to use your hands to crawl up like cat.

Lizandro has prepared us for the fact that the sun only comes through the Sun Gate (Inti Punku) at sunrise on the solstice. But from here, we get our first view of Machu Picchu in the distance (it’s still an hour’s hike away).

One of the many nice aspects of our guides, Lizandro and Georgio, is that they have been patiently  taking individual and group photos of us with our phones and cameras at each of the key spots along the trail, and so we stop at the Sun Gate to take our turn posing for those shots. (Everyone wants to be at this small point for the sunrise, which is why Lizandro wanted us first.)

The first view of Machu Picchu from the famed Sun Gate on the Inca Trail © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

And then we continue (downhill!) from the Sun Gate at 8,956 ft. elevation, an hour more to Machu Picchu, descending to 7,873 elevation over the course of three miles from the Wiñaywayna campsite. At the same time, the temperature which had been cold at the highest elevations, becomes warm, even balmy, so we are actually sweating (need sunscreen and hat!) at the site.

The first view of Machu Picchu from the famed Sun Gate on the Inca Trail as dawn breaks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

This part of the Inca trail gives us views that show how Machu Picchu is positioned – we see the entirety of the Lost City (I can only imagine what it was like before it was excavated) and how it is etched amid the contours of the mountain peaks – which is how it was kept hidden from the Spanish when they invaded in 1538 and for 400 years.

The first view of Machu Picchu from the famed Sun Gate on the Inca Trail as dawn breaks © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Literally 10 seconds after I pass a scenic overlook, the sun pokes out. (These views and so much more, are why we take the Inca Trail trek.)

At about 7:40 am, we walk in what seems to be a back entrance into the city, where we are perched on high terraces and the views are the iconic ones of magazines and postcards (and I suspect are not available to the day-trippers who come in from the bottom entrance for the tour). How lucky we are because the sun breaks through, highlighting the structures, for exquisite scenes.

Only 40% of Machu Picchu has been excavated so far, which means that 60% is still underground and hidden from view © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We actually walk down and out of Machu Picchu site to wait for our ticketed time to re-enter (you can only stay 2 ½ hours and can only come in with a guide). While we wait, we have to use the bathroom before we reenter and check bigger backpacks and hiking poles.

We made it! Karen, Sarah and Eric at Machu Picchu at the end of the Alpaca Expeditions four-day, 26-mile Inca Trail trek (photo by Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman)

Our scheduled time to enter Machu Picchu to begin our 2 hour private guided tour with Lizandro is 8:30 am, who leads us on Circuit #4 (there are four different circuits to control crowds) to the highlights: the terraces, Sun Temple, Royal Mausoleum, Palace, Plaza, Sacred Rock.

Machu means “old,” “ancient,” “big”). Picchu means “peak,” so Machu Picchu actually means “Ancient Mountain,” but that is not its indigenous name.

Lizandro tells us that Machu Picchu was built in the mid-1400s by Pachacuti, the 9th Inca king but its first emperor and the “Alexander the Great” , the Empire Builder, of the Inca. Beginning in 1438, he and his son Tupac Yupanqui began a far-reaching expansion that brought much of the modern-day territory of Peru under the ruling Inca family control. He rebuilt Cuzco, built Pisac, Ollantaytambo  as well as Machu Picchu. He built Machu Picchu up in the mountains instead of the valley to be closer to the sun, to connect the sky and the earth in one place, as well as for protection.  “Mountains were gods that protected the villages and the animals,” he relates. Almost all of the construction faces east to catch the sunrise – the Inca rulers claimed to be the children of Inti, the Sun God.

The archaeologist Hiram Bingham didn’t discover Machu Picchu (it was discovered in 1902 by Bolivian fortune hunters looking for Incan treasure), but came on an expedition in 1911 in search of Vilcabamba, the last stronghold of the Inca after the Spanish conquest. But Bingham is credited with bringing Machu Picchu to the attention of the world. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Over the next 100 years, the Empire ultimately expanded to what are today six South American countries, connected by 25,000 miles of roads, suspension bridges and trails, and controlling a population as many as 18 million.

The Sun Gate was built as a check point to enter Machu Picchu, but positioned so that on December 22, the summer solstice, the sun beam would come through gate; and on June 21, it comes through the other window.  

Only when you are actually at Machu Picchu can you begin to comprehend what an astonishing construction it is, why it is worthy of being called one of the Seven Wonders of the World and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Machu Picchu is built in two sections – an urban sector has some 200 units of which 172 were homes, and the rest were temples, and a sun dial.

There would have been 700-800 people living here full time – 60% were nobles, the rest were farmers and workers.

Only when you are actually at Machu Picchu can you begin to comprehend the scale of the construction, why it is worthy of being called one of the Seven Wonders of the World and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

How did they build Machu Picchu without slaves, without animals to carry, without a wheel, iron tools, or written language? Consider that China’s Great Wall and the Egyptian pyramids were built with slave labor, draft animals, a wheel, iron tools and written language.

What they had was a culture and a labor system based on principles: Ani – reciprocity – one for all, all for one; Minka – community benefit – care for vulnerable – collectivity (how the Peruvians got through Covid despite a poor health care system); and Mita – paying taxes by work, labor (not cash) to benefit the whole.

Only when you are actually at Machu Picchu can you begin to comprehend what an astonishing construction it is, why it is worthy of being called one of the Seven Wonders of the World and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It took 50-60 years to build Machu Picchu for Emperor Pachacuti,  who ruled from 1432-1472, but it was never finished. I can’t help but wonder how many men were impressed to build this enormous complex of structures in that amount of time.

When the Spanish invaded in 1538, Machu Picchu was abandoned before it was finished and the Incan forces fell back to arm Vilcabamba, the Inca’s last stronghold. “They promised to come back but didn’t,” Lizandro says.

Our Alpaca Expeditions guide Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman relates the background to Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Inca © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is mindboggling to contemplate that as complex a construction as what we see, the scale, and the fact that more than 60% is still unexcavated, buried under 400 years of overgrowth.

The archaeologist Hiram Bingham didn’t discover Machu Picchu (it was discovered in 1902 by Bolivian fortune hunters looking for Incan treasure), but came on an expedition in 1911 in search of Vilcabamba, the last stronghold of the Inca after the Spanish conquest.

“He set up tents at base, met a local to ask where Vilcabamba might be. The man didn’t know, but on July 24 1911, with machete in hand, Bingham had a big surprise: the sight of Machu Picchu took his breath away. Two families were living here, cultivating the terraces two years before Bingham arrived. They were running away from paying taxes to the government.” [Off the grid?]

Only 40% of Machu Picchu has been excavated so far, which means that 60% is still underground and hidden from view © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Bingham returned for a second, then a third expedition. He uncovered eight Inca trails (the Inca destroyed many of the trails to prevent the Spanish from reaching Machu Picchu) and took away artifacts, he claimed, for two years. “More than 100 years later, Yale still has the artifacts and is requiring Peru to build a museum to hold artifacts near Machu Picchu. But Peru wants it by the river. In 2015, the United States sent 11 percent of the artifacts back – but not all were real, some were replicas that they returned. The Peru government wants all of it back.”

The photos Bingham published brought international attention to Machu Picchu, the “Lost City of the Inca” – and tourists. The first tourist following the Inca trail came in 1954 and this Incan Citadel has become the most visited tourist attraction in Peru. The site was named among the New Seven Wonders of the World and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Machu Picchu, reached on Day 4 of the Alpaca Expeditions 26-mile Inca Trail trek © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We trekkers follow Circuit 4 (there are four circuits, to spread out the crowds): starting at the Main Gate (where we must present our passports and permit), to the Sun Temple, House of the Inka, the water foundation; Granitic Chaos; Sacred Plaza; Intiwatana Pyramid; Sacred Rock; Three Gates; Water Mirrors; and Condor Temple.

Our Alpaca Expeditions guide Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman points to the astonishing construction of Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We climb the steep stone steps and come to the Sun Temple. It was built as a royal tomb to contain the mummified remains of the king.  Lizandro points to how a temple would have the highest quality building stones and most precise placement and its architecture emphasizes the “harmony between people and nature. They always incorporate the natural bedrock. The windows are aligned for summer and winter solstice – a solar observatory. There are three steps – the Inca triology. The mummified body was placed in the tomb in fetal position.” There are no mummies left in the tomb, but there would have been mummies of the 12 Inca kings (others were buried). On the day of Ayamaki, the mummies would have been paraded from the mausoleum.

The Royal Tomb at Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Lizandro notes that the word ‘jerky” – the dehydrated meat snack – comes from the indigenous Quechua word, “jakky charky” (related to mummification).

We come to the Royal Inca Palace, where we can see that instead of windows (too cold), there would have been shelves for idols. “Bingham got here in time to see some.”

Only when you are actually at Machu Picchu can you begin to comprehend what an astonishing construction it is © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

How would they have set the weighty keystone in place? With ramps, aloe vera to make it slick, he says. The enormous stone building blocks, weighing tons, are trapezoid shape and set at a slight incline angle, for stability against earthquakes. Indeed, Peru suffered two big earthquakes – in 1650 and 1950 – when the colonial buildings collapsed, the great cathedral in Cuzco collapsed, but these structures remained (in fact, the 1950 earthquake in Cuzco unearthed Incan structures). We see under one massive block a roller-shaped stone – a precursor to the wheel.

You only appreciate the scale of Machu Picchu as you haul yourself up the high steep stone steps © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

You only appreciate the scale of Machu Picchu as you haul yourself up the high steep stone steps. The straight lines and perfect angles, the precision, the sheer size and bulk of the stones, and how this entire city is nestled on a plateau amid these sheer mountain peaks.

You only appreciate the scale of Machu Picchu as you haul yourself up the high steep stone steps © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

There is a large open area, like a field, which would have been used for festivals, activities, an amphitheater. And in the middle, is what would have been a sundial. In 1978, the then president invited the Spanish King and Queen to visit, and their helicopter landing in the field, broke the sundial. (I find it ironic that the Spanish were still destroying Incan heritage.)

In this small plaza, Lizandro points out a huge section of bedrock cut to mimic the shape of the mountain behind – mountains were considered sacred.

Our Alpaca Expeditions guide Lizandro Aranzabal Huaman points to the precision of the placement of the stone boulders for the temple at Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

He explains a bit of the Incan society hierarchy – the Inca were the royal family and nobles – perhaps 20,000 who ruled over a population of dozens of different tribes totaling as many as 18 million across much of South America. Professionals could become nobles (rise to that privileged class) because of their expertise, skill and function. Teenagers could show a talent and go into a profession.

Can’t help but thinking of architect Antoni Gaudi’s style at Temple of the Condor at Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We sit around for a bit of a rest, and Lizandro explains some of the contemporary politics. Apparently, in the 1990s, President Alberto Fujimori [a fixture in Peru’s politics from 1990 to 2003] wanted to privatize Machu Picchu – selling it off to Chilean investors, drawing an outcry of protests from the people. “The president did well his first five years – investing in industrial farming – but after he was reelected, he sold off or privatized without people knowing.” Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, wound up being investigated for corruption. He tried to flee to Japan and was captured enroute in Santiago with eight suitcases of cash. He was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison.”

Lizandro says the Peruvian constitution (which I subsequently read has been rewritten and set aside multiple times since the country’s independence, while the government has undergone a series of coups back and forth from dictatorship to democracy, socialism to capitalism) favors foreign companies (they don’t pay tax). Because 50 percent of Peru’s population lives in Lima, he tells us, the people who live in rural areas, in the mountains, have little say.

The view of Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu © Sarah Falter/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Several of our group have obtained permits in advance to climb Huayna Picchu – that famous nub of a mountain, like an overlord, in the iconic Machu Picchu images – and Sarah has obtained one, while the rest of us continue touring Machu Picchu with Lizandro.

The steep stone trail to the top of Huayna Picchu © Sarah Falter/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Sarah reports back that the 45-minute hike is extremely arduous – much harder than the Inca Trail hike – almost straight up to a tiny perch at the top, at 8,835 ft., 850 ft. higher than Machu Picchu, where everyone has to take turns for the photo, but you get a famous view of Machu Picchu. The trail was built by the Inca who also built temples and terraces at the top.  “I would definitely recommend it to fitter hikers looking for one last challenge. It’s not super long and being able to see the scale of Machu Picchu from above was really impressive.”

Sarah with other members of our Alpaca Expeditions trek celebrate reaching the Huayna Picchu summit.

We finally come back down to the entrance/exit to Machu Picchu and Lizandro hands us a ticket for the bus that takes us down an extremely winding road to the village of Aguas Calientes. We meet for a last lunch together in a local restaurant – kind of a celebratory meal ( optional and not included). Lizandro gives us our train ticket, departing Aguas Calientes 3:20 pm (you need to take seriously the notice to be on the platform at least 30 minutes ahead of time, which is when the train loads) to Ollantaytambo.

The train is wonderfully vintage, with roof-windows, and very comfortable for the two-hour trip (which for some reason takes us much longer). At Ollantaytambo, we are met by the Alpaca Expeditions bus for the two-hour drive back to Cuzco and drop off back at our hotel.

The train from Aguas Calientes is wonderfully vintage, with roof-windows, and very comfortable for the relaxing two-hour trip to Ollantaytambo © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Candidly, I had been so obsessed about getting passed Day 2, Machu Picchu was more of an end-goal of a quest than the prime attraction – being here means I had gotten over the Dead Woman’s Pass, completed the 26 miles, going as high as nearly 14,000 feet – much as it would have been for the pilgrims who undertook this journey of a lifetime. It is personal.

For me, it is not just a trip of a lifetime but a now or never proposition.

I am not the only one celebrating an important milestone. Indeed, this is the sort of bucket-list trip that warrants a milestone – Peter timed reaching Machu Picchu for his 35th birthday; a couple had just gotten engaged at the start of the hike; another 30-something couple (he’s Italian, she’s Dutch) is on their honeymoon .That’s how special this trek is, embodying physical, spiritual – just as it did for the Inca, a triumph of will and willpower. A test of character then as now.

Eric and Sarah relax on the train after our four-day trek and two-hour tour of Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

You are at the same time amazed by the ability of these people to construct these sites at all, but then wonder at the level of control exerted, the role of religion in maintaining that control and how authoritarians throughout human history use religion (the divine right). No surprise: the Inca kings claimed to be the son of the Sun God, Inti. And yet, you can’t help but marvel at the accomplishment of that government capable of building the 25,000 miles of roads, in producing the amount of food to sustain the population, and unifying a population of 18 million into a society.

You appreciate the social structure that produced these extraordinary mountain villages in a society that did not have slaves nor currency, did not have the wheel or beasts of burden, did not have compass, ruler, alphabet or written language.

Most astonishing, these structures were built within 20, 40 or 60 years’ time – apparently, each chief would select a project to be completed within his own lifetime.

Photos do not do justice, you have to stand next to the rock walls, trace how the boulders link to perfectly together, see the curve at the edge, the inclined angle (for stability against earthquake) with such exquisite precision, hoist yourself up the steep stone steps, look beyond to the distance these boulders would have had to be transported from their quarry.

You stand perched on these terraced structures built into the side of a mountain and simply cannot fathom what it took to build.

All these thoughts come to me as I step, climb, step, climb the trail.

Our Alpaca Expeditions group, at Machu Picchu © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

At each site, Lizandro tells us more of the story of the Inca and the society they created – but unlike the sturdy bedrock that these sites were built on, the Inca’s hold on the people was really not that strong because it was not a bond. At a certain point, their hold was by force. “The Inca weren’t very nice people,” he says softly.

What was unexpected was to come away with an understanding of the limits of authoritarian control. Indeed, the Inca ruled for less than 400 years, but the empire existed only for a century before it was toppled, too weak and lacking support of the people, to withstand the Spanish invaders. There are lessons for day.  And as we learn, Peru is still going through these cycles of economic struggle, political ping-pong between dictatorship and democracy, socialism and capitalism, since becoming independent from Spain in 1821. The more things change, the more they stay the same, may well be the lasting lesson.

What makes a “trip of a lifetime” – one that is truly life-enhancing, even life-changing? It is the doing.

Alpaca Expeditions offers many ways to get to experience Machu Picchu – the trek is its own experience, and when you think about it, is very inexpensive (from $650); it’s not even that difficult or expensive an airfare to reach (at this stage, you fly through Lima or Quito to Cuzco, but a new international airport is being built closer to Cuzco). The tour company also offers many different programs – like the Sacred Valley excursions – to different areas.

The permits to do the Inca Trail trek are limited to 500 a day for all the trekking companies (which includes 200 for trekkers and 300 for porters and staff) and get booked up months in advance.

More information: Alpaca Expeditions, USA Phone: (202)-550-8534, [email protected], [email protected], https://www.alpacaexpeditions.com/

See also:

VISIT TO PERU’S SACRED VALLEY IS BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR INCA TRAIL TREK TO MACHU PICCHU

INCAN SITES OF PISAC, OLLANTAYTAMBO IN PERU’S SACRED VALLEY ARE PREVIEW TO MACHU PICCHU

ALPACA EXPEDITIONS’ INCA TRAIL TREK TO MACHU PICCHU IS PERSONAL TEST OF MIND OVER MATTER

DAY 1 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: A TEST

DAY 2 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: DUAL CHALLENGES OF DEAD WOMAN´S PASS,
RUNCURACCAY

DAY 3 ON THE INCA TRAIL TO MACHU PICCHU: TOWN IN THE CLOUDS, TERRACES OF THE SUN
& FOREVER YOUNG

DAY 4 ON THE INCA TRAIL: SUN GATE TO MACHU PICCHU, THE LOST CITY OF THE INCAS

__________________

© 2022 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Visit instagram.com/going_places_far_and_near and instagram.com/bigbackpacktraveler/ Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures