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Susan’s next adventure – and first real writing job!

I’m planning a trip back to Peru in March and April, this time not just for fun, but with a purpose.  I’m going to be working for a non-profit organization (Awamaki) based in Ollantaytambo, a small town not far from the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu.  Ollantaytambo is one of the [...]

the dog who ate my toilet paper

Jeni and I were camped on the edge of a seven hundred foot bluff overlooking Reds Canyon in the San Rafael Swell, Utah.  This was our last night on the road together, the night of the full moon, and the fall equinox.  Equinox means the time of equal day and night, but the rising of the [...]

teething: march 12 – 20

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 Channel [...]

secrets i’ve been keeping

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 dimension [...]

camping with grizzly bears is scarier than hitchhiking

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 and [...]

wanted: women, aged 20-30

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 [...]

here there be bears

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. [...]

returning to civilization after a long tramp in the bush

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 island!  [...]

a month later…

…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 probably [...]

home sweet boat

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 home for the moment, [...]