Category: <span>Encounters</span>
Today
Today I’m turning 38. Mai got up at dawn and is on her way to the office. When she asked me a few weeks ago what I wanted for my birthday the answer was easy: getting together with a small group of friends, sharing a good dinner and going dancing […]
The Duet
He makes his way on Clayton Street, down one of those steep hills that make San Francisco famous. The walker lifts ever so slightly above the ground, moves a few inches and lands on the pavement again: one step forward. He smiles. Two familiar hands hold his hips firmly yet […]
A Cop in Peru
Kike is standing on the plaza, chatting with his colleague. They just reprimanded a group of foreign bikers for driving the wrong way. Cusco is a great place for sightseeing but a challenging one for driving, especially in the San Blas neighborhood, a labyrinth of narrow one-way alleys paved with […]
Encounters in Ecuador
Luis glides above the black waters of the Napo River, in the Amazon basin. He is the naturalist guide for a group of 5 visitors from England, Australia and the USA. His father was a schoolteacher from the mountain. His mother was born and raised in the Amazon basin. She […]
Touristophobia
Breakfast time at our hotel in Trujillo, Peru. It seems Mai and I are the only two customers. The manager salutes us and says something to the staff in Spanish, deliberately speaking very fast so we won’t understand. Within 30 seconds a large flat-screen TV is turned on and the […]
Silence is Golden
Last year I took part in a spiritual workshop, along with a dozen other people. When the time came to break for lunch, our teacher proclaimed a rule: no talking for the next 20 minutes. I was looking forward to discussing the morning’s experience with the other folks in the […]