How the Internet connects us is astonishing. Who might have imagined such a communication tools just a few decades ago, when trans-Atlantic telephone calls were the sole medium aside from sending postcards to bring family and friends up to date on foreign travel episodes?

Two weeks ago our youngest son embarked from Vancouver to Spain to attend a conference where he would also be delivering a lecture/presentation. He arrived a few days before the start of the conference to do a little bit of exploration in the area on his own, though it isn't the first time he has travelled to Spain. He was there a few years ago, and remained after another conference, for a number of weeks, travelling, hiking in the mountains, visiting world-famous spots of antiquity.

Now he's back, and he'll be there this time for a month. The conference itself took up an entire week. It represented an opportunity to become re-acquainted with international colleagues, to be exposed to interesting scientific findings, to enjoy another attractive geographic site in the company of those whose life work as professional scientists bring them together regularly to share findings.

His own work as a biologist specializing in freshwater ecology has taken him to various parts of the world in the past, and while there on professional occasions, occasionally to sit on doctoral committees as well as attending conferences, he has always taken additional time to better inform himself of those areas of the world whose heritage, culture and societies are in many ways different from those he is most familiar with.

Girona, Pyrenees