Queen Charlottes (number 33) -- the good

We made it to the Queen Charlottes! Beautiful islands, I referred to them as "the Northwest on steroids." Big trees, eagles everywhere (we got off the ferry and went for a walk, and counted over 20 in one mud flat. We never saw that many together again, but it was pretty amazing; later, people at a restaurant gave us the guts to some salmon they had and we put them on the beach -- the sound of the ravens and eagles going after them was particularly memorable), deserted beaches, pretty lakes. We went on a two-day tour to some of the old Haida sites, spending the night in a longhouse (built in 1985 to house protesters who objected to logging in some of the more pristine areas -- the protest led to the establishment of the Gwaii Hannas National Park and Heritage Site, jointly administered by the Canada Parks Service and the Haida Nation). Highlights of the tour included spending time in natural hot springs -- one pool was too hot for more than a couple-minute soak; touring Skedans, an old village where the totem poles are gradually being reclaimed by the earth, just as the Haida wanted -- the memorial poles in particular were expected to decompose so the person's soul could be reborn -- it really was a spiritual place; hearing a report that whales and dolphins were 20 minutes away, so rushing out there in our speedy boat, seeing whales (humpbacks, we think,) in the distance, then being surrounded by white-sided dolphins for probably half an hour -- riding the wake, jumping all around. I'm sure there were over 100 of them. It was pretty amazing! We also went to a dinner hosted by a Haida woman and featuring traditional foods. I liked dried "spawn on kelp" -- oolichan [herring, I think] eggs gathered on seaweed where the fish deposited it, but fresh, not so much. And this seafood lover could never complain about salmon, cod, octopus, etc. Yum!
Plus we met so many interesting people, local and tourists. All right, Greg did sit next to a couple of obnoxious yuppies at the dinner, but I got to hear about an English man who decided to sell everything and bicycle around the world, and a couple from Calgary complaining about how oil money is negatively impacting their city. We talked to a number of artists, notably carvers re-learning the traditional Haida crafts. One man saw us taking a picture of one carving and noted that his son had made it. He didn't say he made the one beside it until we turned our cameras to it. We commented on another person working on a canoe, and he insisted it was the community's canoe. I don't think Westerners have the same humility we saw there. Very interesting...