last post from S.A.

Hi everyone,

I know you´re all anxious to have me back in israel, so i´m obliging.

while I have quite a few more pictures, they´re not here, as I don´t walk around with my camera´s docking station. You´ll have to come over to my place to see the lot of them.

I love you all and i´ll try to think of funny things to say when we meet during the 17 hours of flight back :)

From my email: look at this while you wait for me to land (prizes for the first one to find me in the picture)

Itamar

a new day, a new place.

Hi again,
I´m writing this from an internet place in Valdivia, which is my last stop before going to Santiago (and from there, home).
I don´t have my camera or disc handy, so you´ll have to live with just one new picture right now. This is from a little horse riding I did in Pucon, and was taken by Ran, who I´m currently traveling with. It´s a shot of (the bottom of) a very beatiful waterfall we got to (we had to get off the horses to get down there) and the people I was doing the horse riding with (left to right: Tal, Rachel, Kathy, me and Ran).


Just wanted to say that while I had a great time in Pucon, I´m glad I left, as being around so many (noisy) israelis took its toll. Anyway, now i´m just with Ran, walking around, seeing sea lions (among other things).

See you all soon,
Itamar "Jinji" Weisberg

hola

Hi everyone,

ok, it's time for some pictures (yoohoo!).

some from El Bolson:

This is a bit of the scenery around El Bolson. (no, I didn't climb any of these mountains)

These are Shiran, Maayan, Gili, Simone and yours truly, at the Hidden Waterfall (cascada escondida) - it's so well hidden that there are arounf 50 signs leading up to it.

A bit from Bariloche:

This is the view from up on Cerro Campanario

and this is one of the lakes around (with my cousin Danya, who I met in Bariloche)

Here we can see one of the main atrractions of Bariloche (points awarded for identifying the subject matter)

and finaly, some of the sights in Pucon:

the black sand beach Volcan Villarica me, going up the mountain

So, you can see I'm having fun...

don't be jealous :)

yo from pucon

Hi everyone,

Sorry, no pictures today, as I haven't got my camera cable with me at the moment.

In any case, I'm now at Pucon, the famous Chilean summer resort, and i'm thinking about which of the many things available to do here I'll go for. Climbing the Villarica is a certain.

I just left Bariloche yesterday, after spending a few days there with my cousin Danya and a few friends I picked up along the way. Bariloche was very nice too, with a lot of food related fun (good meat, good chocolate and good ice cream). Sadly, I did not get to eat at De Alberto's as my companions had very low opinion of the food there, or Hezi (as it just didn't work out).


Going out to have fun now, will post more pictures later.

big hug to everyone
Itamar

on the road again

Hi everyone.

Well, While i´m at Bariloche now (ran, i got you some Jauja ice cream, steak and chocolate, but they all got mixed up and the sack started dripping), I´ll take the opportunity to recap on other things I´ve done.

After getting back from Las Torres, my travelling companions and I (a guy named Gili and a girl named Anat), rested for a bit in a family-run hostel, then took a 7 hour (or was it 70? who can tell?) bus to El calafate.

Now, El Calafate is in the middle of a desert. The strange thing is that this desert contains at least one really big fresh water lake... so how can it be a desert (devoid of almost any plants, trees and/or kittens)? I have no idea. In any case, El Calafate (named after the local Calafate bush, whose berries, if eaten, are said to ensure return to Patagonia) is small, uninteresting and expensive. However, it is the gateway to two very important things:

1) Perito Moreno Glacier (the thing i´m pointing at)


the first (and only, so far) glacier I´ve seen. It is extremely impressive ("Impresionante"), big, sharp and beautifully blue. The breaking off of parts is an event people wait there for.


2) Cerro Fitzroy

A lovely (and free) national park peak, with streams, trees and snow around.

We wanted to watch the sunrise hit the peak, but freak winds at night and lots of rain in the morning prevented it.

What we did manage to do is get completely soaked on our way back to the nearby village (El Chalten). Getting wet from wool had to trek socks is, shall we say, a unique experience. ;-)

Sadly, there are no pictures of me completely wet, as I didn´t want to take the camera out in the rain...

Of course, 15 minutes after our miserable return to El Chalten, the sun came out, the rain stopped and summer returned...

From there, we went back to El Calafate, and made the 28-hour trip to El Bolson.
This is what I looked like during the trip: (at least on the coche-cama bus)


Further updates coming...don't change the channel.

Just dropping in

Hi people!

Is anyone reading this? (other than you, mom)

I just popped in to say that i´ve arrived in a little place called El Bolson, not far from Bariloche, after a 28-hour bus ride. So i´m off to explore this nice little gem of a place, and will continue with my (late) reports ...later.


:)

Torres Del Paine

Hello again,

As usual (it seems), I´m reporting a week late.

This time, my trek to the Torres Del Paine!

the Torres is a huge (and expensive ) park.

On day one, i saw this:

these are the torres themsleves, as seen after a long and hard climb.

i did this hike with a few Israelis (after staying at an all-israeli hostel in Puerto Natales).

the next day we walked along the shore of Lago Yorgenskjold (i kid you not)

as you can see, the weather isn´t very sunny, but at least we got no rain.

the day after , i went up (again!) to see the french valley:

another hard climb....(this is a recurring theme).

on the last day, we were supposed to go see the Grey glacier, but it started raining. then it stopped, so we got to walking, then it started agtain, so we turned back.

In the end, we didn´t get to see it after all.

It was phisically difficult for me (as I have the fitness of an engineer, as i call it), and my feet ended up sore, my knees hurt, and my toes hating me. But hey, i saw the torres!

until next time,

chau

Back on the air

Hi all,

I know, I know, I should have been posting more. But,what can I do? i've been running around these past few days and barely had access to a computer.

In any case, after my last post, i went climbing to Galcier Martial. see below:

dissapointingly, there was no glacier...justa bit of snow. The viw from up top was very nice, though (it better be...it's a two hour climb).

Then I went to the localmuseum (museo Fin delMundo) and found the only interest was the stuffed birds (sorry about the fuzziness,but that's a condor there):

The next day, I took a 12-hour bus ride to Punta Arenas,during whch I had a somewhat scary episode where I thought I'd lost my passport and would have to stay the night at Rio Gra

nde, exlaining things to non english-speaking policmen. Happily, however, the passport was found, i got back on the bus and to punta arenas (nothing interesting there, so no pictures).

From there, I went to puerto Natales (where I am now), joined a few israelis (in the most israeli hostel ever) in a trip to Torres Del Paine...more on that next time.

ok, quick post:

I´ve been in Ushuaia for two days and the views and weather are amazing.

here are a few pics:

First post on foreign soil

Hello dear readers,

I've FINALLY started my trip after long long flights and waits.

As opposed to Tel Aviv and Madrid, Buenos Aires is HOT this time of year. You know, the sticky heat of a coastal city.

As I arrived at around 23:00, local time (5 hour difference), I met some of the people staying at the hostel (see group picture, below) and decided to go to a club in spite (or maybe because) of my jet lag.

Bad Decision (the second one for the day. the first one being eating those little ham and cheese sandwiches they serve on the plane). As we all know, dance clubs are dark, crowded places where head-pounding "music" is injected at an unreasonable volume into your head. Annoyed (and semi-deafened) I took a cab back to the hostel.

This ride tought me two things:

First, you should always wear seatbelts when driving around Buenos Aires: the cabbies are apparently half-mad, red lights are seen as recommendation and road lanes are considered to be useless street art. Second: not all cabs have setbelts.

Yikes!

The next morning (i.e. today) was spent in walking around central B.A., trying to understand why 90% of the interesting places are closed (because it's Saturday) and where all they tourists go (Recoleta). Yeah, I'm not much of an explorer.

Oh, I have to add: I had a great steak today... and here's the proof. It appears those Argentinians do know a think or two about meat... who'd have thought?

Well, it's seems you've made it to the end of my first post. I apologize if this was boring and/or devoid of literary value, as I'm saving all the juicy bits (even those from the steak) for my hardcopy journal (which I'll be happy to let you read for amodest sum).

See you next time.

This is me before the trip...well, a year before, actually.
I can only guess about the after picture :)

Testing, testing....

Well, trying to blog for the first time:
עברית עובדת כאן?

Ay, Ay, one, two three...testing.


looks like we're good to go.

South America, here I come!