the world is wide and its people so interesting – it is teacher and student, prophet and poet – and i have much to learn

It seems I have backpacked all my life – a blessed fact owed partially to my parents who, though not wealthy, made sure that we ate a steady diet of the unusual. Mom and Dad were always pitching our cumbersome canvas tent somewhere in the Canadian Rockies or along the B.C. and Oregon coasts. Eventually they transplanted us into the Peruvian jungle where I cavorted barefoot, swam with dolphins and piranhas, and dangled from trees while eating fresh mangoes as the juice wept off my elbows. I even managed a pet honey bear and a short stint as a dental assistant in a remote village (I held the flashlight and swatted mosquitoes while the nurse pulled teeth). But that was decades ago. The intervening years have found me raising a family, working, and living in Canada, with short stints in Africa and Europe. I have travelled Europe, returned to Peru to hike the Inca Trail, rambled across Turkey, and annually fly to Kenya to do aid work. In short, I am a sometimes traveller, always with a backpack – a woman who takes every opportunity to wander the world. This blog is for women who travel solo (or hope to!) – and always with a grateful heart