MUNGO EATS Latin America

Yesterday we were on Prince Edward Island.  This is my second visit to the island, and I must say, I think it is a bizarre place.  It is quaint and scenic, but bizarre.  When we were here on our honeymoon, I felt like we were missing something.  I felt like we were the only ones on the island, that didn’t “get it”.  Well, yesterday I got that old familiar feeling.  First of all, it’s smallness is very disorienting.  You feel like you have to follow your progress along on the map with your finger the whole way.  All the roads are given highway numbers, but after all, they are only roads. 

This visit, we actually found that most of the tourist attractions were closed.  Most of the restaurants were closed, most stores.  We did visit the Ripley’s Believe it of Not Odditorium, but the wax museum next door was closed. 

Really, I got to say…PEI, I don’t GET you!

This morning we thought we would take our time leaving the island, but there was a crazy strong wind blowing and it was only about 5 degrees, so we said an early goodbye to the island and headed to Nova Scotia. 

Nova Scotia I get, and I love.  It is pretty, but not so…Oh, I think I will just stop there before I start getting hate mail from Islanders.  I really would love to spend a long time in Nova Scotia, but really it will just be the better part of a day or so that we are here, before we start heading back west.  The kids insisted that we make the few extra miles to Nova Scotia, because they wanted to visit Mungo’s breeder and let Mungo see his brother, 1/2 brother, and their friend.  We bought Mungo in Calgary, but just over a year after he was born, his breeder moved out east to Pictou, Nova Scotia. 

So this afternoon, we let Mungo be part of a Ridgeback Pack as we walked with Tamzin and her hounds (and her Puli).  He wasn’t exactly part of the pack at first.  He seemed to be what the pack was hunting.  He took it all in stride though.  He really never lets anything bother him.  Three large hounds surrounding him, and he says, “Come on, I’ll race you!”

I forgot my camera so unfortunately I can’t document the run.  Suffice it to say, there was a lot of running, jumping, drooling, barking, and humping.  Maybe it is best that I forgot the camera.  Pictures can always come back to haunt you. 

Pictou is really our only stop in Nova Scotia and tomorrow we start our drive back towards Toronto.  Hope it is cooler.

This morning, the sun was shining, and there was hardly a cloud in sight.  It was not going to be another 9 degree day.  We had a date to go kayaking in the afternoon, so we decided to go on a little hike in the morning, to see a bit more of this national park.

We settled on a hike called Matthew’s Head, which was a loop that passed through the dappled shade of a forest and brought us out to a lookout over the Bay of Fundy. 

Wow, did I ever miss the forest while we were gone.  This forest is not exactly the same as the ones in Alberta, there is a greater variety of trees, but the smell and the feel of the forest here, is similar enough to home, to bring back all the familiar feelings.  Sean commented today that he likes these forests MUCH better than the cloudforests we visited in Central America.  He says he likes the smell of our forests better.  Well, it’s hard to argue that.  Most of the trail looked like this, a tunnel of trees, cool and green, stretching ahead of you.

A great portion of the forest floor was covered in wild strawberry plants, in bloom  and these flowers, I think they are called bunchberries (where is my field guide when I need it?).

The trail reached a view point (the Head), where you could lookout over the bay.

I must say, the scenery is stunning.

Cliffs, rocks, trees and water….these are a few of my favourite things!! 

Unfortunately, Mungo made the hike a bit less enjoyable, by his “doltiness”.  He is just such an excitable guy.  EVERYTHING new, makes him lose his marbles and he becomes a complete fool.  As soon as he stepped foot into the forest, his senses were on high alert.  “This is no boring walk in the city or the desert, there are creatures in this here forest, I can SMELL them”.  It seemed like every 20 feet or so, a squirrel would run across our path, so now Mungo could smell and see “the prey”, and he lost his mind completely.  When we get home, I think I am going to have to walk him in the woods frequently, so that these smells become less exciting, or at least his behavior becomes more controlled. 

In the afternoon, we made our way to the small town of Alma, to begin our kayaking adventure.  As we drove there, we commented on the wind and how choppy the water looked and I was starting to think an afternoon of kayaking was going to put me to the test physically.  Unfortunately, we never even got the chance to try, because the outfitter cancelled the trip due to high winds.  This was disappointing, but a short time later, it started to rain, and I am sure that kayaking in the wind AND the wind, would have been pretty miserable.  Oh well, maybe we can find somewhere else to kayak.

Tomorrow, we are off to PEI.  We only plan to spend a day and a half on the island.  Not long enough.  I think this short visit to the Maritimes, will just make us want to come back at a later time to explore more of it. 

We left Fredericton this morning, on our way to the Bay of Fundy and Fundy National Park.  The drive was short and uneventful.  The spring green is just lovely, even though it was only about 9 degrees when we arrived at the park. 

We decided to walk to Dickson Falls.  This wasn’t what I would call a hike.  Mostly it was a walk along a boardwalk, with interpretive signs to read every few feet.  The forest is incredibly lush, and we followed Dickson Creek throughout the walk.  Every where you look, there is moss and ferns.  It is incredibly beautiful.

The actual falls were nice, although not terribly high.

This afternoon, we went to see the Hopewell Rocks.  The Bay of Fundy is well know for it’s gigantic tides, which can be up to 16 metres high.  The Hopewell Rocks are rock formations that have been carved out over thousands of years by the high tides.  We were hoping to see the rocks both at high tide and low tide, but we ended up being at the rocks at medium tide.  When the tide is high, the area under the rocks is completely filled with water and there is no “beach” to walk on.  However, when the tide is low, the beach is exposed and you can walk under the rocks, on the beach.

There was only a tiny bit of beach showing when we first got there, but it is incredible how fast the tide goes down.  You can walk in one direction for a few minutes, then turn around 5 minutes later and additional feet of sand are visible below your footprints. 

Wow!!!!

We also saw this little guy scampering down the beach:

We thought that it might be some sort of marmot, but found out that it was actually a ground hog.

Tomorrow we are going to kayak in the bay.  I think the trip is supposed to be four hours long.  Sounds like a long time to paddle!!  I hope it is a tiny bit warmer, as I think 9 degrees on the water, might be a bit brisk.  Hard to believe it was 32 degrees just a few short days ago and a few hundred kilometres back!

Pretty much as soon as we hit New Brunswick, the landscape changed slightly.  There were more areas of undisturbed forest (actually miles and miles of it), more hills and lots and lots of rivers. 

We drove as far as Fredericton today.  This is my first time in New Brunswick, kind of.  Kevin and I briefly passed through the province on our way to Nova Scotia, from Maine, exactly 16 years ago, on our honeymoon (our anniversary is tomorrow).  We did not actually visit anything during that drive, just crossed it. 

What a nice city Fredericton is.  We visited the Garrison District, in the historic downtown, and there were lots of cool old buildings to see. 

We  visited the science centre, called Science East.  The kids had a great time “learning” about science.  The wild thing was that the centre is housed in what used to be the old jail.  They have a jail museum in the basement, complete with pretend “prisoners”.  You can push a button to hear the prisoner “talk” about their experiences in jail (in both official languages).  There was even some graffiti scratched into the wall by a prisoner, that was still legible.  I found it kind of creepy, the kids thought it was great.

We are camped by the St John River tonight.  What a beautiful river this is, both in the daytime and at night.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Bay of Fundy, to see the huge tides!!

Hey, by the way, I need to say congratulation to my very good friend Giulliana, who today became a Canadian citizen!!!!  Yeah Giulliana!!!!!  Welcome to the best country on earth!

It wasn’t a very exciting day today.  We drove and drove and drove.  We drove from Ottawa to a small town on the Gaspe’ Peninsula called St. Augustin, and this evening we are camped at Chez Jean’s. 

Now I know that at least one member of my family will be a little disappointed in me because I am “skipping” Quebec.  That person is my older sister, and I can just imagine her shaking her head and wondering why I am not exploring this beautiful province.  First of all, let me tell you that it is beautiful.  We passed miles and miles of gorgeous forests, quaint little farm houses and amazing rivers.  And truthfully, I would have liked to explore both Quebec and the Maritimes, but we just don’t have time.  So, why skip Quebec?  Two reasons really.  The first is that we were told that we were not allowed to park our rig in either Montreal or Quebec City, which would have meant figuring out transportations to the cities from the campgrounds.  Doesn’t sound that fun. 

The second reason is, quite frankly, the language barrier.  I don’t speak French, unfortunately, and neither does Kevin.   When we first entered the province, I was thinking that this language thing was not so bad.  I can read or at least make out the gist of all the street signs, no problem.  But, when we got to Chez Jean’s and the first person started rambling on in French, my jaw dropped.  I did not even catch ONE word, never mind the gist!!!  Kevin was wearing the same  blank expression as me, so I knew he hadn’t understood either.  The staff does not speak English, so we switched to a a kind of sign language to get the paperwork filled in.  On top of it all, we are so used to saying “si’” and “gracias”, that we keep answering the poor staff in Spanish.  It is going to take my head a long time to get all these languages straight.  By the way, my older sister, the one that would be shaking her head, is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish.  Doris, I bow down humbly at your feet!!!!!

Anyway, the little French guy that got us registered loves Mungo, calls him “Bon chien”.  If only he knew!!  And we were led to our campsite in the most amazing way…

I like to call it, “follow the francophone”!!