quapaw's VirtualTourist Home Page

I use this site to post some of my travel stories for you to enjoy and I try to give some helpfull tips on destinations as well. Currently I am building my own website where eventually, if all goes well, all the stories will be posted too. But this will take me some time.

I grew up in a small town called Bathmen on the dutch countryside in the east of the Netherlands. Currently I am living in Arnhem because this is where my former university is located. September 2006 I graduated for the BSc course Tropical Forestry & Nature Management. After working a *** job in a warehouse for a while I have been lucky enough to find myself a great job in May 2007.

When I moved to Arnhem I couldn't say goodbye to my Rugbyclub in Deventer and I am still playing there. It is a great sport and I have been playing rugby since I was 8.

I have two older brothers. One of my brothers has a small ankle biter of three years old and my other brother just had a baby girl; so I can say I am an uncle as well.

My passion is nature, culture and of course travelling; there are always many countries that are high on my list. This year I have been to England, Germany, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. Hopefully a trip to Scandinavia will go through this coming winter. For next year the trans mongolia railroad (Moscow-Beijing) is on the list and I have future plans for Indonesia and Canada.

My mom and dad's families have scattered all across the world and we have been visiting them since I was little. That has probably got something to do with the roots of my intrest in travelling.

In 2005 I spend 6 months in Madagascar for a practical training period. I have been doing Lemur (primates) reseach in the eastern rainforest for a Malagasy NGO. I absolutely love Madagascar, it is a wonderfull country with very friendly people and magnificant nature and wildlife.

In my Madagascar travel pages, you can find many pages under "Andasibe". These are not actually about Abdasibe itself but about the research site Vohimana where I did my practical. Vohimana is very near Andasibe.

In 2006 I was in Ghana for 4 months to do my Thesis for a timber company in the western region. Together with a classmate we have written a forest management plan for one of their operational forest reserves. We have learned a great deal in Ghana about forestry and we have witnessed felling of 60 metre (mahogany) trees for the first time.

People are very very friendly in Ghana and I really enjoyed my stay in this beautifull West African country. Ghana is good for a taste of the real Africa!

The 20th of September 2006 was my final day at school. Our thesis report (Forest management plan, Mamiri forest reserve, western region, Ghana) had to be presented. I am not very fond of presenting but all went well and I received my dilpoma a week later.

I have been looking for a field related job since finishing school. It took me quite some effort before I had some luck. After writing many applications each week and working a *** job for over half a year I finally managed to be invited to four different job interviews. It is hard to find a job in forestry or nature management but for now I found myself a job at an consultant agency that specializes in mammal research. They mainly focus on mammal species that are indigenous to the Netherlands but also have some projects abroad. New European conservation laws and legislations deliver us a lot of work!

Next year I want to start a part time course in digital film making/editing in Amsterdam. My ambition is to be able to combine conservation and videography in the future.

Lots of my trips are quite a long time ago so it will take me a while before all my travel pages look good. Hopefully I will have some more time the coming months to post some more stories and fotos. For now Ghana and Madagascar are the best and most recent. I am working on the others but it takes a lot of time huh?

Anyway, if you have any questions about countries or destinations you can always mail me or post a comment.

Have a good one, ...and happy travels.