Six months is just the right period of time for almost everything. A few weeks are not enough. One year is too much. Six months is a proper break from routine, the perfect duration for a trip, the necessary amount of time to get over something or someone.

It’s been six months from my last post (shame on me), and it’s time to go back rocking and rolling. I can’t guarantee I will be persistent, but at least this is a start. However, I am not going to blog about Mexico or ecotourism or sustainable development this time. One of the reasons I have decided to go back writing tonight is that I am just back from the London Bloggers Meetup, and once again I felt like a black sheep in there. Where do these people find the time to blog is still a mystery to me… they all seem to have demanding full time jobs, loads of interests and busy social lives… and still, they write every single day; some of them even publish 3 o 4 posts per day!!! I hate them

This is going to be a little tribute to that zelous bunch of creative individuals who pushed me back into my wp-admin/post-new.php page. There were many known faces tonight, a few new ones and some old ones were missing. The venue was again the Diageo Private Bar in Henrietta Place (new experience for me as I missed the previous meetup there), which I found really sexy. There was an interesting whisky tasting with a variety of cocktails prepared with Bushmills, Irish cwoffees and ‘proper’ Guinness.

I had a chat with a few people around; the ‘old friend’ Epicurienne, blogging about the pleasures of life ‘in London, Paris, Auckland and the places in-between’; Chris, a veteran blogger - photographer and Londonist’s contributor; Heather, who won tonight’s raffle and went home with some rugby tickets; Lolly, French interpreter in love with Italy; Priyanka, polyedric blogger working in advertising; Tim, author of an awesome blog about music and science; Shell, who blogs about fashion and finds it a cheaper therapy than shopping; Annmucc, a happy girl from Malta who was celebrating her 6 months London anniversary; Cristiano, the Dutch geek with an Italian name; Godwyns, who sometimes falls asleep while blogging; and Drew, another young superman who writes several blogs and who’s involved in the sponsorship of the next meetup, which will take place in a fortnight. Such a shame I will not be able to attend, as it sounded really interesting!

Right, apologies for those I have left out, but it’s time to go to bed now after a great and inspiring night. I will try to fill my body and spirit with vital energy and be more dedicated and focused in my blogging, twittering, flickering, facebooking… I hope they won’t come out with something new soon or I am done!! Good night.

Thanks to Ron Mader, currently in Quito for the seminar Mix Turismo y Web 2.0 who posted links to this video. I absolutely loved it and wanted to share it with you all… I am ready for a journey there!

Most travellers ask me about what to bring when they go on tour, and some of them are concerned about taking something to leave at destination, especially if they are visiting a local community, or if they have chosen a homestay formula.

Bringing a present for the people who will be hosting you is always thoughtful, but too many times I hear people saying that they also fill their luggage with ’something for the kids’, meaning that they walk around with bags of sweets, pens or small toys which they give away to the children on the streets. Even worse, when the bag of sweets is empty there is some money coming out of their pockets.

Unfortunately these ‘nice thoughts’ become incentives for hoards of kids to run after tourists for presents and coins, sometimes in a very insistent way, and often encouraged by their parents, who let them skip school for a begging session in the street.

To people who really want to help by bringing extra goods on holiday, we strongly recommend a visit to stuffyourrucksack.com, a website listing organisations that deserve support and need ’stuff’. There are schools needing books or stationary, orphanages needing clothes and toys, all things that you can stuff in your rucksack and deliver personally at destination.

If you have been somewhere and got in touch with a NGO or a local charity that you would love to help, you can provide fellow travellers with some information about ‘what stuff is needed and where’.

I have come across this site only a few days ago, and I find it the perfect example of a useful online travel community. Well done to Kate Humble for this great idea!

gloCaltravel has been shortlisted for the 2008 Travelmole UK Web Awards as Best Responsible Tourism site

This is great news, and is giving us a boost of energy while we are working to expand our catalogue to include other countries in Central America, and in translating our portal dedicated to Mexico in Spanish.

More extra features will be coming soon, including a new interactive map and extra geo-coded info in our destinations section… stay tuned!

Just a quick note to inform the gloCatravellers about our gloCal page on Facebook… We invite all people who have contacted us for suggestions, sent feedback about the site, booked a holiday with us, or who just share our views in displaying a link to us on their profile, by clicking on ‘Become a fan” on the above page.

This will help us immensely in spreading the gloCaltravel philosophy and in raising awareness about the impact of our travel choices on the local destinations, their environment and economy.