This post about Vancouver Island was originally published in 2007. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
I’ve said it over and over to people, and now I’m truly seeing and realizing it: Canada has so much to offer. From one coast to the other, there is so much variety, and even great cultural differences everywhere.
When we came to British Columbia, as a Torontonian I was actually a bit “put off” by the overt friendliness of everybody there. Usually if a stranger said “hello” to me on the street in Toronto, I’d assume I was in the process of being mugged.
Here in the westernmost province of British Columbia it’s another story.
Although every experience in BC has been fantastic, our first introduction to true BC hospitality was on the ferry to Vancouver Island, where we met Gary. He lives in Courtenay and was returning home. A short conversation with him led to an invitation to hitch a ride to Courtenay with him – a 300km adventure.
After the ride into Courtenay and even driving us right to the car rental place, he extended further hospitality and invited us over to his home to stay for the night. Exhausted from our ferry ride (see our last post: A Ferry Big Mistake) we decided we wouldn’t be very good company and made the push for the west coast instead.
Once in Uclulet, we found yet more BC friendliness. Everybody (almost without exception), even passers by in cars, were sure to say hello.
Now, we are some of those people; we say hi to everybody we come across. In fact, we even came across a couple that looked at us like we were from Mars when we said hello to them, and we immediately knew they were from Toronto!
