has anyone here ever lived in, or been to either of these places??? me and my grilfriend are looking at them as potential places to live, but we wanna go out and visit first before we decide...so i was wondering if anyone has been there and can give any helpful info on them, etc etc. appreciate it! thanks!
salty has a nicer climate than nelson. some call the valley that nelson is in: "the valley of lost souls". the mountains are high, the valley is deep and narrow, and in the winter, the clouds get stuck between the steep walls of the mountains, so that there is constant cloud cover and never any sun. it's very depressing for people with seasonal affective disorder. i hear there's great skiing but as i am not athletically inclined in that direction, i cant give you a first hand account of that. salty is green and lush year round. snow is very very rare. cost of living is exhorbitantly expensive on ssi, but it's easier to find a job on ssi than it is in nelson. some say that the social climate is changing on saltspring...too many wealthy retirees are forcing up property prices and forcing out the more interesting folk who make saltspring the eclectic artist's community that initially drew people. *shrug* that's just my take on things. i'm sure that you and your girl will find what you're looking for. both places are hippy havens, very beautiful, nurturing places to be. peace!
I've lived in both places. I prefer SSI myselff. But I loooove Nelson too. I find the island people softer....like the water. Nelson has this snotty hippie thing goin too that one doesn't find as much of on SSI. On the other hand Nelson has more free nutritous food than you'll ever be able to eat. You'd think an island would be more isloated than a valley but SSI is only a ferry ride from Van and Vic. Nelsons kinda far from everything.
How much is the cost of living on Saltspring? I know in Victoria you can find anything from a bachelor apartment for 900 a month to a house in a co-op for 500 a month. I was amazed in Port Alberni. You can get a three-bedroom apartment for a hundred bucks a month!
When I lived on SSI I was paying 250 amonth for an eight sided tower with a jacuzi. I'm special and can manifest more than what I need. I think its actually pretty expensive to live on SSI, its cheaper in the winter tho.
sorry i must be a tool, what is an 8 sided tower? damn they both sound like awesome places, im not diggin that weather thing in nelson though, and how can hippies be snotty? lol..! elaborate! damnit i wish SSI wasnt so expensive, i'd be there in a heartbeat!
lucky you, that you have never experienced the stuck up hippie. may you never have to in your future. (and yes, nelson is really horrible for the snotty hippie vibe, but the slocan valley is much more relaxed and laid back, imho. or even around kaslo the vibe is better)
o0o. The snotty hippies. My mom brought one of those home when she was going to UVic... as a friend, I mean. haha. Don't get me wrong. He had a lot of fun activities we could do.. like we went into a cave and started "Hu"ing until the vibrations made another chord.. or something. It was a long time ago.. but man, I remember he'd get pissed at me for the slightest and stupidest things. I remember something about answering the door and he blew up on me because he missed a word on TV.. wth? It's television... Anyway, that's the one incident I can remember. I must have been 10 or 11 at the time. I just remember him seeing everyone around him as inferior.
it's possible to live VERY cheaply in nelson. i don't know much about rent, though, cause i was with my parents when i lived there. i expect it's between 350 - 600 a month for most places, but there are probably lots of cheap little secret places. there are soup kitchens, fruit trees, cheap farmers' markets, lots of free bins on the side of the roads, and general free-lovin hippyness. you can also do work trades at the hostels, especially during tourist season. i understand the flying squirrel offers free room and board to its cleaners. crappy job, though. saltspring is quickly becoming an island made of money. it's been discovered by the tourist machine and is losing all its forest to luxury condos and homes. every summer it's inundated by tourists. it's become incredibly expensive to live there. i'd recommend going to one of the lesser known gulf islands, you can live much more cheaply and peacefully on them and saltspring is only a short ferry ride away. crystaleyez, who hooked you up with the 250/month place?! that's amazing!
well shit, son. nelson is starting to sound way better than ssi if it's turned into a big tourist freakshow. plus if it's cheaper and they have free food bins and stuff, damn!!! sounds fun...we should go visit there, babe.
100 bucks? damn, thats reasonable... they re almost giving away the houses there too, you can get a nice place for around 50,000 there. its not an ugly town either...
whats the deal with port alberni? is it one of the little logging towns that have pretty much shut down because there's no work? and, someone please tell me where i can find a house in vic for 500/month. is it roach infested?
The person I was staying with in Port Alberni works in Ucluelet at a fish plant. 500 bucks? Subsidized housing.. A good one is the Pioneer Co-op in Victoria West. You'll probably go on a waiting list, but it's worth it. They're very nice and clean. Just don't get into the social thing. It's like a little community there. I know quite a few people there and they just have friends outside of the place. They don't go to the meetings or anything and have been living there for years and years and years. It's better that way. Another Co-op in Vic West is the Tyee Co-op. Basically, Vic West is the poor end of Victoria but the housing is very clean and the crime rate is low contrary to what the news may say. I lived there for my entire childhood (I'm only 16 now) and never had any problems with things like that (nor did any of my friends).
Hmmmm...An eight sided tower. Its a tower thats shaped like a stop sign sorta. On SSI I ran into an old friend of mine whos parenst are loaded and own a spa. The tower was the spa before they built the new spa. Snotty hippies.....won't talk to you if you don't have dreads. Glare at you for eating meat...preach luv and don't practice it...that sorta stuff. The valley is better for finding people that are alot more laid back. Neway Nelson and SSI are both really awsome places and you should go to both of them. The Okanagen is also worth checking out too if you wan to pick and find like minded people. Theres lotsa other chill islands that aren't so touristy. I lived on SSI in the winter when it wasn't touristy so I don'y know how bad it gets.
I'm super-happy i found this topic as I have a little knowledege on this stuff. What has been said about Saltspring becoming ultra-touristy and inhabited only by people that can afford a house over 300 grand is becoming more and more true unfortunately. There are a lot of development projects in the works and you can check it all out online, its too bad in my opinion. As for Nelson, visit, visit, visit. thats the best advice i can give ya. I was planning on moving there from where i live now (North Okanagan). Just so no one gets confused, I love Nelson, arts, music, always something going on, its great...BUT the whole neo-bohemian, psuedo hippie, holier than thou ones do abound. And that, to me personally, is rather aggrevating. It all depends on you, whether that is something that is tolerable or just annihilates the the good feeling that is supposed to be there. Those kinds of "hippies" really chafe me out. People I've talked to have said the job market there is flat accept for the summer tourist season. Also, many of the "hippies" are just scamming, sponging bums and there is a bit of seediness like that (but what town doesn't right? We'll get to that in a sec). Great place if you've got the cash to live and rent for fairly high prices in context to what the job scene is like. Anyway, you go visit and make your own judgements. For me, living in no town is ideal and great places and people are found in small incorporated communitites or tiny towns across BC. Ones around Nelson being Winlaw, Slocan, New Denver, Salmo, Ymir...sure, finding work is next to impossible in the little town so usually you must commute. It seems like people seem to be on a good level with how they live and are. Pretty simple, more sustainable living, a lot of people growing their own food, just being more self-sufficient in general. Choosing an ideal place to live is a dream, its hard to imagine one exists. But do look into smaller communities, its not people looking and acting the part, its people being the part. Take a trip around to many places, don't just compare a couple of BC's so-called hippie havens and have those as your only options. They been dubbed that for a reason and usually has something to do with stereotypes. Its hard trying to figure a good place to move, everywhere has its pros and cons of course. Good luck with everything and i hope this helped a little!
I used to live in nelson for six years; it is placed on one of 7 magnetic polls of the earth. when u go there the energy changes. I believe for the good, it is one of the most beautiful places and the winters are fresh with white fluffy snow, I now live in Victoria, and you see I visit salt spring a lot but salt spring is not meant to be lived on. It is still bye a growing community of tourist and good people. But the past history of the island was very sacred and special, it’s a very magical place but I believe it should not have been used for permanent residence. But we can’t do any thing about that now can we
Thats funny.....I heard the same thing about Nelson. That people aren't suppossed to live there. Apparently the natives only went to the koots to heal and living there was considered sacrilege. The seven magnetic poles of the earthe eh? Could you elaborate on that?
i've heard the same about both nelson and ssi. nice places to visit, high energy centers (ssi is on a bed of crystals), but both traditionally not lived in year round. there was a book i read a while ago called sacred sites (or something like that) that showed a map of the power points in north america...it was like a wheel shape with meridians radiating from a center point. places along those meridians have a lot of energy. is that like the magnetic poles thing that you're talking about?
Yeah ssi is on rose quartz and Nelson has one of the largest deposits of regular clear quatz in the world. Apparently the Dalai Llama called Nelson the root chakra of the world.....I found the energy of Nelson to be more intense and the energy of ssi to be more loving.....but thats just me.
