Sorry guys, I'm a bit behind on publishing my journal entries, but this is the last installment of my Eastern-Europe Romania journey: So, started out with a 530am bus ride from Cluj to Abrud taking nearly 4 hours, where a pre-arranged taxi picked us up and drove us 12 km to the village of Bucium-Campani, where David Vetalau's farm is. Or should i say, "farm" as he had no garden, fruits, or vegetables , and no animals except a few dogs. We met a man they called "wolf" because he gets really drunk and wanders the mountain. He walked us in the middle of the tiny village, down the road to Vetalau's 'girlfriend', Luci... She was such an interesting character. A chain smoking, loudmouth who wouldn't let the cats leave the wood pile under the stove. ... read more

Had a bad start to an interesting project. After hours on the bus to Galati, we were dropped off in a big city, at the side of the road, next to a restaurant. I tried to ask Romanians where the bus station was, but all they said was the general direction and take a taxi. We walked about half an hour in freezing cold to the end of the road which only went to right or left. We called Dana to come pick us up and after a 20 minute delay, we were told to wait another 20 minutes... 45 minutes later, Dana showed up to collect us. We were standing outside of a large electronic clock that also tells the temperature, which was -9C! It was so cold and the wind didn't help, so we ... read more

First of all, must say... not a big fan of Skopje. Leaving tomorrow via night train to Belgrade, Serbia and hoping for more to do. And I apologize as this seems to be a lengthy entry... But starting from the beginning-- left London Gatwick on the 10th, fearing the weather from "Britain's worst storm in years!" would postpone this very anticipated trip; Step and I slept at the airport and I slept the entire flight so I assume nothing eventful happened. Over Bulgaria we got a glimpse of the ample farmland and the extreme contrast of poor communities to more modernized cities, where neighborhoods were essentially set in mud and made pretty basic out of random materials. Landed in Sofia, Bulgaria. Big city, very nice, pretty typical busy/bustling city life. Bulgaria Took the bus (which we ... read more

Guatemala We left the turtle project in the small fishing village of El Rosario (Guatemala) and rode to Monterrico with a bus full of kids heading to school. Monterrico is a small touristy beach town where foreigners are hounded by tour guides and children trying to give you directions to hotels for a few dollars, even though there are signs everywhere and accommodations are easy to find. The next morning, we took a lancha (small boat) full of people to a small town and took a series of buses making connections heading to the Guatemala/El Salvador border. We had to cross a very scary, rickety, old, rusty pedestrian bridge that must have been attached to the side of the (much-better built and secure) motor vehicle bridge by old welded metal. We tried to scurry across without ... read more

Having left ARCAS wildlife rescue centre after three weeks of volunteering, we took a lancha (a small and skinny wooden boat) to Flores where we unfortunately had to stay another night but left early morning to take a chicken bus to Rio Dulce, a quiet little town near Lake Izabal. The people were very friendly, the town quite small being centered on one main street and ¨the longest bridge in Central America¨spanning across the lake. We took a day trip to El Estor, also along the lake side, to a castle ¨Castillo de San Felipe¨ which had to have been build to defend midgets. The castle was very short and placed on the waterfront, the doors were very skinny and so low we had to duck to pass through them. The hallways were so tight and ... read more