Adventures on the Gringo Trail: An Artist’s Awakening

In 1974, at the height of hippie culture, women’s liberation and sexual freedom, the author set off on a journey that lasted nineteen months through Central and South America and included the birth of her daughter in the Andean highlands of Ecuador. As an artist, she kept a journal of over 100 pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations of the places she visited. Traveling with her eccentric boyfriend by train, plane, bus, ship and hitchhiking, she encountered many unusual situations and people and even a tropical disease, Leishmaniasis, that a local healer called leprosy. Finding a house to rent in Otavalo, Ecuador, the author created acrylic paintings of the incredible landscape surrounding her home, while she was pregnant. Her mother came to Ecuador to be with her when she gave birth with her father arriving a week later to meet his granddaughter. This book displays the artwork she created and tells the unique story of her travels and her evolution as an artist and mother living in Ecuador in a time before technology.