Zaruma. Late morning. At his Abuelita’s house we ate cheese empanadas and overripe fruit, and we sat in chairs that lined either side of a hallway leading to the front balcony, the one that overlooked the central plaza. I’d discovered in the early dark one morning that a crew would meticulously groom the flowers planted down there between the palm trees, and they’d ... [Continue Reading]
Girls, Girls, Girl
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The girls looked bored. They slouched in plastic chairs, picked at their nails, crossed and uncrossed their toothpick legs. Neon shadows slashed their skin, deepened the dark places, made their bones look sharper than they really were. Men filtered through the open-air patio, Western guys in flip-flops and shorts. They wore the efficient expressions of informed ... [Continue Reading]
Remembering Jane
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I’d known Jane less than 24 hours when she told me a secret she’d been carrying around for months. She was driving me to see her Swiss doctor to take care of a bladder infection I'd had since I came to Europe six weeks prior. I was backpacking with three 18-year-old guys, and I was thirsting to speak to a woman—something, at 17, I had been too naïve to know I’d ... [Continue Reading]
The Visitor
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Just as she had insisted that we bring no toilet paper, my little sister insisted that we begin our ascent at dawn. But at dawn, even in August, it was cold in the Colorado Rockies. I balked, but, as with the toilet paper, I lost. So at first frigid light, I boiled water for Grape Nuts and instant coffee while my sister disassembled the tent, hauled down our bear bags, ... [Continue Reading]