The Maya medicine woman smeared a handful of green, aromatic mud onto my forehead, binding it with a strip of cloth, as she had done on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands. I looked like a mummy in mid-wrap. The "mud" was actually a poultice of ground cacao beans and nine medicinal herbs. … [Read More...]
People In The Outaouais Are As Colourful As Their Autumn Leaves
I was startled to realize that the woman in the striped dress was a mermaid. Then I chuckled when I noticed her right arm was a bird's wing. "She's Birdfishwoman," her creator told me. I was at the home of Russ Zeitz, a log house builder who is also noted for his whimsical wood carvings. Born in … [Read More...]
Haunted Hopi Pottery in Arizona
It’s an awesome feeling to spot a piece of broken pottery among the weeds, pick it up and realize it was made nearly … [Read More...]
Pisac, Earth Mother Temple in Peru’s Sacred Valley
I would love to go back to Peru, but on my next trip I wouldn’t necessarily return to Machu Picchu. The places that … [Read More...]
Cave Art, Architecture And Ghosts Near The Grand Canyon
We bounced along a deeply-rutted dirt road from the Indian cave with its 3,000 year old petroglyphs and pictographs. We … [Read More...]
What is a Pilgrimage?
A pilgrimage, for me, is what differentiates a tourist from a traveler. While a tourist is happy simply to get away, … [Read More...]
Barkerville Celebrates its Chinese Heritage
The glow from hundreds of candle-lit paper lanterns provided the only light as we paraded up the dirt street into … [Read More...]
Aboriginal Magic in the Land of the Quinkans
The oldest rock paintings on Earth are in the Cape York peninsula of Australia's tropical north Queensland. They were … [Read More...]
Shamanic Experience at Machu Picchu
Night was falling as we got into the bus to go up to Machu Picchu. Our group of ten, usually talkative and laughing, … [Read More...]
Green Luxury in a Belize Rainforest
Was an enormous lion howling outside my thatched cottage? It sounded more like a T-Rex. I might have been worried if I … [Read More...]
Sedona – Amazing Energy in the Arizona Desert
Why is Sedona such a powerhouse of transformational energy? Drive north from Phoenix for two hours, up Interstate 17, … [Read More...]
10 Must-See Sacred Spaces in Peru that are Not Machu Picchu
The old saying about the journey being more important than the destination was never more appropriate than when I went … [Read More...]
Why I Believe in Fairies
Maybe it’s Shakespeare’s fault, or perhaps the brothers Grimm are to blame, but fairies – like witches – have an image … [Read More...]
Walking With Ghosts In Vancouver’s Haunted Gastown
I'd walked past the place hundreds of times without knowing that so many people had been killed there. A block south of … [Read More...]