Vancouver is having more fun these days. I guess you could say that it is all part of the 2010 Olympic legacy. Not just in the summer months immediately after the sporting events were over when Granville Mall was still closed off to traffic to enable all sorts of street entertainment, cultural activities, community events and mobile food cart services to take place.
From July to September, Tourism BC launched the Klahowya Village in Stanley Park, an aboriginal tourism package that attracted both tourists and locals alike to a unique First Nations experience as offered by artisans, guides, storytellers, elders, musicians and dancers from the native communities around British Columbia.
Children dressed in Halloween costume at the Klahowya stage waiting to catch the Stanley Park Ghost Train
And when all the leaves are brown and the sky is…well, let’s just say silvery 
, the Klahowya stage where the First Nations dance groups once performed daily may be empty, the village is teeming with life. Children and their parents come to visit the Haunted Farmyard and catch a Halloween ride on the Stanley Park Ghost Train to watch Alice in Nightmare and see how the fairytale princess fights her way through the forest inhibited with wicked witches, voodoo deities, zombies, body-snatchers and the like. The Stanley Park Ecology Society also set up camps to bring visitors on a Creatures of The Night Theatrical Walks journey.
Soon the Christmas spirit will be upon us. The miniature train will once again carry passengers through a journey of lighted trees of red, green, yellow and blue. Wanted to see some white stuff and play in it? Skiing in the city of Vancouver is not unheard of, but go a little higher at Grouse, Seymour, you are more than likely able to do that in the first few months of the year. If not, venture a little further up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler and you can slide the same slopes where the 2010 Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalists were born.
The Klahowya Village is conveniently located in the same area as the Vancouver Aquarium where Haida artist Bill Reid’s Killer Whale sculpture still stands. Nearby are the Rose Garden, Malkin Bowl, Lumberman’s Arch and even Brockton Oval which is within a short walking distance away where the picturesque totem poles have kept up with the time and recently received a make-over. Work is on-going to improve the century-old Stanley Park even further.
Before long, the cherry bloosom season in Vancouver would attract thousands of Asian tourists to town, making you realize that the city itself is really a fine jewel in the Pacific. Before you know it, summer would return and so will the First Nations drumming and dancing at Klahowya Village to complete the eternal circle again.
Stanley Park Klahowya Village & Miniature Train, Vancouver BC
View Larger Map
