Giovanni Caboto

Today was dedicated to Giovanni Caboto, an Italian from Venice who discovered North America. I kid you not. He was under charter from the English King Henry 7. Of course through this explorer the English could make a claim on North America so for histories sake his name was anglicized to John Cabot. Personally I always thought that he was an Englishman but I have been corrected. Bueno Vista claims to be the site where Giovanni landed on June 24, 1497 but researchers only know that it was somewhere between Cape Breton and Labrador. There was a whole museum dedicated to Giovanni and for the 500th reunion of his landing in 1497 the local tradesmen and boat builders built a replica of Giovanni's ship the Mathew. The queen even came for the celebration. Of course for insurance purposes they weren't actually allowed to sail the vessel and they ended up having to build a dry dock for it afterwards but it had created some jobs for Newfoundlanders so all was good. I wonder if their insurance broker is Monnex Meloche who are currently charging me a small fortune for my car insurance.Cheryl was so surprised at how small the boat was when we got to go on it that she asked the guide if it was a scale replica but it was the exact size. Only 20 men and it would have been the size of a small tug boat. The trip was 30 days coming and 15 return. He went the following year with 5 boats but never returned.

After the Caboto museum we headed over to the Ryan buildings. James Ryan was a fisherman/merchant/business man who's house and warehouses had been turned into a museum dedicated to the fishing and sealing industries. I was very diligent and read many of the information boards. It reminded me of being on a grade 6 class field trip where one would have to answer and make notes on obscure senseless topics of no worldly significance. Such as. List 8 types of knives used in the fishing industry and the particular function of each knife. List the different types of boats used in the seal industry comparing and contrasting their design. What role did women play in the cod fishery and how did this role hasten emancipation? No wonder I got so stressed out in elementary school. After a couple hours I was in information overload from all of the sign boards I had read so we headed back to our BnB for lunch and a nap .

When we awoke from our nap it had gone from cloudy to sunny and warm. We headed out to the Beunovista Lighthouse on the point because who doesn't like a lighthouse on a warm sunny day. There was a sea stack off from the point covered with even more puffins. Fortunately we had the one eyed binoculars. We wandered around the point looking down on the cliffs and ocean. We even found a statue of Giovanni. We did happen to see this sign warning us of the dangers of Hogweed. I had never heard of Hogweed and I thought this was rather odd that there were no signs warning of the obvious cliff danger but there were signs warning of Hogweed. After our hike, I checked it out on the Internet and this is what I found:

Giant hogweed sap can cause severe skin irritation, blistering, and burns when exposed to sunlight, a condition called phytophotodermatitis. The sap contains toxins that react with sunlight (UV radiation) to damage the skin. If sap gets in the eyes, it can cause temporary or even permanent blindness. Changes can persist for 5 years.

Holy crow. This sounds like poison ivy on steroids. I will have to be careful from now on.

After the point we went to a coffee shop known as the Bicycle Picnic Cafe looking out on the harbour. On a sunny day the views were impressive. We played a game of Scrabble and Cheryl was happy because she won and only had to cheat a little.Read more