The motorboat left at 11 AM. It was almost like riding a rollercoaster, since we were sometimes almost jumping from one wave to the next. On the way to the hot springs there were a lot of whales. It wasn't easy to take a picture of them since they were always gone so quickly. I saw at least five grey whales: Sometimes I could only glimpse their back and twice I could even see their tail. The driver of the boat told us that we were unusually lucky with the amount of whales that surfaced close to us.
I was getting a little sick from the rough ride, thus I was happy when we finally arrived.
It was a 2 km hike to the hot springs, which was quite exhausting but also very beautiful. The path went through a rainforest and there were a lot of interesting plants and birds to behold.
After arriving at the hot springs, I changed into my bathing suit. However it took me a while until I was in the water, since it was actually surprisingly hot. After getting used to the heat, it was extremely comfortable to sit and relax in the water - it was almost like a hot tub. There was also a big dog running around in and around the hot springs. He was very keen on small rocks - whenever someone picked up a rock, he loved to take it from him and sometimes ran away with it.
I guess I was in the hot water for a bit too long as I was feeling a little sick afterwards. But that only lasted for a few minutes. On the walk back to the boat, I felt extremely relaxed in a weird way.
I was still feeling rather relaxed on the boat ride back to Tofino. In fact, I sometimes felt as if I'd fall asleep and my eyes were falling shut a few times. The water around us was unusually green. This time, we didn't see any whales. Instead, we actually managed to see a black bear, which was looking for food on a beach. I felt so lucky, it was almost like an early birthday present to see all these amazing things today!
I arrived back in Tofino around 5 PM and went back to the hostel to take a shower.
Around 7 PM I met with Johanna, whom I had met in Victoria before and who is currently working in a resort here in Tofino. We had a really nice evening. At first we went down to Jacks Waterfront Pub, where we had a really nice Burger with fries. I also had a coke and a cider. We spent a few hours in the pub and talked a lot about our experiences here and how they are changing us. After the pub, we wanted to walk to the beach to watch the stars. However, there were no lights on the road to the beach, so we decided to stay just where we were, which was in the middle of a small remote street. We sat down on the ground and watched the sky for a while, until we heard some sound, which was a bit scary. After that, we walked on and ended up sitting on a bench that was like some kind of big rocking chair.
Around midnight, Johanna was the first to sing me a short 'Happy Birthday' song. We still sat and talked for a while until a small black cat joined us. It was kind of cute but also a bit scary, since it was jumping around hunting after shadows.
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