short list of songs I have heard at critical moments in Ecuador, when I either felt like crying or had been left alone to think too much and had therefore begun to spin a tale about how I was screwing up my life in a bad, dangerous way.

"How Do You Talk to an Angel?"
Supermaxi grocery store

"Cool It Now"
Bus to the Amazon jungle

"Almost Paradise"
"I Can't Fight This Feeling"
Internet cafe

"Footloose"
store underneath the train station

"Hot Stuff"
"If You Want My Body (And You Think I'm Sexy)"
Bus from Pichincha volcano