Some bagpipes styles are intensely annoying, but Bulgaria’s kaba gaida style is low in tone, moody, spacey, almost gothic, and linked to rural life in the country for thousands of years.

Now new generations of Bulgarian bagpipers head deep into the Rhodope Mountains each year for a bagpipe festival and competition.

It’s part of a resurgence in folk arts in Bulgaria. Among the younger generations are bagpipes even… cool? I went to the Gela bagpipe festival.

Episodes of Keep Going: An Unexpected Travel Podcast are currently coming out every two weeks, in the usual podcast places and with full videos on the pod's YouTube channel.

Subscribe to get episodes as soon as they land.

Writing, recording, narration: Jamie Fullerton

Sound editing: Samira Tazari

Music: Olguita Acuña

Podcast artwork: Nini Giunàshvili

Gela, Bulgaria: Google Maps link

Nearby hotel: Monastery 2 Aparthotel

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Costa Rica has positioned itself as a successful eco-tourism destination, and tourists cascade into the country with ambitions to see sloths in the wild.

As more tourist infrastructure gets built, more of the famously lethargic-looking animals are getting injured and killed due to the development. Sloths are susceptible to species isolation caused by new roads and buildings cutting off treetop pathways.

A group of conservationists is taking action by shimmying up massive trees and putting up rope bridges for the sloths. I joined the team on a bridge-building mission.

Episodes of Keep Going: An Unexpected Travel Podcast are currently coming out every two weeks, in the usual podcast places and with full videos on the pod's YouTube channel.

Subscribe to get episodes as soon as they land.

Writing, recording, narration: Jamie Fullerton

Sound editing: Samira Tazari

Music: Olguita Acuña

Podcast artwork: Nini Giunàshvili

The Sloth Conservation Foundation: Slothconservation.org

Jaguar Rescue Center: Jaguarrescue.foundation

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Every year around Christmas, massive bulls and “Improvisers” descend on bullrings around San José, Costa Rica’s capital city. The Improvisers are members of the public who get drunk, put on fluorescent t-shirts, leap into the ring then chase and annoy the bulls.

Bullfighting was brought to Costa Rica by Spanish colonisers and is still hugely popular in the small Central American country. Bullfighters there don’t kill the bulls, but animal rights protesters still sometimes stage protests against the events.

I spent Christmas with the amateur bull-botherers of San José, and some of the people determined to end their booze-fuelled fun.

Episodes of Keep Going: An Unexpected Travel Podcast are currently coming out every two weeks, in the usual podcast places and with full videos on the pod's YouTube channel.

Subscribe to get episodes as soon as they land.

Writing, recording, narration: Jamie Fullerton

Sound editing: Samira Tazari

Music: Olguita Acuña

Podcast artwork: Nini Giunàshvili

Tickets and information for the Pedregal bullfighting: Torosalatica.cr

Zapote bullring: Google Maps link

Karen Elena’s San José animal rights group: Coordinadora por la Liberación Animal on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.