about the writer
My name is Pacifica (yes, my real name!) and I am a freelance journalist and writer currently living in the Basque region in the south of France.
As a friend of mine recently put it, “She is an American living in a place called Pau in France with her Venezuelan boyfriend and two Italian cats, writing for a UK-based magazine about issues in Latin America. One could say that she is the personification of ‘internationalization.’ Well, she or Captain Planet.“
I was raised in California and Alaska and I went to college in New York. I learned how to be a self-sufficient traveler at a young age and I have spent most of the past seven years abroad, living in India, then in Venezuela and now in France. I have visited several dozen other countries and plan on visiting many, many more.
In this space I am trying to bring together fragments from so many seemingly different places, episodes of my life, and versions of myself. My hope is that I can show some of the beautiful, the ridiculous, the poignant, the terrible and the amazing things I have seen and experienced in conjunction with my current adventures.
And I hope that in composing this blog, connections are created – between moments, between places, between ideas and perhaps between people.
If you would like to get in touch with me, please write me at zoetropicdrift@gmail.com
Thanks for reading!
Pacifica
the annotated zoetrope 
I love your name. It’s so pretty 😀
Thank you Jaimie!!
I adore your blog. You write beautifully. There are many blogs on-line but few give as much pleasure as this one. Well done!
Des – next time I’m in Paris I think you and I should get a coffee together. I think we’d have a lot to talk about 🙂
You are certainly international and that gives a great perspective to your stories.
Thank you! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m totally going against the advice everyone gives bloggers which is “find a niche and stick to it,” meaning that otherwise you’ll alienate potential readers and never find a committed audience. I’m hoping one person at a time I’ll find the people that won’t mind and in fact maybe will enjoy how I leap from subject to subject, and country to country 😉
I have just discovered WordPress, thinking of starting to blog, but thought I’d explore what others are writing first. Yours is the second blog I’ve read, “The Love of Layovers.” Excellent, excellent writing (besides totally resonating within me). “If only I could write….” screams from my inner core reading just that blog, but knowing that’s a rather useless thought/feeling, for now I am going to enjoy (I know) reading some of your other entries (while I share your blog with others) and then see if I can find the words within me to write as well as you in any future blog of my own. I do share your passion for travel, having clocked my miles (many by sea in the early ’70s). My traveling shoes have just been put back on, having cut the strings of raising four kids, and my first venture was to a small town in Southern Costa Rica where I’ve been living for the past nine months. But getting off the work mill in the States and down to here has only fired up the travel lust again, so my eyes are set on yet unexplored horizons. For now I feel lucky to have found your blog. Pura Vida.
Pat – I feel absolutely horrible! I don’t know why, but I never saw this until today, a year and a half after you wrote it! It’s probably because this year I just haven’t been able for a variety of personal reasons to write as consistently as I would like, and haven’t been paying enough attention to my blog in general. I am not sure if you’ll receive this message – but PLEASE write! I would Love to read about your adventures past and present. All you need is to start.
And trust me, I understand. I feel insecure about my writing skills EVERY time I sit down to write a post, and every time I click “publish.” I know I’m getting better at writing, but I also know I have so far to go before I write as well as I would like. The only way I’m going to get there though is practice. Making beautiful things is that elusive combination of passion, inclination and the skill cultivated with practice – it’s hard to know when one is doing it right. But we must try! So please write! And let me know when you do 🙂
Lovely photographs. Quite lovely indeed.
Extremely inspiring.
Your response to hunterpinehurst neatly answers why I’m following your blog.
I’ve just known your blog and I’m already in love for it! There is so many incredible things!
I’m from Brazil and I ask you to keep posting here. Congratulations for the job!
Hi Talitha! I just saw your note! I’m so glad you are enjoying my blog 🙂 I have the goal to write more regularly now – every one or two weeks at least. SO you will see a lot more hopefully in the coming months if I can keep myself convinced to do it 😉 What part of Brazil are you from?
Pacifica, I dropped by today via a link to your World Cup blog posts – which I enjoyed tremendously. I look forward to parts 3 (and perhaps 4).
Whilst here, I have scanned and read a few other of your posts and have found them very entertaining, and at times quite perceptive. You certainly have a unique perspective on life and its various sub-themes.
I have subscribed to your blog via RSS and will continue to read as you post…. and of course when time permits, perhaps scan your back catalogue of entries.
Thanks again for providing some mental enrichment and a distraction from the every-day…
R
Hello Robert! How lovely of you to have said hello 🙂 I’m honored that you decided to spend part of your day reading what I’ve written – and that you plan on doing so again in the future. It’s really special when strangers connect via words and find a common language of ideas…I love that you find what I have to offer worth your time! Thank you so much for being here – and feel free to comment at any time 😉 It’s so nice to get feedback. It makes the internet feel like less of an unfriendly, infinite void.
Pacifica (wins “name of the year”),
Please keep writing this blog. Excellent prose.
Dear Pacifica,
we have an honour to invite to participate in first ETERNAMENTA AWARDS ‘Most Talented Reader’.
Best Regards,
Maria
More detailed information is here: https://eternamenta.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/eternamenta-blog-awards/