Erik’s Tour

We left Victoria and took a bus, ferry, and another bus, back to Vancouver, where we had a few more days.

The first day, with little other plans yet, we signed up for a tour offered by our hostel. It was known simply as “Erik’s Tour.”

Erik, as it turned out, was a seventy-seven-year-old man. He was originally from Denmark, but had lived in Vancouver for the past fifty-six years, and had been doing twice-weekly tours for the hostel since 1993. As he told us, age was just a number – he had the energy of a thirty-year-old man. He was super knowledgeable about the area, and was indeed very active – at times he’d say something like, “quick, we need to catch that bus!” or “we have thirty seconds to get on this train!” and take off, leaving us all to sprint after him.

The tour took us all over the city by walking, bus, ferry, and train.

By the False Creek Harbour, in David Lam Park. The full saying on this piece reads: “The moon circles the earth, the oceans responds with the rhythm of the tides.”

Next we headed to Capilano Lake:

Capilano Canyon:

We walked through Capilano Forest, which was beautiful and full of old growth:

Near the base of Capilano Canyon:

The final destination of our tour was the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. The suspension bridge spans 140 metres, and is 70 metres above the Capilano River.

Bridge from afar:

As someone who is afraid of heights, it was a bit terrifying. Especially when you got out into the middle of the bridge and could feel it swaying side to side.

Nonetheless, I made it out alive.

The Park also had a Cliffwalk, which was a suspension bridge hanging off a rock face. This was even more terrifying:

The most fun part was the Treetops Adventure. It was a series of bridges that took you through the trees. We were still well off the ground, but in a much less terrifying way:

The lights are special; they put them up every year for Christmas. It’s weeks away still, but it takes a long time to get all the lights up. Combined with the fact that it was just starting to get dark as we were there, the lights made it magic:

Erik guided us back to the hostel via bus. The entire tour lasted 9 and a bit hours, and by the end of it, we were so exhausted that we just collapsed into bed for the rest of the day.