Sonora Resort: Part Two

This post is the last in my Vancouver/British Columbia series. For the series, see below.

Vancouver: The Shangri-La Hotel
36 Hours in Vancouver
Sonora Resort: Part One
Sonora Resort: Part Two

On our third day at Sonora, we woke up and headed down to breakfast in the dining room. Each day we tried to vary what we ate, since there were so many delicious options! Here were two favorites – oatmeal with fruit and local wild honey mixed in (yes I am an oatmeal fan and if I’m feeling good I’ll have it while traveling), and a not so good but deliciously sinful choice, banana french toast.

Then, it was off to begin our morning’s activity – salmon fishing!

We headed over to our boat along with our fishing guide for the day, Ben, and soon were zooming off and away from shore.

Ben our guide helping me learn how to fish. I think what we did was the really lazy man’s way of fishing – Ben helped with setting everything up, casting out, and when we finally got a bite, helped each step to reel the fish in. But it’s probably the only way that I would fish (and it was lots of fun, and I felt big and manly, catching my food).

Yeah! I caught a fish!

As the hours went on, the day got warmer and we enjoyed our time outside on the water. It was my first time fishing and I thought I would be bored in between the fish “biting” – but it was relaxing and beautiful.

There were lots of wildlife around, including bald eagles. This one was feasting on a rock fish that we pulled out of the water – it was too small to keep so we threw it back, and this bird swung right down and picked it up. Mr. Feather (who took all the photos you see) captured him at just the right moment in the water.

And the result of a long day of fishing? Our catch! This was our largest one, a 15 pound wild salmon. Sonora took care of all our salmon and sent them to be off to be smoked and sent directly to our home. We can’t wait to receive them. I could eat endless smoked salmon.

After our hours out on the water, we were hungry and indulged in some lunch. Fresh smoked salmon, a light salad, burgers and chicken wings. We shared everything!

After lunch, we wandered around the property some more. There was a beautiful Japanese garden…

…and soon we found the path to the conservatory, which we hadn’t been in yet.

The conservatory was basically a really lovely greenhouse. I loved it here because it was a great place to whittle away a few hours reading. It also reminded me of my mom, because she loves plants and gardening.

It was clear that this conservatory was taken care of by people who loved plants and flowers. We even were shown a papaya tree growing inside, with papayas on it! Have you ever heard of a Canadian papaya?

Lunch was still weighing down on us and we knew we had to get ready for dinner, so we decided to go on a hike with Sonora’s resident golden retrievers. Yes you heard right – there were four golden retrievers on property, just waiting for guests to take them out and go on hikes! They wandered around the resort as they wished and it wasn’t unusual to see one snoozing outside while we were eating lunch or dinner.

Our favorite path was an approximately ~3 mile one that wound around the property.

There were small streams for the dogs to play in, as well as ponds.

The scenery was just beautiful, and you felt utterly alone and peaceful.

We saw some more bald eagles on our walk, and Mr. Feather later went back out to try and take some photos of them. We were later told that this was a “known” bald eagle that would hang out near the property often, that the staff had nicknamed “Dale”. Dale apparently wasn’t cooperating with perching in a good photography zone – I was laughing when I saw this photo, of all Mr. Feather was initially able to capture of him – his beak!

 

After our hike, we did another turn around the Sonora property, just to enjoy the view and water as the sun was setting.

Then – it was onto our last meal for the day, dinner!

This was an amazing pistachio milk tart. I had this dessert with both lunch and dinner, it was that good.

After dinner, we took one last walk around the property, and just enjoyed the gardens in the night.

The next morning, we woke up and got ready to leave. It was very sad! It felt similar to when we left Singita last year – happy that we were able to visit this amazing place, sad that we were leaving too soon. There were so many things we wanted to do at Sonora…that just means that we will be back!

If you’re considering a trip to Sonora – my advice would be – just go. Especially if you’re on the West Coast – the travel time is very reasonable, and you can always stop along the way and enjoy the sights in Vancouver. It was one of the most beautiful places we’ve traveled to, and would be heaven for nature lovers.

It became clear to me during our trip that Sonora island and the resort itself was the product of a lot of love from both its owners and all of the staff. For seasoned and the most picky luxury travelers, I’d describe it as a mix of Aman + a luxury African safari lodge, in the British Columbia. Yes, the service would have to be kicked up a notch to meet the level of the Asian Amans – and in my opinion, more local decor in the rooms and other small details would be necessary for me to call this a Canadian version of Singita. But Sonora comes quite close, and excellent food and beautiful surroundings make up for the rest.

Thank you, as always, for reading!