I got the idea for South
of the Pier after a visit to Guatemala. The history of this beautiful country
of warm, loving people is riddled with illegal activities that preyed on their
own indigenous people. What fueled the
story was a chance encounter with an Interpol agent, and a charming man from
Brussels who accompanied me on my trip home from an earlier trip to Russia.
Without
these trips and the wonderful people I have met on my many travels, none of my
stories could be told. Below is quote I hold dear and have thought about often.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and
narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by
vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It
