| Mexico | |
Guatemala | |
Nicaragua | |
Costa Rica | |
Panama | |
Columbia | |
Argentina | |
Brasil |
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I stayed for 2 days in a youth hostel called Hostal Catedral. It's a dormitory and my room has very cool people. 
Mexico City is not half bad actually, but a trip should start somewhere else, although it was nice at the youth hostel I stayed in, and I also went to see the pyramids of Teotihuacan (good thing I had practice with the stairs at home :), 200 of them at the tallest pyramid and mighty steep). In Mexico City, the weather is exactly the same this time of the year, sunny in the morning and noon, rains in the afternoon, and calm and chilly at night. Also in Mexico City, apparently in each underground train ride, or bus ride, there's someone selling something, but loud, like peddlers at the market, and it always seamed to me like a commercial break, as if "This train station is brought to you by...", and its always for gum, CDs, magazines or my favorite - drugs and ointments for all sorts of pain. I only understood 5 words since they spoke too fast for me, so in my imagination they are always saying funny things, like the time i heard the words "inflammatory" and "intestines". I translated the schpiel in my mind like this "This bus ride to the pyramids is brought to you by.. Intesticalm! Do your intestines keep flaming up? Try intesticalm! Guaranteed to work for at least a week! Intesticalm! When your intestines just don't shut up..." On Sunday, if travel is available, i'll head up to my next place - Taxco. (Mexico city doesn't appeal very much to me as a first place to be in, and everyone says Taxco is very pretty). |
 Taxco is a nice little town on a side of a mountain, like the song says "..narrow streets of cobblestone...". looked around there, took some pictures, went straight away since there was nothing else to do. I left Taxco, after too much sight seeing, to much of the inner cities and sleeping on the bus for many hours in the dark of night; I awoke to the mists of morning, which cleared up only to reveal so much green around me, as far as the horizon permitted it... Green mountains, in which the vegetation between them was so thick, that it filled the valleys to the point when they were almost no longer valleys... and then green plains, occasionally passing above water streams.. and after a turn of the road, the blue ocean appeared, and it felt like home :) (man, this beach really gave me a muse) |
 I
think I finally found my place in this trip - at least a place I want to
stay even after sight-seeing - on the Pacific coast (south of Acapulco).
Anyway, I stayed there for there a few days since apparently Rosh Hashana
is also the Mexican independence day, so everything there, I guess, was
more than usually decorated with red, white and green and with a big party
on Wednesday.
The Mexican independence day celebrations are Kinda like ours actually, but with a Mariachi band instead of Ivri Lider and Mashina... I had lots of fun, went on my first jungle thingy.. saw some crocodiles, turtles and iguanas in Ventanilla (south of Puerto Escondido). That was kinda funny. There was an island filled with branches in the middle of the river we sailed in, and there were tons of little iguanas running around but then you looked at the middle of the island and you saw the MOTHER IGUANA. BIG IGUANA! (kinda gave me a Godzilla flashback...) |
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Me, Rafael, Rafael y Anabel It's not a name of a travel book, it's just my day from San Cristobal to Palenque. I signed up for a tour in Agua Azul (water cascades which is kinda disappointing in the wet season because the water is brown colored and not turquoise), Mizol Ha (a beautiful waterfall) and the Mayan ruins near Palenque (excelente, and really really really weird - you can see architecture there which comes from all sorts of places around the world, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu and Chinese, and even an Arab archway... totally makes you think who the hell came there and when!). Anyway, I took the tour and decided to end it in Palenque and from there take the bus to Cancun and Isla Mujeres  ...
Apparently there were only 3 other people who did the same thing so our
tour wasn't in a van, it was in a 5 seat Chrysler sedan :D.. totally an
adventure in the jungle. Me, a couple called Anabel (Mexican) and Rafael
(Swiss), and a guy from Barcelona called Rafael too. Oh, and lets not forget
Alex, our fearless driver (and an occasional tour guide, though pity I
didn't understand all the things he said about the places, but I got the
gist of it). But it was cool, though everybody spoke spanish the entire
day and that was the first time for me. Tiring a bit to listen since It's
still hard for me, especially when they talk fast... and they talked really
really fast.
Anyhow, I am speeding thru central Mexico now... sight-seeing and leaving... I'll point out the cool Mezcal that can be found in Oaxaca (Mezcal with all the possible flavours - most excellent - and coming from me it's a huge compliment I think since I don't like regular Tequila or Mezcal) Also a funny thing to see in the sides of the streets is the truck-o`-Mexicans... Mexicans cramped to the back of the truck.. all standing, looking like tuna fish. Hierve el Agua, also next to Oaxaca, is a cool waterfall which is not really a waterfall, just deposited that way on the side of the cliff (much in the same way as "MEARAT HANETIFIM") and Canyon Sumidero - a very nice boat trip in a very cool canyon :) Check out El Tule (Widest tree in the world), Teotitlan del Valle, Mitla Ruinas, Well, I'm off to the Caribbean beach! So, I left Palenque with much haste and got to Cancun, only to find out that apparently my Mochila got a life of her own and she landed in Tulum... But I kept my spirits up... and after finding a really cool hostel to stay in I came back, waited 5 hours in the bus terminal and finally got it back. phew... Isla Mujeres is very pretty and nice, but not much to do here and it is kinda expensive... I talked to some people (and I know many will disagree) but I came to the conclusion that traveling alone to Tulum will be a bummer (cause the hostel, as they told me, is not in walking distance to the beach, and the cabanas don't appeal to me, at least not on my own). So tomorrow, thru Chetumal and Belize, I will go to Flores in Guatemala. |
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 Toto,
I don't think Estamos en Kansas anymore...
Well, it took me 2 exhausting days... but I got to Guatemala finally, safe and sound, and now happier... I joked that those 2 days were my YOM KIPUR just instead of TZOM. This Guatemala is really a little munchkin land... with all the clown cars and the little munchkin mentality, but you will be proud to know that I am finally bargaining for stuff - well, you have to do it here... and even getting good prices for transportation and sleeping. I spent a day and a half in Flores, saw Tikal, was impressed but a bit less then Palenque, probably just because I had a guide in Palenque. But Tikal is very cool, especially walking in the jungles to get to the ruins. Now I'm in Finca Ixobel, near Poptun. A really really cool place. I understand why someone said that its kinda like Guatemalan club med. You got your horseback riding here and activities like exploring caves, and you can just chill out on a hammock or swim in the pond and eat all day. |
 Hop on the bus, gus (Ancient Guatemalan proverb) End of my stay in Guatemala, but it is the best part since Antigua is a really cool city. I have been here since Friday, and i'm staying here until the weekend at least. I don't know if by then I will know Spanish or Salsa any better but I do hope that will be the case. Lago Atitlan is really amazing. But I think that you need a certain muse for the village of San Pedro and a different muse for the village of San Marcus and I wasn't in either of those muses. (Plus you have to really ignore the hordes of Israelis in San Pedro. plus, and anybody who has been here will tell you the same I think, in San Pedro, by the 20th time you hear one of the local women say: "Pan de banana, pan de chockolate..." you really feel like LIMLOCK a head or two - by the way, I did do a little experiment with those women to see how their sensors are operated, by motion or proximity - well, it's by looking at them, as long as you look at them they will continue to tell you all the flavors of their bread). San Marcus is really amazing. Tranquilo, tranquilo, tranquilo. It's definitely a place to go to when you really need to relax and kinda disconnect. Just the fact that there is no locals on the docks, where the boat drops you in front of the village, to sell you stuff shows its a different kind of place. Well, after a week of Spanish, Salsa, pubs and movies in Antigua I am off tomorrow where not many have gone before me (at least if you look at the number of tips in the LAMETAYEL site for Nicaragua) well, then i'll just be paving the way. More spanish and Salsa hopefully to come in the city of Granada.. but that's much later.. First I have a 2 days bus drive, one night in San Salvador, before getting to Managua in Nicaragua :) |
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 I am in Nicaragua for 2 days now. Staying in Leon, enjoying the low prices (unless you try to charter some fisherman's boat to get to an island which does cost some big bucks).. Left Guatemala with one big question still open... Saw a lot of Guatemalan women with their little children, but haven't seen one pregnant. Where are all the pregnant Guatemalan women? Well, Nicaragua isn't much different. Still kinda clowny.. It is cheaper, and kinda lonely of travelers, but as long as I find myself in a hostel with other travelers I am fine with it. Tomorrow I am going on a bit of journey to the east coast of Guatemala, where there are no roads, just boats... We'll see how that goes. One small male observation though - there seems to be a growing percentage of nice looking women the further south I go in Central America... still kinda low percentage.. but improving :) well, the nicaragua part is drawing towards its end! and it was quite a bumpy ride but an adventure none the less... |
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I am now on the sandy beaches of San Juan del Sur, enjoying some evening parties with the travelers that got here and when I get maxed out on that, I will head up to do a quick Costa Rica tour. Well, to make a long story short, I had kinda of a rough week (to see more of the stories you can check out the tips I left in the Nicaragua section of the LAMETAYEL website.. especially the part about the Corn Islands :) I will say in advance, all has ended well, and with everything intact :) - well, except for one thing which isn't written in there which is the theft of the digital camera, so no more pictures for a while until I reach Panama and get me a new camera |
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 I
am now in Monteverde,
Costa Rica. well, actually staying in the village of Santa Elena next to
the cloud forest reservations of Monteverde and Santa Elena. This place
feels soo good!! I was hiking in the forest and started feeling like the
energizer bunny. There was a point in the hike where you reach a dwarf
forest, a mountain top where the winds are so strong that the trees cant
grow tall. you walk around in what looks like someone's PARDESS...
I went to the lookout point there, where the wind blows, put my hands up and did the "I'm the king of the world" scene from the movie Titanic... (LELO MILIM of course... because if you really shout it, well, then it's just stupid and the monkeys of the forest make fun of you as you leave :) ) Met cool people here, dancing and drinking all night, I am now ready to continue with my journey. Next stop, the beach of the village of Montezuma, in the south of Costa Rica. Pura vida everyone! (i had to say it at least in one email from Costa Rica...) For the automotive lovers among you, since they say there is this corruption in government here not allowing the use of paving for most of the roads, you need 4-wheel drive her. So one of the ways to do a really cool trip around Costa Rica, once you got the money for it, is to hire a 4x4 car. There is no other type of car you can use! You are practically FORCED to have tons of fun while you are driving around :) ! ALL the cars here are 4x4! ALL the taxis are 4x4! In the mountains you get this Swiss lodge rich person's feeling (even if most of the local 4x4 are second and third hand) and its really cool roads to do with 4x4 if you are into it! |
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Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum 
(or - what happens when Netzer reads "treasure island") Ahoy mateys! Shiver me timbers if I am not much pleased for being here ashore on Costa Rica, even at the cost of many a silver fourpennies! Upon arriving to the capital of this here land, And meeting some land lubbers such as my friends are, from way back in Nicaragua, Pete and Olivia, and might I be telling you, no swabs are they. On the top of the highest spy-glass mountain I have enjoyed much of the sights there was to offer, and 2-3 noggins of rum a-day made the ol`outings even better, upon my honour! Seafaring I might be, so now I return to my berth by the sea, in Quepos to the south where I lay-a-sleeping in the inn for such as myself, for a large amount of animals and a sunny cool breeze of the sea await for me in the following days! Translation:
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I am now in Bocas del Torro, on Isla Colon, in Panama. It is a cool little island, with parties and lots of americans... I will regroup here for a day or two before heading to Panama City to find transport to Columbia. |
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I cant believe it has been 2 months now... I am now in Panama City, staying at some new friends of mine, Jermaine and Mandy, who are really cool. They live in a beautiful place in Panama City, it's the old neighborhood of the Americans before they turned over the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999, so the place is extremely well groomed, up on the hill, with a great view of the city. I will be here until Sunday and then leave for Colombia, either by boat or by plane. 
November is a weird month to be in Panama. In all other Central American countries it has stopped raining by now, but here that doesn't happen until December - but then again November is just holiday, party and celebration one after the other here (they have like 3 independence day, and who knows how many other celebration for the days in between them..) |
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OK, let's get things out of the way first. You know that apparently there is a fuss about Colombia, right? well, I get the fuss ;) it is definitely a worth visiting fuss :) Getting here was a bit of shock for a couple of hours, after not being in a place like this since San Pedro in Guatemala, to be back to an all Israeli place which is also full of people, and of course doing their, emm, "Israeli thing", was a bit weird for about 2 hours. I definitely found myself here - got Spanish and Salsa classes during the day and parties during the night. I probably will stay here for the next week and a half or so :) |
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Hola everybody! Well, my time here in Colombia is nearing its end, and monday night I fly to Argentina to spend there a whole bunch of time. Medellin was great! I really love this city. The other day I went to the Museo de Antioquia, where they have an exhibit by Fernando Botero. I am not much of an arts' fan but walking thru that exhibit was really really cool. He has a way of painting people, animals and objects (and sculpting - as you can see from my pictures of the statue garden outside the museum) which are kinda chubby, and with the colors he is using, and the enormous size of many painting, walking thru the room was like being Alice in a play dough (PLASTELINA) wonderland. |
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 HOLA
EVERYONE from the cool shores of lago Nahuel Huapi, in the city of chocolate,
ice cream and mucho mucho meat, San Carlos de Bariloche.
I am in Argentina :) and
extremely "in the clouds", literally!
It took a night flight and a 20 hour bus drive to get here. It was my first drive in a real first class bus (which make the "first class" buses of Mexico feel like a chicken bus ). it was great ! I can live in a bus like that. I sat back thru the first day, watched the endless plains of east Argentina and woke up just in time to see the first hill appear in the horizon, it followed by the entire Andes mountain range. Last night the bus stopped for gas and we all got out; I realized that while I flew from Colombia here, someone had moved all the stars. Suddenly you look to the sky and the north star isn't there and all the other stars are arranged in a weird way.. A great way to realize that you are in a whole other place on the planet. Well I'll get back to my BIG BAG OF CHOCOLATES in the fridge :) (a desert after the HUGE STEAK I JUST ATE) sorry - had to say it :) |
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The petting Zoo of Valdez: after arriving the much similar to Beer Sheva town of puerto madryn (well, at least if beer sheva had a beach), i took a tour to the nearby peninsula valdez to see whales, sea elephants, sea lions and penguins. it was cool though it does not photograph well. i did manage to get a picture of the penguin chorus line, where five penguins stood in a row in front of the penguin conductor while each one, in his turn sang from the bottom of the lungs. it was cool. also i saw (and took a little picture of) the sea elephants´ version of "KHOF HATZOOK" - half of them were sun bathing, the other half was catching waves, and 2 were fighting about a girl :)  |
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Crushing Glaciar, Hidden Dragon: from El calafate, a pretty cool little town in the south of argentina i went to the perito moreno glaciar to see its edges fall of to the water. for the record i have to say that though there is no picture of it, we did see a whole pillar crash down in the lake, and the whole place is damn beatiful.  |
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The magical Mystery tour: i went up to do some trekking from the town of el chalten. The walk over to the lookout point over the mountain of Fitz Roy was soo beatiful. climbing while beatiful green mountains are streching in every direction, snow at the tip, and blue sky all over. the forest itself, i couldnt decide if it was more like Mirkwood from the hobbit or the forest from the computer game "Kyrandia" - i will let you decide. One of the pictures i took there, looks like the scenary from the battle scene between wesly and fezik in the movie "the princess bride". totally cool. it was really cool to climb while singing. the soundtrack was "bye bye blackbird" by joe cocker and norah jones`"dont know why" on the way uphill, the foo fighters`"walking after you" for the plains, and the very delirious picture of me going back down while actually hopping to the silly "i`m into something good" by herman`s hermits. it took me about half the time to get back like that :)  |
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The land of eternal sunshine: hola from the end of the world! i am, as you might have guessed, in Ushuaia, at the southern tip of argentina. getting here by bus certainly felt like the end of the world :)anyway, this "fin del mundo" thing is really powerful, you can say it with anything here. for example, i just had a fin del mundo steak in the fin del mundo restaurant right after getting a fin del mundo stamp on my pass port. and you can join the fun as well - just tell your friends "i just got an email from the end of the world" or "woe, that netzer just emailed me from the end of the world!" !! well, all thru the south here i am amazed by the fact of having blue sky, and cool weather. and the fact the there is only 2-4 hours of darkness here. especially on the tierra del fuego island. i passed to get here the stupid magallen straights. well, i know that they are not stupid, but you have to admit - they kinda ARE. at least when you look at the map they look stupid. well, i´ll stop beating them up. i am sure that by night, when the magallen straights go to the C&S pub (canals and straights), the panama and suez canal, along with the gibraltar straights make fun of it enough. laughing and giggling behind its back. 
the island itself is pretty desolate at first, just grassland and the occasional hill. but the southern half of it is really amazing. forests that consist of either christmas trees or trees that look like they´re in shock! i mean it - like they just went out of an 8 step rehab program or something. if they had a face and they would be in a comics they would have a thought bubble with the words "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" with a tons of question marks. i guess that`s what happens when you are in aslmost total darkness half a year and then its light and all the tourists come. |
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merry chrismas to all from bariloche! 
tomorrow on the agenda - a chrismas asado - many wine, champagne, meat and ice cream! |
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hellllooooooo, and a happy successful 2005! well, my stay here in buenos aires is nearing its end, and tomorrow evening i am off to puerto iguazu and foz do iguazu to see the waterfalls and pass on to brasil... buenos aires was very cool, love this city! a plaza on every corner, parks, museoms and tons of places to go out... went to the zoo, saw the funniest alpaca in the WORLD! so i decided to share it with you - picture included... 
also went to tigre, a town north of here next to the delta of the river and took a boat ride with all the old people who were inspecting summer house properties in the houses between the little rivers of the delta :) and i just have to say that the amount of chorizos that found their way into my stomach in the last month was fenoumenal and will hate to say goodbye to them... PS one more sentence about the subway of buenos aires - i am sorry but "observa la distancia" is MUCH less powerfull then "mind the gap". |
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Don´t go chasing waterfalls hey guys and girls! i am just about to take a bus to florianopolis so i thought i would sum the last days up a bit... first, idecided to treat myself to a full cama service on the way from buenos aires here. TOTALLY relaxing :) the past 2 days were mainly about what else then all sides of the iguazu waterfalls which really kick ass and a special thanks to the guy who invented them, a most excellent job he did. you really just cant helpbut stand in front of them and say to yourself "holy crap that´s a whole lotta water!" and you know that that´s it, it´s ruined, from now on you kinda can´t really get excited about the little waterfalls of the world... though, as i was standing there it occured to me, maybe because of seeing spiderman 2 on the bus or the incredibles on the cinema in buenos aires. i realized that had i been a superhero or an evil lord those falls would be the PERFECT place for my secret base. so i spent the next 30 minutes trying to see the secret plain coming in or out of that secret base but i couldn´t. it must have used the secret invisibility shield. but i will find it! 
meanwhile i have to find a way to stop saying the phrase "shits and giggles" i cought from some british people in the last week :) |
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ola ola ola! tudo bem? tudo bom? tudo legal? tudo certo? tudo joir?(how to say "all good?" in brasil, let me count the ways...) well, i am moving around here from ilha to ilha, checking out the beaches, drinking juices all day basically... i was on ilha santa catarina (where florianopolis is), ilha do mel, and now i am in paraty, before going to ilha grande. as a basic first observation of brasil i would like to point out that whoever invented the fruit açai was a genius! (and hurray for pizza buffets too...). though i had to wonder why is one of the biggest food chains (in south brasil at least) is called "Bob´s"? couldn´t they have found a more portugues name...? 
so far i really dig brasilian life, searching for the kind of beach which is custom made for each one... i wonder where mine will be (though the ones i have been in until now were pretty fun to say the least...).. |
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after a week and a half of not being able to stop humming "island in the sun" by weezer, manby ilhas, and after sending a bit too boasting email, came a whole lotta rain for several days and drove me off the beach :) i took the chance to visit ouro preto, which is a very beatiful town, and in rainy times it is perfect for reading "wuthering heights". too bad the kate bush song couldnt get out of my head for all the time there (though i kinda like it - inspite of her high pitched voice) 
i found myself for the weekend in conceiçao da barra, a very happy beach town just south of the bahia border (where i will go tonight). fun place, good sun, dancing in the streets at night, and everybody´s nice. i have to say that in brazil about half the people were very nice so far and the other were annoyingly apathic, or just annoying, but here everybody´s nice, even the drunken old guys and the waisted bearded ladies. and i have to say one more thing about açai. after playing around with açai juices, i was introduced to the real thing, "açai na tigela", the big frozen bowl of it with banana and granola (eh, dad, if mom´s behind you, you might want to pick her off the floor if she fainted - yes mom, i ate granola... but it goes excellent with the açai, and you willl have problem getting it in israel, though my source in israel (who shall remain unnamed, but i will say that his last name suspiciously rhymes and resembles açai... hmmm...) says that there is a place in hertzelia which recieved a big load of that stuff, but that probably won´t stay for long :) ) |
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the beaches of bahia ar indeed what was said they would be! after spending some time in israel central (Arrial D´ajuda) which is a great place, though i had fun especiialy thanks to my non-israeli posse from canada and england, plus i had the most delirious dinners ever when i was speaking to them in english, while speaking half hebrew half portogues to the waiter because the dishes were in hebrew, israelis get discount, yet the waiter knows portogues, while not knowing the names of the dishes in portogues, only hebrew. in short, i started talking jibrish there for a sec from too many languages :) the center of ajuda is a great place to hang out, see or dance some row dancing, buy artesenial goodies and basically drink as much as you can, stuffing up on caipirinha and whatever fruit you can think of. THEN, morro de sao paulo is just amazing! the day i left arrial it started really raining for like 3 days straight so i bailed in time! this island has the best beach of yet (but i AM supposed to see better), what was in the city center of ajuda is here too but on the beach (except for the row dancing which i miss), and great parties (but i did miss out on the friday party of ajuda...) and i almost forgot to mention the cool live funk band they have here, with a great lead singer/sax player :)  |
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carnaval is officially over here, and it was absolutly great! recife and olinda are really nice places to be in carnaval (though i can´t compare it to anywhere else in brasil until i see it). in the 5 official days (and more before and after) you get almost everything - from samba, to bahian rythmes and capoeira, from dancing inside a sea of people in the old streets of olinda or centro recife to jumping around with families that came with matching t-shirts or full costums, from brasilian rock and elctronic music to music that sounds like an irish jig... and since you are in the province of pernambuco you get a whole lotta frevo, which is music that began with a mixture between capoeira and the old police marching bands and has a regional dance to it called passo, which is indeed one of the silliest dances - i will only give out the fact that the official version of it involves twirling a colorful mini-umbrela - but is most fun. shows until dawn, daytime streets full of people, YAMBA caipirinha & beer...  |
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after carnaval, like a true brasileiro, i went to the beach. first i decided to get a little north to the most northern point in brasil for me, praia de pipa, where you can swim with dolphins (if the time is right at least..), or at least swim with dolphins jumping in the background. 
then i decided to spend some time in the famous beaches of itacare. the one beach here that you walk 30 minutes through the jungle to get to is indeed one of the most beatiful i saw here! |
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well, salvador was indeed one of the coolest places. percution everywhere, cool atmosphere, kinda managed to avoid every bad place that is in the city, and had a very cool hostel. in not a lot time i saw quite a lot of the city - beaches, capoeira school shows, percution shows, churches, candomble and people getting into transes, great night clubs... (though i missed out on the big olodum show.. they stopped performing after carnaval for about a month... :(... well, next time..)  |
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rio is an amazingly beatiful city, from the high lookout points of sugarloaf and corcovado, to the beatiful botanical gardens, from the beaches of ipanema and copacabana to the ancient streets of santa tereza, from party games in the maracana to street parties in lapa, from crazy clubs to antique shops converted to live music pubs that feel like a party from the 20´s... in short a beatiful place indeed and hopefully i´ll bring some of the rio sun with me to israel when i come back :)  |
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