HIGHWAY OF TEARS 23047 KM / DAY 348 / FEBRUARY 27, 2012 - 10:25 / VANCOUVER, CANADA

After spending quite a bit of time in the US, I`m looking forward to get to Canada, a country I have never been to. Everybody says Vancouver is a great city (Portland was too by the way). I take the train from Portland to Vancouver. When I arrive late at night Canadian migration is at the Vancouver station. What I didn`t expect in Canada happens - I am taken aside, questioned and searched quite seriously. It never happened before on any of the borders that I crossed for the Via Panam. At the end of the search I was wished a pleasant stay.

In Vancouver I`ll investigate the city life of Aboriginal people who have decided to move here. I will portray some people and if possible return to their places of origin, often the reservation. I`m surprised to find a very active young crowd making their own art, whether it`s music, painting or graffiti.

A couple of days ago a large Women`s Memorial March was held in East Vancouver. It`s a yearly event that commemorates the hundreds of mostly aboriginal women that disappeared the last fifteen years, many of whom were found to have been raped and killed. I`m now driving up to Hazelton in the north of British Colombia, on the so-called `highway of tears`, where many women disappeared over the years. Something else I didn`t expect from this beautiful country with generally great people.