Category: <span>Travel</span>
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 […]
Turtle Wisdom
Giant Tortoise Sanctuary, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. 10am. We have been admiring this impressive 700-lbs animal for the past 10 minutes. We took a good look and plenty of photos, and we each had our picture taken next to him. The group moves on to observe the next specimen. As they […]
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 […]
Encounters in Colombia
Erica wears the bright white uniform of the hotel staff, but her smile is even brighter. She does a lot of things that others would consider chores: cooking and serving breakfast, cleaning the rooms, mopping the floors, doing the laundry… When we gave our dog’s beds for washing, the manager […]