Nicholas Crowder

Nicholas Crowder (b. 1956) was born on a military base in South Carolina and raised in the southwest desert of Arizona. His father always encouraged him to take a banana boat down to South America. He became enthralled with the idea of visiting exotic locations and after attending the American Graduate School of International Business, took a position selling automotive and industrial parts in the Middle East and Latin America. He then moved to Ecuador to seek fame and fortune and gained neither. However, he kept detailed and copious notes about his life there and after returning to the states with his Ecuadorian wife and his first son, he entered law enforcement as a Spanish speaking officer. He continued his studies of Ecuador and in 2002 wrote "Culture Shock! Ecuador", and two subsequent editions. Mr. Crowder is also an expert in the area of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and over the years, studied extensively safety and security issues for both travelers and expats. This interest has been the genesis of the website: touristkilled.com which monitors safety and security around the globe to increase awareness of those matters for travelers and expats.