The Rockies Review – Part 1

As I am writing this blog post I am having some mixed feelings. I am sad because our trip to the Rockies is behind us. I am relieved that everything went well. I am happy because I have some time to rest now. I am also thankful for all the great memories we made during this trip. This weekend was something I am never going to forget.

I still can’t quite process how much sightseeing we managed to do during these past few days. I am not even trying to list all the places we saw since that would require a lot of space and I don’t think it would be that interesting to read. For a change I am going to tell you more about few things that were the highlights of the trip for me.

On our way to Banff we stopped at Glacier Discovery Centre. It was time to have a nice walk on a glacier. We hopped on to this vehicle called “the Ice Explorer”, which is especially designed for driving on a glacier. The weather was spoiling us as it was a sunny day and you didn’t really even need a jacket outside. We spent some time walking around the glacier, taking pics (ofcourse) and enjoying the amazing view. There was supposed to be an opportunity to get some super pure water straight from the glacier but it had been snowing so much the previous day that we didn’t find any running water. Instead we ended up collecting some snow from the glacier to our water bottles. I mean it kinda does the job, doesn’t it?

Half way through our trip we spent a night in Banff. A stunning little town surrounded by breathtaking mountains. The night in Banff was a party night for us and we sure partied like there was no tomorrow. The next day it was time to explore the town itself a bit more. Checkout from the hotel was early and our party group was feeling pretty tired after having only few hours of sleep. We made a great plan and decided to visit Banff Upper Hot Springs which was located only a 10-minute-drive away. There we spent a relaxed sunny morning in steaming hot water. The views from the pool to the Rocky Mountains were absolutely gorgeous. What else can you wish for?

As mentioned, this weekend was super eventful, and this was only a sneak peak of the whole trip. If I were to tell you every single thing about the trip, I would have to write a book. What can I say; this trip is something you really have to experience yourself. Thanks to everyone who participated. I had such a great time with you all and without you guys it wouldn’t have been this amazing!

-Jasmin xx

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

The Rockies Summer Trip by Iris

On Monday we came back from our amazing Rockies trip. Once again, it became one of my highlights of my stay. Thanks to everyone who joined on our Rockies trip, Westtrek, our great busdriver Darren and our amazing tour guide Janel.

Friday was finally the time to go to the Rockies and I was so excited that I barely slept the day beforehand. I could see that more people lacked some sleep, as a lot of people were getting coffees in Tim Hortons or tried to catch some sleep in the bus. The drive to Valemount was pretty long, so luckily we had enough stops along the way. Our first stop was at Hope, where everybody had time to get a coffee, breakfast and explore the town. We went to see the river and made a few pictures of it. After that we continued our journey to Kamloops, where we could get lunch in the mall. When all our stomachs were filled, we started driving to Spahat Falls. This is a cute little waterfall near Clearwater. As it was so small, you could take pictures with it with the water coming from your nose or mouth. Then we continued our journey to Valemount. On the way to Valemount, we were a bit unlucky, as there was a forest fire. The police blocked the road and we weren’t able to get to our hotel. According to the news, it would take about 2 hours for the road to open again, so we went back to Blue River to wait for new updates. After an hour we heard that the road would not open till the morning, so Janel tried to arrange an hotel in Kamloops. We tried to make the best out of the situation, so some of our group even started dancing on the music. When Janel could not arrange a hotel in Kamloops, he called the police for us. Apparently the road was open again, so the decision was made to get back to the hotel again. We were really happy that we still could get to the hotel, because if we would have gone back to Kamloops, we would have needed to wake up 3 hours earlier. This made the bus drive even longer, but not less fun. During our long bus drive we played games with the whole bus. One of the games was called “Speeddating”. Basically, one side was just switching seats and you had a short time to get to know them. It was really nice to get to know people besides our INTERNeX gang. We also played another game during our long bus ride. While playing the game, Janel would mention a certain item. This item had to be brought to the back of the bus and then back to Janel. The row that managed to do it first won. Besides that we also sang a lot together and turned the bus a bit in a party bus. When we finally got to the hotel, we still went to the Cowboy ranch where we ate dinner, did line dancing and tried to catch a bull with a lasso.

On Saturday our adventure in the Rockies really started. We drove a short way to Mt. Robson where we had breakfast. Then we drove further to Jasper. On the way to Jasper something special happened, we drove into another time zone. The clock had to be forwarded 1 hour. This was sometimes confusing, because one of my phones didn’t change automatically while the other one did. In Jasper we could get lunch for at the Columbia icefields, as it can be really expensive there. I chose to do the Snocoach on this day, which was one of the optional activities. During the Snocoach we drove in a big tank up to the glacier. It was really nice to see all the snow in Canada again, because in a way I missed it a bit. Here we could try out the fresh water from the glacier. Besides that we also made a few great pictures in front of the mountain. After the Snocoach we drove up to Peyto lake, which was the first really blue lake that we saw on our journey. I was amazed by the amazing blue water and made some great pictures in front of the lake. Then it was time for the second lake of our big trip: Bow Lake. At Bow Lake we could do the Polar Wolf Swim. Basically, we ran with the whole group into the water, because that seemed easier. However, in my opinion the water did not get warmer while I was swimming in it, so I got out of it really soon. We all quickly changed back into our normal clothes and drove to our second hotel. We did not stay really long at that hotel, as we had to get dinner and then had to meet at the pub for pre-drinks. The drinks in the pub were really cheap, so a great place for pre-drinks for our big party in Banff. After getting some drinks we went to the club to dance the night away.

The next day a lot of people were still recovering from the day before. We already had to leave really early in order to see all the lakes that day. Our first stop was at Lake Minnewanka where we had breakfast again. After I finished my food, I decided to explore the lake for a bit and make pictures together with Lea. On the way back to the bus we also saw big horn sheep walking away and luckily I got the chance to make a picture of them as well. Then we drove further to one of the more famous lakes of the Rockies, Lake Louise. We first did a hike to a hidden spot. From this hidden spot, you could make a beautiful picture of the lake without all the tourists on it. After I got pictures from the lake, I decided to go back to the lake and enjoy the view from the bottom. However, I could not spend a lot of time there, as I already did a long hike before that. After time at the lake itself, we could either choose to go to Lake Louise village or do the Lake Louise gondola. I decided to do the Lake Louise gondola, which meant that I could also enjoy the all you can eat buffet beforehand. The food was really good and after I ate I was ready to go up to the top of the gondola. Franz, Alex and I took the open gondola, as we wanted to make sure that we could make nice pictures if we would spot a bear on the way to the top. Unfortunately we didn’t see any bears. Once on the top, we did a hike which took us to a really nice viewing point. From there you could see the mountains on the back and the clouds also added something mystical. As I was a bit late, I had to sing a song in front of the bus. I decided to sing “Het is een nacht”, which is a famous Dutch song. It was fun to see Danielle and Bart singing along, which made it less awkward for me. After enjoying the amazing view at the top of the gondola, it was finally time to go to the best lake in the Rockies, which I think is Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake is the most blue lake in the Rockies and great for pictures. We hiked a short time to get a better view of the lake and made a picture there. I was so amazed by the blue color of the lake. I also tried to make one on the rocks, which was really scary for me. After Moraine Lake we continued our way to another amazing lake, namely Emerald Lake. A lot of people decided to do canoeing. I went together with Lea and Merle. We all got a paddle and I think we were doing a pretty good job with directing the boat. On the lake we were enjoying the views of the mountains and the beautiful lake. After that we drove up to the Mountain View Cabins. There were only a few cabins, which basically meant that we were the only one at the cabins. We had a great BBQ and then I explored the area a bit. After that I played a game with Dawid, Marko, Mandy, Tess and Nathalie. I ended that night early, while others decided to party.

After getting breakfast we already had to drive back to Vancouver. It was a long way back to Vancouver, so we played some games again, watched a movie and also had a few great stops. We had one stop at Kelowna to get lunch. We got pizza and ate this next to the lake. We also had one more stop next to a beautiful mountain. On our way we got a bit unlucky again, as there was an accident on the highway near Chilliwack. At the end of our trip it was an emotional goodbye, as Danielle, Tess and Merle are almost leaving.

I hope you had a great time in the Rockies, because I certainly did! See you soon at PuB NiGHT!

– Iris

INTERNeX International Exchange
International Village,
Suite 2077, 2079 – 88 West Pender Street
Vancouver, Canada -V6B 6N9-
Web: http://www.internexcanada.com
Email: pr@internexcanada.com

Rocky Mountains

Although driving more than 2.000 kilometers in four days, without too much sleep, nothing will ever replace Internex’s amazing trip to the Rockies.  Early Friday morning a group of people from all over the world stepped into a bus, left Vancouver and took out on a journey to The Canadian Rocky Mountains.  Our tour guide was Hayley from West Trek Tours, who made this trip as unforgettable as it was, together with our bus driver Handsome Ian. We drove along the highway until we reached the beautiful town Hope where we had some pit stop and we already were surrounded by mountains. Next stop was in Kelowna were we had a picnic on the beach, enjoyed the hot sun and took a swim in the refreshing Kelowna Lake.  Back on the Canadian Okanakan highway we drove along the Okanakan lake until we made another pit stop at a farmers market to pick up some delicious fruits to enjoy on the way.

 

Finally before sunset we made it to the Mountain View Cabins in Golden.  After a long drive we were all hungry so the cabin hosts made us a BBQ dinner and after the dinner we grilled some marshmallows on a bonfire. Can you imagine sitting around a bonfire up in the mountains in middle of nowhere were you can smell the nature all around you?  Surrounded by forests and wild animals and being told stories of people running away from a bears? The night turned into a bonfire party, were our lovely guide Hayley sang country songs and played her ukulele and we all sang along. What a wonderful night!

 

 

 

 

Early Saturday morning we drove back on the highway until we reached Alberta State and guess what?  We drove back in time. We arrived into Banff National Park where I’m pretty sure the most beautiful nature on this earth exists. First we went to see Emerald Lake and Lake Louise, a stunning beautiful lakes, as blue as the sky, with mountains all around them. Almost like standing in front of a picture. Then it was time to see Lake Louise from above. We drove down to the Lake Louise ski resort and had a lunch buffet before we took the gondola up to a mountain were we got the most amazing view ever. On our way up, we searched for some wild animals in the forest, but I guess they were hiding.  However we got lucky on our way back.  We found them.  Yes guys, up in the wild nature on our way back in the bus we finally saw some bears. Not just one or two, no we saw seven bears.  A black bear mother, feeding her two little cubs and the cutest grizzle bears hiding between the trees. I actually didn’t know that on this earth there existed a place where wild bears could just chill along the road, but now I know 🙂

 

Next we drove to the cute little mountain town Banff to check in to our hotel and have some relaxing time before dinner. It was Saturday night, so people were in mood for partying. We went to a pub for a drink or two and then we found a nightclub in town. Have you ever visited a nightclub up in the mountains? If not, there is one in Banff 😉

Sunday morning we woke up early and had our breakfast from Tim Horton. We had a long day ahead, the biggest sightseeing day on the trip.  We went to see Lake Minnewanka / Two Jack Lake, Bow lake and Moraine lake, which was even more stunning than Lake Louise. What a nature and what a place. The last lake we saw was Peyto Lake, were we took a polar bear swim were the water is only  5,5 degrees.  That was pretty awesome.  Then we drove in to the Jasper National park were we had the highlight of the day, The Columbia Ice field. The largest ice field in the Rocky Mountains which is about 325 square kilometres (125 sq mi) in area, 100 metres (330 ft) to 365 metres (1,198 ft) in depth and receives up to 7 metres (280 in) of snowfall per year. Our glacier adventure began with an opportunity to ride on the surface in the all-terrain Ice Explorer – a massive vehicle specially designed for glacier travel, and there are only 23 of them in the whole world. When we came up to the glacier, we walked on the ice and filled our water bottle with fresh glacier water. Defiantly the best water we’d ever taste. It was a perfect time to capture the beauty of the Ice field’s breathtaking mountain setting.

Back on the highway on our way to Mount Robson, we made a stop at the Athabasca Falls, the most powerful waterfall in the Rocky Mountains which was pretty amazing. It was cold so we found a Belgium waffle man and had some hot drinks and waffles there. Then we kept driving and were we almost reached Mount Robson, the highest peak of The Rocky Mountains, we unfortunately drove into a thick black fog where our beautiful sunny weather changed into heavy rain. Too bad for a view on Mount Robson. Before dinnertime, we made it to our country hotel in Mt. Robson, were we checked in and had a nice warm shower. A real country night was about to start, yes ladies and gentleman we were now all ready to see some real cowboys. We were picked up of the cowboys and their cowgirls who drove us to their ranch and served us a dinner and drinks. The dinner party soon changes to a wild cowboy party were we all danced line dance late into the night. Monday morning we drove back to Vancouver.

Thank you all for joining us on this unforgettable Rocky Mountains trip. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as the PR team.

 

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PR Team

 

 

INTERNeX goes Rockies May 2015 – Part 2

As promised: part 2 of the Rockies trip review..

DAY 3

Well, everyone was there except for Sambo, Papa Wolf’s right hand on the tour. Sadly we only saw some elk on the tour, but on the other days we saw two black bears and one grizzly bear. APPLAUSE!

We got breakfast from Tim Hortons and we went to see more lakes and went to the top of Sulphur Mountains in a gondola. On our way to the top the view over the mountains was breathtaking, even though it was cloudy we could still see a lot. It was freezing on the top and there was still quite a lot of snow. The weather on the top changes rapidly which was very interesting to see. Another awesome thing on the top of the mountain was the ‘West Trek photo shoot’ – we had to jump or make a Matrix like move while Sambo took a picture. I am excited to see the end result.

Lake Louise and Emerald Lake are a huge highlight of the tour and which is where we went afterwards. Lake Louise is still partly frozen, but the scenery is amazing nonetheless. Highlight of the tour for many people was Emerald Lake. Most of us rented canoes here and got onto the lake and paddled around – absolutely fascinating. This lake has turquoise coloured water, which makes the lake very special. Plenty of selfies were made and a big wolf howl was done by all the baby wolves on and around the lake.

Another huge highlight of the tour was the cabins. Wooden cabins built on the mountain between the trees with a cosy fireplace area. We had a lovely barbecue here, tasted some wine and sang songs around the campfire. Papa Wolf finally shared his bear stories with us and we got to see the Milky Way as it was so dark at the view point. We also had a birthday girl amongst us, so we sang for her, we drank more beers, had more fun and some people only went to bed at 4 a.m. Good job guys!

DAY 4

The very last day of our trip we mostly sat in the bus because we had to head back to Vancouver. But before we headed back to the city we visited a buffalo sanctuary where Leo, the host, told us about his cattle and showed us how native Canadian people used to make fire back in the days.

Then we got to see some real wolves and howled with them, quite an experience I’d say.

We were lucky to have a very warm and sunny day, because we went to Kelowna where some of use dived into the lake; a nice and refreshing end of our trip. We headed back to Vancouver and arrived there around 7.30 p.m. We were sad to leave the Rockies, but we all were very satisfied and happy that we got to go on this trip. Also, almost all of us had new nicknames!

INTERNeX’ers, thank you so much for the great great Rockies trip.

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INTERNeX goes Rockies May 2015 – Part 1

Our four-day trip to the Rocky Mountains with West Trek… this weekend was absolutely amazing! Thanks to our tour guide Papa Wolf we know a lot more about these beautiful mountains and its surroundings, we know more about bears, fun facts about villages and besides, we have many new friends.

DAY 1

On the first day we started our journey to the Rocky Mountains. We first went to Hope, which is located about two hours from Vancity. Hope is a cute little village, where the famous movie Rambo was filmed. After a short stop for some coffee and breakfast we continued our journey to Kamloops where the we, the baby wolves, could buy lunch and snacks for later that day.

Papa Wolf had prepared some games which we played on the bus. The bus was divided into two teams: Team Beavers and Team Snakes. Papa Wolf would name an object after which both teams had to find this object in our bags, pass it through all the way to the back of the bus, pass it through to the front, hand it over to Papa Wolf and make the sound of their animal team name. The team making the sound first won. Haha, imagine half a bus making a beaver sound. Quite hilarious. Besides playing games we sang – and we sang loud. Avicii – Wake me up and Grease – Summer Nights. Oh, a bus full of nightingales.

After our stop in Kamloops the bus headed to the Spahat falls, a nice little waterfall where Papa  Wolf offered to take some immature pictures. That turned out hilarious I guess, can’t wait to see all your photos.

 

After this stop we got back on the bus and drove to our first hotel in Valemount. When we were arriving there the sun was out and people were feeling good. So we sat down, drank some beers, had a pasta dinner and then we played street hockey! A campfire was built and people got to know each other better. A good way to end the first day.

DAY 2

Rise and shine early because we were about to officially enter the Rocky Mountains National Park. The first stop was Mount Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The peak of this mountain is higher than the altitude at which a sky diver jumps out of their airplane, namely 3,954 meters. Also, this lovely mountain creates its own weather because of its elevation. We were told that often the mountain is surrounded by clouds, but our group was lucky to see most of “her face”, as Papa Wolf would call it.

After Mount Robson we headed to Jasper to get some lunch supplies and then drove further to the Athabasca Falls followed by the Columbia Ice fields. At the Columbia Ice Fields an optional activity was offered, which was the SnoCoach. The SnoCoach is a huge bus, specifically designed to drive on snow, which has enormous tires taking passengers all the way up to the glacier. On the glacier we had an amazing view on the surrounding mountains and the huge ice fields.

On our way back from the Glacier Papa Wolf introduced another game. Everyone on the SnoCoach had to stand up, hold the shoulders of the person in front of them and while the bus was driving up a steep slope, both teams on the bus had to try to remain standing as long as they possibly could. The team that collapsed first lost. I think to remember there was a tie!

After some people had done their jumping jacks because they said a certain word, we continued to two lakes. One of those lakes was Bow Lake; absolutely beautiful. The lake was still partly frozen and that created a very winter like landscape. JAPANESE GIRL!

After having visited these amazing hotspots we checked into our hotel and we all got sexy for our night out in Banff. Papa Wolf, all dressed up looking swish in his too tight yellow pants and suspenders, first took us to a pub located right next to the hotel. Together with baby wolves from the other bus we played an absolutely awesome drinking game after which we went to Banff’s best night club! As far as I could notice everyone was having a great time and I wondered who would make it to the next morning’s wild life loop at 8 a.m.

Want to know what happened the following two days? Tomorrow part 2 of the Rockies review will be released!

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