Rivière-du-Loup to Chicoutimi

So I feel kinda dumb today. I'm gonna blame it all on sleep deprivation.

We got up before dawn, got all packed, showered, even ate breakfast, then got outside and waited for the taxi. And waited. And waited. And started freaking out cause the ferry was gonna leave in like 20 minutes, and the taxi we'd ordered the night before still hadn't shown. So I ran inside and called and freaked out in French (thankfully the guy understood English or we'd probably still be in Rivière-du-Loup) and the guy said the taxi would be there soon. Actually, it was pulling up as I stepped out the door. And we made it to the boat with 5 minutes to spare. Except there wasn't anyone around.

We sat inside this little booth for a few minutes, and I was again getting antsy. Then some people walked past towards the boat, and one of them noticed us and motioned towards the boat. So we got our packs back on and headed on board. Still no one around, and the people we'd seen were gone. But at least the boat wasn't gonna leave without us. We settled in and waited. And waited.

It took me half an hour to realize the clock behind the desk was an hour behind the clock on my cell phone. We'd changed time zones between New Brunswick and Quebec, which I'd completely forgotten about. The worst thing was that we'd missed out on an extra hour worth of sleep - something we really could have used. But it was all worth it in the end. While I was staring out at the St. Lawrence bemoaning the fact we were awake, I noticed this white thing that looked kinda like a seal. Again, I blame it on sleep deprivation. It turned out to be a beluga whale, and there were a whole bunch of them. So we ended up with about 20 minutes of whales on tape. Totally awesome.

We ended up in Saint-Siméon before noon, and had hours to kill before the bus showed up. So we decided to walk up to the restaurant. Let me reiterate how much I need to start hiking again. I was hot and sweaty and exhausted to start with. Then we walked an hour uphill with 50+ lb packs. All I wanted to do was sleep by this point. Instead we had a few hours still to kill, so we ate a long leisurely brunch.

The bus took us to Chicoutimi by way of Tadoussac. It is absolutely gorgeous in that area. We had the opportunity to get out and explore a bit when we changed buses. There's a park that overlooks the town and the river and the mountains across. It's a view to die for. I'll have to figure out how to post the video online at some point. Absolutely amazing.

The journey through the mountains to Chicoutimi was beautiful as well. It actually reminded me of travelling through BC with the trees and mountains. It's amazing how parts of Canada can look so similar to each other and be so far apart.

Upon arriving in Chicoutimi, we hadn't exercised enough, it seems, cause we decided to walk to the university where Jonathan's place is. We're crashing at his place tonight - another guy we've met on couchsurfing.com. Again, it's all uphill to get to the university. I must admit though: I love Chicoutimi - beautiful scenery, beautiful river, beautiful people. We were trudging uphill and a guy pulled over on the other side of the road in the middle of traffic and called to us in English to see if we wanted a ride. Man, I don't know who you are, but you restored my energy that day. I would have gladly taken him up on the offer, but we were a block from the campus by that point. And I'd just spotted a karaoke bar. And we still had about 4 hours to kill before Jonathon got out of his class. Yeah, today was all about killing time. So we thanked the guy but declined his wonderful offer, and instead opted for cheap drinks and cheaper poutine. Tomorrow we'll do some work - today's all about getting where we need to go without completely killing ourselves.