Wednesday 29th September - Lima to Dallas, USA to Vancouver, Canada
We got a surprisingly decent night's sleep on the plane and didn't wake till about 6 .15am - just in time for breakfast. We landed in Dallas just after 8.15am and walked for about 15 minutes to get to the customs desk. The guy there assured us that as we were going to Canada for quite a while we'll have no problem getting a new 90-day visa despite the fact that the stamped part of our passport issued in Dallas expires just after Xmas. Whilst queueing for our Vancouver flight we met some people from Dallas who'd been to Macchu Picchu in 1966 when it was far less crowded! Our flight to Dallas took 7 hours and wait time between getting past security and waiting for our bags. Just as we were looking for somebody as to where our bags might be someone asked 'Are you the Russells?' - they'd been calling out names out over the tannoy to say they'd gotten our bags!! We posted our stuff home that we'd bought in Peru for less than half of what it would have cost us in Peru. We were happy to accept the recommendation of the tourist information person for a hotel in town - we jumped on the bus and, when we got off started to walk to our hotel, a friendly local offered to help us locate it - then he asked us for $10! We politely declined and found it anyway and we were very pleased - the room was total luxury and cost not much more than the price of a double ensuite in the hostel next door . We flaked out for a while and went to get a beer and some food - we enjoyed a few local beers, some wine, a wild salmon steak and sirloin steak sitting outside and listening to more hits of the 80s (is this trend for 80s music going on at home ?!). Back to base camp to catch up on the sleep we missed out on on the plane last night

Thursday 30th September - Vancouver
We woke in a fantastically comfortable king-size bed listening to local 'indigenous' music, i.e. Neil Young and Bryan Adams - the included breakfast was served in the Irish pub next door called 'Doolins' - we both tasted our first toasted bagel and were very pleased to be eating cornflakes with 'proper' milk again! First place we headed wsa the barber shop where Derek had a 'no 2' though it proved to be a shorter cut than he might get at home! We headed to the Tourist Information centre for some ideas. We decided that we want to see if we can fly from Calgary with American Airlines but found they have no 'downtown' offices . We grabbed a coffee and tea and bought ourselves a couple of new tops from a sports shop. We spoke again to AA this evening and found out we can indeed fly from Calgary to Chicago and then to San Fransisco which is great. The weather today was great (and forecast to be) with sunny temperatures in the low 20s - ideal for us

Friday 1st October
We jumped on the bus and headed back to the airport this morning as it was the only place in town to talk with American Airlines. We changed our flights so now we are flying to Chicago in 3.5 weeks and San Fran a few days later. We had to wait 1.5 hours for the tickets to be re-issued so we bought some sweeets for Sue's sore throat and had an early morning Chinese to kill the time. Jumped on the bus back to town though by this stage Sue wasn't feeling too good. So Sue had a nap whilst Derek headed to the laundrette to do the washing and de-contaminate his trainers which haven't been smelling of roses lately! We walked up towards the harbour later and for the 2nd time since we arrived here we had someone come right up to us and ask 'Can I ask you as a fellow traveller to give me $x?' ! As Sue said later if they have no money they should be at home and not travelling ! We had a drink in the twilight by the harbour's edge and decided we fancied some Thai for tea so headed back to the 'Yaletown' part of the city where we ate on our 1st night here .

Saturday 2nd October -
We walked up toward the 'Stanley Park' area of the city this morning to hire bikes for ourselves so we could pedal our way around this pretty pensinsular area of the city. We each got ourselves a '7 speeder' and the bikes each had brakes (unlike the ones we hired in Laos and Vietnam a while back!) The day was unseasonally warm (low 20s) with clear blue skies though it was quite cool in the shade. We stopped off along the way to take photos of the city - we even came accross a small beach with a few brave locals having a dip. A stop for ice-cream and somehow we were watching the 2nd half of a local game of rugby in the afternoon sun. We pedalled past the lake and were heading downhill when suddenly Derke's back wheel went flat as a pancake - so we spent the next hour walking back to the bicycle shop! We stopped for a drink on one of the busiest streets - Vancouver feels like and affluent kind of city (the beggars or 'panhandlers' as they're called in these parts, excepted) and we have seen hardly any 'rent-a-wreck' type cars like we have elsewhere . This part of the world also seems to believe that British comedy starts (and ends maybe1?) with Benny Hill !!

Sunday 3rd October
Today we headed for the local high-point of Vancouver - Grouse Mountain. To get there we walked 'downtown' from where we caught a 'seabus' accross the harbour to the northside of the city. From there it was a half hour bus journey to the base of the mountain. There's a cable car that takes the masses up the the slopes in about 10 minutes. The place was very busy with the locals enjoying the last glorious days of the Indian summer. At the top were great views of Vancouver and it's surrounds. There was a 'lumberjack show' which apart from the expected sawing of wood was a comedy and at times 'high-wire' act. There were a couple of locally captured grizzly bears who were cubs when first brought here - they shared the stage with some white wolves who were also kept well behind electric and wire fences. On our way back we decided to check out the 'Chinatown' area of the city - it was a mistake as it turned out to be a seedy, grim looking area where assualt could be only minutes away. We left in a hurry and went for an Indian instead to quench our tastebuds.