Local travel writer Bridget Crocker spoke Sunday about her globe-trotting voyages to Africa, South America and all points in between.
By Catalina Wrye / Special to The Malibu Times
Travel authors Bridget Crocker and Anne Van appeared at Diesel Books on Sunday afternoon promoting their new book, “The Best Women’s Travel Writing,” an anthology of true world travel stories.
Local author and adventurer Bridget Crocker, a wife and mother of two children, has been travelling since the age of 20 when she took her first trip to Zambia in Africa. When asked about her favorite places she replied, “places that feel like home,” a term that for her applies to destinations as varied and exotic as Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Zanzibar.
On one trip to Peru, Crocker recalls the horrors of dysentery and getting shot at by cocaine farmers. In her story “The Labyrinth,” Crocker hits rock bottom in Costa Rica, when she discovers her lover is married. Feeling despondent, “like some forsaken Ophelia,” her friend Roland takes her on a rehabilitative river ride, where in a rush of adrenaline she rediscovers her will to live.
Fresh out of college, author Anne Van had a desire to have “fish out of water” experiences. “I’m one of those crazy people who likes to be uncomfortable,” Anne said, describing her initial interest in traveling. Originally from Los Angeles, Van attended college in Tokyo. Her story, “Going Underground,” is a hilarious account of the afternoon she had lunch in the back of a porn shop with a member of the Japanese mafia.