Includes index

Originally published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in 2001

Mexico: Beginning -- Zapotec village -- Letting go in Palenque and L.A. -- Guatemala: Learning how -- Nicaragua: End of political innocence -- Israel: Roots -- Galapagos islands: True freedom -- Indonesia: Forests of Borneo -- Orangutan camp -- arriving in Bali -- Trance -- United States: Back in the United States -- Indonesia: Irian Jaya: Highlands -- Irian Jaya: Asmat lands -- On to Mas -- Canada/United States: Vancouver and Seattle -- New Zealand: New Zealand via Bali -- Thailand: Thailand speaking food -- United States: Journey still in process -- Acknowledgments -- Index

"I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities." From the Preface Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita's example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults