This was the day we had been waiting for, the day we would pass through the Panama Canal on our way to visit my husband’s cousin in Ecuador. Fred, my spouse, had been up and down throughout the early morning hours of the sixth day of our cruise, in anticipation of our 5 a.m. arrival to the ...

While I was visiting South America recently, I made the acquaintance of Peppe Bjorn, who is from Italy. I soon learned that my new friend spent much of his time thinking of the next project he might paint, photograph, build or redecorate. It appeared that his creative mind seldom rested and ...

I recently traveled to Cuenca, Ecuador on a cruise ship with my husband, Fred. On the way there, we spent a few days outside of Washington, D.C., two in Huntersville, N.C., and four more in Pompano Beach, Fla., where we left our van in my cousin’s care. I woke very early on the fourth ...

On our recent trip to South America, I was blessed to be able speak with Giovanni Cambizaca of Cuenca, Ecuador. Cambizaca was born in the middle of the Ecuadorian Amazon, in an area where there were just three or four houses and from where it took his parent’s two days to walk to the ...

Like many generations before me, I have officially become an outsider to the ways of the world. I feel like my grandmother who complained about hippies, or my mother who, after 10 years, is still learning how to use her iPhone. This is the cycle of life: the older generations become ...

The text arrived at 1:06 last Monday morning just as I was wrapping up my shift at The Post-Journal. It was from my wife. “It’s over, honey,” Vicki punched into her iPhone. I knew what she meant. “Coach,” our 10-year-old, 160-pound Great Dane was gone, the victim of what we ...