Susan Munroe

They’re called the Teeth of Navarino.  Better they should be called the Fangs.  Vicious, merciless, and sharp, these rocks bite.  El Circuito de Los Dientes de Navarino is the southernmost trek in the world, a five-days-plus mission into the exposed interior of the island that sits south of Ushuaia, between the water of the Beagle [...]

Have you ever read the Stephen King novel, Cujo?  I haven’t, but I know it’s about a dog.  And as it’s a novel by Stephen King, I imagine that the dog turns into a monster, or is a monster in disguise, or is some sort of portal by which monsters are able to enter our [...]

There I was, leaning against the wall of the Grant Village Campground bathroom, mechanically shoveling warm oatmeal into my mouth, absently re-reading the campground recycling guidelines for the thirty-seventh time.  Rain hammered on the roof and dripped noisily off the gutters onto the pavement outside.  The bathroom was the only place where I could cook [...]

BG, one of Bob’s female friends, thought I was crazy to go. A six-day trip, in the backcountry, with three 40+ men I barely knew? I’ll admit I had my doubts. Lou, the trip organizer, is a local antiques dealer with whom I’ve become acquainted over the summer. The other two, Joe and Tom, are [...]

I rolled over lazily in my sleeping bag and squinted at the bright light that shone through the tops of the trees. It was morning. I stretched and adjusted my woolly hat and tucked my matted hair back behind my ears. The mosquitoes from the night before still hovered, humming and buzzing around my face. [...]

Today I have spoken more words than I have uttered in the last month.  My throat is dry, my tongue and mouth are tired, but I am out of my head – I have rejoined humanity and am relearning the finer points of human communication.  I’m on the North Island: this bustling metropolis of an [...]

…I find my way out of the rain forest!  Has it really been a month?  Can I blame the delay in updates on my freezer-burned brain?  Apologies, faithful readers.  Writing, as of late, has felt more like work than play, and after six months as an Antarctic galley slave, I’m all about play.  This is [...]

Several songs come to mind at this point… “…just spent six months in a leaky boat” “…we all live in a yellow submarine” My boat isn’t a submarine (though it is painted yellow), and whether it’s leaky or not I can’t say, as it’s in permanent dry dock on top of a hill, but it’s my [...]

I don’t really have time to do this past week justice.  I’m not sure that it would be possible, in fact, to do it justice.  It’s been that good.  But if I don’t write it now, it will never get written, and if nothing else, the pictures that go with this particular episode need a story.  It [...]

It is winter here.  I haven’t seen any snowfall yet, only crusty, frosty piles on the sunless southern sides of mountains and on the tops of the larger peaks I see in the distance, but it is winter, unmistakably.  The tourists have gone home, the towns look closed-down and nearly devoid of life.  Trees have shed [...]