Travel is supposed to broaden the mind. It also sharpens the senses. If you decide to go down the paths not clearly laid out for foreigners you get insight into a culture but also broader stories. I was ushered towards my destination here by friendly eyes crinkled behind masks then hit a roadblock when a taxi driver and I couldn't communicate and the address I had didn't easily fit into his GPS. It's how foreigners feel every day. Suddenly I was a problem for this man. One he solved ultimately chuckling and muttering things I didn't understand but that I got. Relieved to have figured it out and maybe a little amused at my helplessness? In places where the stakes are higher things could get ugly in a hurry.

To travel is to discover every gem you care to notice. The teenage Dutch girl and her mother whose faces were Vermeers waiting to be painted. The ease with which the Panamanian man used my name seconds after learning it. How the tall KLM flight attendant engaged the young French guy in conversation about his engineer girlfriend upon exiting the plane long after the gap in the line in front of him extended. Then concluded by punching him playfully in the shoulder. Her cascading positivity made me wonder what it must be like to be her. And the way the mother of a young girl petted her hair affectionately after the girl grabbed a ticket number for me as I waited at the mobile phone kiosk.

Back in my cab I was getting out then was thrilled to recognize the word for money as the cabbie asked me to check the meter. Back on my first trip here I was buying something in a corner shop and after staring at me the whole time, (foreigners were more unusual 10-15 years ago) the very young daughter of the owner asked with amazement, "But how did he get our money?"