Dear friends and family.  It has been a while.  I have stepped more fully into the lands and ocean waters of Ecuador, more fully into a place that is not Wisconsin, Vermont, or Colorado, into differing rhythms of cultures, paces of a day.  The last two weeks I have spent in the small coast town turned half surfer town of Canoa.  The weeks have been full..., ceviche, guitar playing, laughing, getting totally smashed and thrown around by waves, and then slowly slowly learning how to ride them unstead of fighting them...of dancing salsa, talking with locals, walking through old colorful graveyards, and most of all being blessed by the company of a new dear friend, Fabienne.  But also, it is with some hesitancy, I must write, that the last few days have been hard.  I hestitate for two reasons, one being it will surly worry my mother, and two being, it is not uplifting news.  That being said, two nights ago a freind and fellow traveler was attacked and raped by a gang of six men on the beach.  The shock and horror of this kind of news, no matter what the cirucumstances, is chilling and has left me and the community grappling with the complexity of emotions that follow such an occurance.  It leaves me questioning...the intention of people, the energy of a surfer party town, why and how.  Tonight I will leave with Fabienne.  I had planned on traveling south to Peru and Boliva for the last leg of my trip, but now, for a varity of reasons,  including the landslides that have led to a late opening of machu picchu, including wanting to continue to travel with Fabienne, and including all of the good tales I have heard of Colombia, I now head north.  I will keep you posted.  We will be safe, strong, and mindfully aware.  Enjoy these photos.