Since posting my Ecuador Travel Adventures web site, I have received many emails and inquiries about Jane Dolinger, who is mentioned on page one. A man who still carries a torch for the Jaguar Princess – a character in Jane Dolinger's book, The Forbidden World of the Jaguar Princess – emailed me a 40 year-old article Jane had written about the Jaguar Princess for the National Enquirer. Two other men who were smitten by Jane decades ago, emailed me asking for news of her. During the past two years, I have been communicating with an English professor who is writing a book about Jane Dolinger’s life. And recently I was contacted by a BBC producer in England who is working on a radio show about her.
Jane Dolinger and her husband, Ken Krippene, were a great team, and keen storytellers who captured the imagination of their readers. Their books and articles were well researched because they spent time in the exotic locations from which they spun their fanciful tales. Thoughtfully posed photographs added to the credibility of each of their stories.
Jane posed my sister, Terry, in a sari for a magazine spread that appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world. The article was about a woman who had left civilization and gone “native” living in the Ecuadorian countryside where she practiced yoga, fetched her own water and lived off the land. Of course, the story was pure fiction. Terry was a television producer and script writer living in New York when she was not traveling with me. But it made a good story and appeared in many languages around the world. Jane sent us the story in Arabic, which I have posted at the bottom of the Photo Gallery on the ecuadortraveladventures web site, along with original photos from the shoot. The photo of me digging for Inca treasures was taken for another news story – with pottery Jane and Ken had brought from Quito as props to illustrate the story.
As fellow travelers who shared similar experiences, Terry, and I remained in close touch with Jane and Ken throughout the years. After Ken passed away, Jane remarried. Sad to say, the last we heard from Jane was in 1994, while she was at a clinic in Germany in a last ditch effort to cure her terminal cancer. She died shortly after.
Losing this daring, high-spirited friend who was ready to go anywhere in the world at any time was very sad. There were very few women in the 1960's who were as adventurous as we were.
