Maria Bunnewith, a lifelong writer, loves interacting with locals when she travels. Among her favorites have been the goats lazily crossing the street in the hills of Lucca, Italy, their brass bells faintly clanging; the ghost crab nimbly and silently creating a horizontal path across the beach on Culebra, a satellite island of Puerto Rico; and the harbor seal who emerged from the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska just in time to watch a cruise ship glide noiselessly past on its way to Hubbard Glacier.