Susan Munroe

Jesus and I left Iquitos on the Eduardo VI, a posh(er) version of the Jeisawell, more crowded, less quaint. We weren’t the only tourists this time, though we were the only two sleeping in hammocks in the economy class. The two Dutch had mattresses on the upper deck, and the Belgians slept in a private [...]

The taxi hurtled downhill toward the abuelita and her flock.  Sheep scatter and pigs struggle to waddle out of the way.  Too late, the driver applies the brakes, and ka-thud-du-kahdada – one of the sows disappears under our wheels.  Oh dear god.  I’m horrified, expecting a scene, expecting the abuelita to fly at us in a rage [...]

Cusco, the city of the Incas, the cultural capital of Perú.  At 3400 meters above sea level (11,300ft) it sits, spread across a shallow valley: a sea of terracotta roofs at the center; on the outskirts adobe huts lap at the edges of low, green-brown mountains; the steeples and towers of the city’s countless churches poke upwards like islets. [...]

There are few occasions in life when you can actually sense the universe turning around you, interrupting its normal, chaotic, forward flow to sit you gently in place and to organize the elements of time and space around you like the tumbling pins of a combination lock.  I was on Isla Tengla, near Puerto Montt, Chile, walking through tall, [...]

When Angus and I finally arrived in Pucón (two and a half hours late), Chris, the kiwi uncle, was there to pick us up.  “No worries, mate,” he said as he lugged our bags to the back of his pickup and drove us the half hour out of town to his deer ranch.  Dagmar, his German [...]

I had never in my life started a slow-clap.  The first time would have to be on a bus in the middle of Chile. You’ve seen this phenomenon in movies.  There’s some powerful, unconventional, emotional performance.  The audience is quiet, stunned, uncertain of how to respond, until one person stirs, putting his hands together once…twice…and then a [...]

When I speak of my life here, “here” – Antarctica, McMurdo – is simply “this place.”  This Place.  It’s an enigmatic title.  Vague.  Simple, colorless words that fall flat, providing no descriptive imagery, no information.  And yet it’s the only phrase that works – it’s general enough, bland enough to encompass the space that is…this [...]