Wow.
It's been a long time since my last update. Seems like I've grown a bit tired of logging my journey in two places. If you were following this log, and want to keep getting updates, send me an email, to itay@samerica.com. I seriously doubt this log ever being updated again.
posted by Itay Horev Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Finally, I got to Venezuela.After a few hours in a bus I got to the Colombian/Venezuelan border, where we had to wait for a few hours for the next bus to leave. From there we went on to Venezuela's second largest city, Maracaibo.
Maracaibo used to be a rather poor city, until one of the world's largest oil deposits was discovered in the area, and now it's a busy, western looking city. I decided to spend the night there and decide if I stay for a few days or continue to some other place in the morning. I was told there are three cheap hotels outside the central bus station and went there.
The first hotel was called "Fantasia" and had lots of neon signs, so I decided to try the others. Outside the second hotel sat a few girls who shouted at me that it was the right hotel. I went to the third.
It was the worst hotel I've been to in my trip. I shared a room with hundreds of bugs, no hot water (There haven't been any in Colombia either, but that's the standard there), and the ugliest room I have ever seen.
When I woke up in the morning, I felt like I was in a cage, in a zoo. Dozens of mosquitos were sitting on my mosquito net and watching me. A few of them were actually in the net. After counting the bites I decided it's time to leave Maracaibo, and took a bus to the mountain city of Merida.
That's where I've been for the last two days. Now I need to find partners for trekking, as there are many treks to be done around here, and trekking alone isn't wise, especially here, where many of the treks are considered hard. There's also a lot of places I still want to see in town, like the ice-cream shop with the the highest number of flavours in the world, or Plaze Beethoven, where one of his creations is played all the time.
I might also go paragliding, and maybe handgliding too, but we'll have to see about that in the future.That's it for this time.
Keep in touch,
Itay
posted by Itay Horev Friday, September 29, 2000
It's been a long time since I last wrote here, Hope you've been doing ok without these reports.
I've been to Colombia for nearly two weeks now, and am actually about to leave. I've been to a trek to the lost city, La Ciudad Perdida, where I was bitten by hundreds of mosquitos, and then took a Scuba Diving course in a fishermen village called Taganga.
From here, I intend to go on to Venezuela, where I will spend about two weeks, maybe more. The Andean nations actually seem pretty far away, as from Venezuela I intend to go to Brazil, and from there, probably to Bolivia. The things seem at the moment, I'm going to skip Ecuador completely. Not that it matters much, Ecuador is only worth going to if you intend to go to Galapagos, an excursion I do not intend to take.
And that's it, actually. I'll write more when there's more to write.
Bye,
Itay
posted by Itay Horev Sunday, September 24, 2000
At last, this log deserves it's name.
Yesterday, I finally got to Colombia. I landed in Catagena, and from there traveled by bus to Santa Marta, where I intend to embark on a week long trek to La Ciudad Perdida, The Lost City. There's also the national park of Tayrona around here, which I intend to visit.
After that, well, if I feel safe enough in Colombia, I will go to the west, and then to Venezuela. If not, it's straight to Venezuela, which is a place I really am looking forward to see.
More updates in the future
Bye
Itay
posted by Itay Horev Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Well, it was a long and difficult trip, but I'm finally in Flores.
Actually, I'm about to leave Flores today.
To make things short, I arrived at Flores thursday evening. Last update was from Palenque, from which I went to Emiliano Zapate, where I took another bus to Tenosique. In Tenosique I took a small bus, crowded with farmers, which went to a small village called La Palma (Population: 300), from which I took a boat to a Guatemalan village called El Naranjo.
I had to spend the night in El Naranjo, since the immigration office was closed by the time I got there, so there's a one day gap in my passport. I left Mexico on August 31 and got into Guatemala on Septembet 1st.
From El Naranjo I took a bus to Flores, which took four and a half hours on dirt roads, with Guatemalan villagers and their chickens. I finally got here and went to the ruins of Tikal yesterday.
Tonight I'm going to Guatemala city, and from there to Lago De Atitlan, where I intend to learn Spanish in a small village called San Pedro. From there I would make my way across the rest of Central America and into either Colombia or Venezuela, depends on the cost from Panama, which is sort of my next station.
That's all I can really say right now, hope someones actually reading this stuff.
Bye,
Itay
posted by Itay Horev Sunday, September 3, 2000
Palenque
I got here this morning, after a 13 hour long bus-ride from Mexico City. I visited the ruins today, which were really great, but since they're in a jungle, the humidity was very high, and I really sweat a lot.
Tommorow I'll be heading to La Palma, and on the day after tommorow I'll take a boat from there to El Naranjo (The Orange Tree), in Guatemala, where I will spend a week or two learning English.
Phone communication from there will be hard, as there is no Bezeq-card access from there, but I hope to still have Internet access, so you can all write me if you feel like.
That's it for now.
Bye
Itay
posted by Itay Horev Thursday, August 31, 2000
LA. This city really seems cool. I've been to the place where they shot "Big Lebowsky", played bowling and drank a White Russian. I'll probably go to Universal Studios, and Dineyland, that sort of stuff.
On sunday, there's another Dream Theater concert I'm going to attend, and on tuesday I'm starting my real trip, flying to Mexico. I'll try to update this site once more before I go, but I can't promise anything.
I'm really looking forward for this trip, everything was really cool up till now. Gen Con was great, and if it interests you, you'll probably read about it in the coming Gargoyle.
That's about it. Till next week...
posted by Itay Horev Thursday, August 17, 2000
At last, I feel like a tourist.
I've been to Central Park, had a hot dog (I actually hate hot dogs, but it's a hot dog at Central Park, it's part of the experience), I also bought some cheap, lousy T-Shirts at Chinatown, and now I'm at the village, writing this last message from NY before I continue to Milwaukee and Gen-Con.
New York was cool, but I didn't have enough time to explore it. I should return here some day. Well, my time really is getting short, so I will leave now. My next report will probably be from Gen-Con, though I might not be able to access the net from there, so I might be quite untill the 14th, when I get to LA, where I will have better access.
Don't forget to write me, itay@samerica.com
Bye.
posted by Itay Horev Wednesday, August 9, 2000
Cyber Cafe - Times SquareI sit here for some time now. I couldn't reach the guy who was supposed to arrange me a place to sleep, so now I just sit here, surfing the net.
I wrote some emails, and chatted with people over ICQ. I'll leave here soon, though.The flight was long and hard, I slept for barely a third of it, despite the fact that I barely got any sleep during the three days prior to the flight. I went to a hotel and slept for about 8 hours, and now. only seven hours after waking up, I'm sleepy again.
I want to buy some empty diary, write what I think about the trip, the places I go, the things I see. What I feel toward things. Maybe I'll find a store that sells those. Maybe there's be something at the Virgin Megastore? I'll leave now to find out.
Come back sometime, I believe I'll update the place in the next few days.
posted by Itay Horev Sunday, August 6, 2000
This is my first post to this log. I'm still in Israel, and am testing it before I actually start using it. Currently it's still part of my vlight account, I'll try to transfer it to luckless.net soon.
posted by Itay Horev Tuesday, August 1, 2000