Andre Terrein Photography

Tofino, one of my favorite places on earth, a 6 hour trip west of Vancouver through a beautiful ferry and one of the best driving roads I’ve been on. It’s a mixture of mountains, beaches and islands. Tofino itself has about three streets, with a skatepark in the middle. First time I went, I took my penny board and rode along (note, I’m a pretty shitty skateboarder) the empty park late at night. We also took my 2006 Mazda Miata, in the middle of September, which if you haven’t been to the Pacific Northwest, it would be suitable to bring lots of rain gear. We stayed at the Tofino trek in, just Endrio and I, we tried to surf (again, I suck at it) but managed to stand up a couple of times. It’s was cold as shit, we had 5mm wetsuits gloves, booties and hoods. After seeing that place, I decided to keep going back to explore.

You’ve heard about Tofino, a small town off of the west coast of Vancouver island, in the middle of nowhere, In the literal edge of a map. If you’ve ever been to BC, Tofino Isa g to for locals and adventures and so it’s recently become evermore crowded and hyped up.

Well, one day at the office, I was ranting just this to a to worker, and she suggested I head on over to a place called La Push. The most Westerly town in the US mainland. About 6 hours from Vancouver BC, through Seattle ann Port Angeles, the drive is nothing short of spectacular. Not to mention, my best friend Jay came along for the trip, the most down to earth, chill guy who could survive on his own if the planet suddenly became a wasteland. In fact, the housing crisis Is so bad that he often talks about his idea of taking an old, rusty F150 (8th Gen), called Old Yeller, because it’s old and yellow.

Anyway, I booked a trip long in advance with Endrio, an Italian friend who cancelled last minute, and on a Tuesday night, I called Jay if we’d want to make the 8hour drive from Kelowna, down to La Push and without hesitation said yes. Legend.

About La Push,

More remote than I expected, there’s one hotel with six rooms, and one old shack which will rent you the worst foam boards I’ve ever encountered.

There’s a Total of four Beaches; Rialto, first, second, third, marked from north to south.
Rialto is not a Sandy Beach, it’s where I took most of the pictures I took, unfortunately, half of them got corrupted in the middle of the trip (reminder to never buy an SD card at a gas station). It’s full of smooth black, perfect for skipping all day, there is nothing, and I do genuinely mean you can walk for hours and not find a soul nearby. And it’s perfect, full of dried fallen trees that take up different shapes like clouds in the sky, make you feel like they are bones from fallen dinosaurs. Jay and I choose to bring one rock home since no other shop was around, and I still have mine to this day, it fits perfectly in my palm.

We went surfing in Second Beach since you had to pay to surf in first. Second Beach was a 3km hike from the parking spot carrying foam boards

A little bit about Moab, it’s definitely a place with a substantial amount of history. Not only is it where Aaron Ralston lost his arm on account of a boulder jamming his arm with the adjacent tock in the middle of the dessert and leading him to cut it off with. The story is recounted in the film 127 hours or Between a Rock and a hard place which I highly recommend.

Anyways, Moab is a geological gem of a place, with natural formations inline anywhere in the world. I remember a tour guide mentioning that the Stone in Petra, is the same as the one found in Moab. And as much as I Google, there seems to have been a civilization called Moabites from Jordan, and well, even though Moab means place near heaven, I couldn’t find any strong correlation between the two places.

Anyways, Moab, the Family trip after my sister got married, truly a place like no other, with massive rainstorms which carve the sandstone into these crazy formations.

Arches, the National Park nearby had the largest concertation of natural arches in the entire world. And it does beg the question, how long do we have to see them, how many of them were there, and how many will be left. Just like a glacier, the landscape is rapidly eroding away whilst we sit and look.
Seeing such natural beauty makes you wonder how important it should be to preserve it.

There was a time in my life where it all got a bit boring, I don´t do photography full time, you see, I´m an engineer, I love well-built things as well as disassembling them. During a time when I was struggling, I though it would be best to buy a plane ticket to the most remote place. My one rule was to know someone there so I could crash at his place.

Well, my friend Thomas at the time of graduation couldn´t find a job (post COVID, and well there´s not a lot of jobs in Canada, anyways, I´m rambling now) except in Yellowknife, A true place at the edge of the world, as you can probably imagine by now, I also like exploring the various limits of geography.

Visiting Yellowknife, whilst living in Vancouver was quite a shock, there was a single grocery store (Walmart), where bags of chips were 12 dollars a pop) pun intended). Even in Canadian dollars, a fairly hefty amount. It is all due to the complicated route that buses must take to get all the way up there. Especially since Yellowknife is situated at the northern part of the Great Slave Lake, the 12th largest lake in the world.

Its said that it is the single best place to see the northern lights, and it being February, I was bound to see them, also why I choose Yellowknife. Well, in the middle of February (62.45deg North) it was about -40 Degrees, It was so F*cking cold you don´t even have to specify which system of measurement you´re using.

I was there three nights, so the plan was to plan excursions deep into the night, at the darkest hour, to see them. in the end, I saw them once, my camera froze, and there was too much light to get anything out of it IN the end though, right before moving to Europe, I spotted them again, as If they were saying goodbye. These are them.

The last trip of my 7 year Journey in Canada, I moved there from Mexico to study Engineering. After finding out I was unhappy at my job, and a couple of broken heart stories, I decided to leave and start fresh.

I think Banff/Calgary was a good sendoff, especially during Stampede (the largest rodeo in the world, or so they claim. Concerts at night, hiking and exploring in the daytime. I went with a very good friend of mine, she actually taught me photography during COVID (can´t believe we actually went through that). Because I had nothing else to do, and wanted to learn something new.

Funny enough, she ends up in Calgary and I in Vancouver, and since she doesn´t know how to drive, we decided I would rent a car, and we would go to see Lake Louise. Much to my disappointment, I felt like the “Special” part of the lake is quite lost, its full of tourists, and basically a big hotel complex. you can try to get up to Moraine Lake Hiking or via bus (Since they don´t allow cars, I know, stupid).

So, we woke up at 4:00am took our speedy Kia Rio, and went to see Lake Louise, we decided it wasn´t worth it and kept looking for random lakes, this is where we encountered Emerald Lake. Appropriate name if you ask me, and even if I´m a photographer, I believe my pictures cannot express the beauty of this lake. it looks like something out of a Gatorade bottle.

We explored all weekend, and just stumbled upon these stunning views, as If Canada was giving me a farewell.

San Miguel de Allende,