There's a three inch cockroach that wanders our bathroom by night. It's got a bad leg so that when it walks across the ceramic tiled sink or floor it makes a kind of clacking sound, like a hard shelled crab on pavement. I don't want to step on it by design or accident. I'd hate to get all that goop on my foot in the middle of the night. I decided to pee in the dark and shuffle my feet loudly to be sure that it keeps out of my way. Ellen doesn'...

"You're from Toronto are you? Well we're not going to hold that against you." Our new neighbour, a Tony Soprano look-alike, said to us after a brief introduction."And let me guess, you must be from Alberta," I replied. First encounters with Albertans are always pretty much the same for me. It's as though they're just about to catch up to us Ontarians in a competition that we didn't even know was taking place. Ellen and I are stretched out i...

"I haven't any fear of getting caught out after dark in Quito. I hold a can of pepper spray right out in front of me so everyone can see it. I don't go anywhere without it.""But what if the muggers have guns?" I asked."It's all knives in Quito, they don't have guns - can't afford them." she replied.Ellen and I were having dinner with Anne-Marie, a freckled young Irish woman who'd been teaching English for the past six months in Quito, Ecua...

Like three lost children we wandered. Thom the Dutchman and I, laden with bags of groceries and Margaret, Thom´s wife, sauntering behind empty-handed with a vacant smile. We had taken a cab to a grocery store in suburban Cuenca, but had neglected to make note of where we were staying. Ellen knew; she was our navigator, but she had stayed back at the hostel to rest. "Couldn't she have pinned the address on my shirt?" I thought. We knew the name of our small...

I woke up this morning thinking about Toronto. Back home, from the moment my eyes see the first light of day, the subconscious questions begin. Is there enough low-fat food in the refrigerator to make my breakfast? Will I get hit by a car on the way to the cafe? What about on the way home? Will one of "America's Most Wanted" somehow sneak through the television screen and do something bad to me while I sleep?Ellen and I are in the lush green valley town of Ba...