Ushuaia – The End of the World

February 6, 2016Argentinaairbnb, end of the world, tierra del fuego, ushuaiaJudy

We made it!

We drove into the world’s southern-most city yesterday afternoon. The city is built around Ushuaia Bay, which is magnificent. We’re staying in an Airbnb apartment for a few days. It’s in the middle of town, and a block away from the port. There’s a cruise ship in dock – the Costa Luminosa (sister ship of the Costa Concordia, which sank a few years ago) – we can see it from the apartment.

I’m still having to remind myself that we’re actually in Tierra del Fuego Land of Fire. That magical, mystical, legendary, other-worldly, out of reach place at the end of the world El Fin del Mundo. We’re here! Amazing.

After driving through flat steppe for days, the last hundred or so kms got interesting – mountains, lakes, a bit of snow on some mountaintops. We had to drive over a steep pass to get to Ushuaia, and it reminded me a bit of Yosemite National Park.

Lovely weather here at the moment. Hardly any wind, sunshine, blue sky, calm sea, forecast maximum temp 19c today, with rain later in the week. Sunrise is at just after 6am, sunset is 9.30pm, so they have long days at this time of the year. Ushuaia is at 54°48′S, 68°18′S, which is almost as far south as you can get by car. There is an inhabited island, Isla Navarino, across the Beagle Strait to the south with 2 settlements, Puerto Williams and Puerto Navarino, but they can only be reached by sea.

We went to the local supermarket last night to get a couple of things. The place was packed, and all 12 cash registers were open, with long queues. We bought a litre of cheap white wine, a bottle of soft drink, 200g butter and some carrots. Total cost – AUD$6. The quality of most of the fruit and veg was better than we’ve seen in a while. Stuff gets shipped or flown here.

A couple of interesting snippets about the Costa Luminosa – it was one of the 3 cruise ships we saw when we were in Rio, and we watched it sail south to Buenas Aires when we sat sipping cocktails on Copacabana Beach one evening. It’s heading to Chile, so we may see it again in Punta Arenas or Puerto Natales, but I think it will be faster than us, though. It’s due in Santiago around Feb 15th.

We don’t have to be back in Santiago until March 2nd, and plan on taking our time heading north. We zoomed straight down here and will stop and see some stuff on the way back.

On the Ruta del Fin Del Mundo - the road to the end of the world — On the Ruta del Fin Del Mundo – the road to the end of the world

Queuing for the ferry to cross the Magellan straits to Tierra del Fuego

Squeezed between the trucks on the ferry crossing the Magellan Straits

Camped near the beach a few kilometres north of Rio Grande

Crossing the Martial Mountains north of Ushuaia

How far south we are in relation to Australia — At Ushuaia how far south we are in relation to Australia, we are further south than Macquarie Island

Adios to La Cuarenta

February 4, 2016Argentinacamping, fuel, petrol problems, rio gallegosJudy

We’ve finally left Route 40 ‘La Cuarenta’, having travelled along it for over 2000kms. We have just reached its beginning, or its end, at Rio Gallegos on the east coast. Now we’ll head south along Route 3 to Ushuaia, which is about 530kms away. We have to cross back into Chile for 100kms or so, then back into Argentina to get to Ushuaia. The borders are … interesting – take a look at a map of the area and see for yourself. It’s just not possible to drive there without crossing into Chile. So we have 4 more border crossings in our immediate future.

We’ve spent the last 3 nights camping in the wild in various places, ranging from a gorgeous spot beside the Rio Mayo to a bit behind a slight rise on an access road for construction trucks building a new road to the east of Tres Lagos. It was sheltered, quiet and not far from the only petrol station for 150kms …. and by then we really, really needed fuel.

So the morning after our access road camp, we headed up the road, through Tres Lagos and up Route 40 to the servo, only to discover that he had no fuel. Shit. He’d run out 3 days earlier and didn’t know when he’d get more in. Shit, shit, shit, please excuse my French. We had less than a quarter of a tank, which wasn’t enough to get us to the nearest servo after that. A guy in a big Winnebago-type camper was there waiting, with his little white dog. I think he’d been camped there for a while. I felt very sorry for the service station owner – we’d read about other people having similar problems there – how was he supposed to make a living if his fuel supply was so erratic? Anyway, we drove back into the village and parked a street back from the main street to have a think about what to do. Well, Greg had a think, I went for a walk along the main street, where I discovered that the only shop was closed for the day, the police were working on their front garden and the 2 hostels both had people staying there. When I got back to the car, Greg had worked out that the van’s fuel tank held 55L, so we just might have had almost 10L, which just might have been enough to at least get us to the turn-off to the next town that had fuel, and he’d decided that we’d go back to the servo to see if we could buy a jerry-can.

Somehow, that was the magic word. The guy at the servo didn’t have a jerry-can to sell us, but he told us about someone back in the village who would sell us some petrol. We just had to go to the police and ask them. They were still gardening when we got there, but very helpfully gave us directions to a guy who was located one street back from the main street …. right next door to the vacant lot we had parked on earlier! He siphoned 10L of fuel from one of his 44gallon drums that Greg had noticed earlier, poured it into our van, we paid him twice the going rate, gave the cops the ‘thumbs-up’ sign as we went past them, and drove slowly and carefully to El Calafate. Phew! We now have a jerry-can with an emergency 10 litres in it, and a full tank of gasolina.

It was one of those days where we just sat back at the end of the day and said ‘well, that was interesting, wasn’t it?’

It’s getting colder now, Greg has dragged out his long pants. And it’s windy, but then, we’re at almost 52 degrees south, and they don’t call the wind at this latitude the ‘Screaming 50s’ for nothing! We’re planning on staying at Rio Grande tonight, and Greg has just booked us an Airbnb place in Ushuaia for a few nights. The Wicked Camper is great – warm at night, sheltered from the wind when we stop during the day. Camping in a tent here would be …. difficult, and very, very windy!

The long open road of the Patagonia Steppe — The long open road of the Patagonian Steppe

Rhea by the side of the road. These are fairly common flightless birds in Patagonia like small Emus/Ostriches

guanaco a relative of the llama are everywhere in Patagonia. Signs warning us not to run into them, but they seem smarter than Kangaroos

Sitting in the back of our camper out of the relentless Patagonian wind

Camped at some road works on a quiet side road out of Tres lagos

Looking down at Lagos Argentina (lake) blue from Glacial till — Looking down at Lagos Argentina (lake) blue from Glacial milk

Camped in an old road quarry a little bit sheltered from the Patagonia wind

Travelling south

February 2, 2016Argentinaargentina, camping, route 40Judy

We’re making our way south, through the middle of Argentina. It’s surprisingly flat and dry, and HOT! While Adelaide and the eastern states are copping rain, we’ve been having fine days with the temperature climbing to 40c by late afternoon. Sunset is just before 10pm here. There’s about 900kms more of Routa 40 in Argentina before we cross back into Chile for a while.

Chile’s customs laws are as strict as Australia’s – no animal or vegetable products allowed across the border, so we’re planning our meals – sort of – to make sure we don’t end up with a heap of food we have to throw out. Some things in Argentina are incredibly expensive. Those folding chairs that we can buy for $6 or 7 at Big W or Kmart at home are as scarce as hens’ teeth here … because they cost around $50! Most people use those 1960s folding chairs with the woven striped straps. My parents still have some. And Greg checked out the price of a jerrycan, thinking that we could fill it and use it in case of emergencies …. $87 !!! Um, no.

There aren’t many towns on Routa 40, and we were warned when we collected the van that we would need to fill up with petrol whenever we could, partly because of the distance between places, but also because even if there is a servo, it might not have any fuel! We lobbed into a little town with one service station and an enormous queue of cars, trucks, vans. We stopped and did some quick sums and worked out that we probably had enough fuel to get to the next town – we’re getting around 10L to 100kms, with a 40-45L fuel tank. So we headed out of town, then must both have had second thoughts at the same time … so turned around and joined the queue. It actually moved fairly quickly, took us about 40 minutes to fill the tank and be on our way.

We’ve been doing some ‘free camping’ and paying for some camping at campgrounds. The paid-for camping has been generally disappointing – $25 per night for a patch of dirt and very basic amenities. At the place we stayed at a couple of nights ago, only one of the 3 toilets in the women’s bathroom had a toilet seat … and no toilet paper. But that’s standard. I’ve learnt to carry a roll of loo paper in my handbag.

Last night we ‘free-camped’ beside the Rio Mayo. It’s a popular local swimming place, but by sunset everyone had gone home and we had the river to ourselves.

Queue around the corner from the Servo for fuel

There are many signs memorials and in this case playgounds named after Malvinas - the Falkland Islands. We have also come across at least 3 streets named Belgrano, the Argentinian ship sunk by the British during the Falklands war — There are many signs memorials and in this case playgrounds named after Malvinas – the Falkland Islands. We have also come across at least 3 streets named Belgrano, the Argentinean ship sunk by the British during the Falklands war

Camped in the trees by the river at Rio Mayo

Our 7db Alfa Wifi antenna taped to some camping poles getting WiFi from someone in Rio Mayo

First test of the part home made portable camping shower — First test of the partly home made portable camping shower

In Argentina

January 31, 2016Argentinaairbnb, argentina, camping, route 40Judy

A very quick one ‘cos we’re using free wifi from a nearby restaurant and it’s ~~pretty~~ painstakingly slow.

We’re in Argentina – crossed the border yesterday afternoon. The Chilean side was fine, the Argentinian side was complete chaos … cars, trucks, people everywhere, huge queues to go through Immigration and then Customs. It took us about 90 minutes, but all our papers were in order (thank heavens for that!), and we finally got through at around 6.45pm. The border crossing closes at 7pm, and cars and people were still arriving, so we’re not sure what happened to them, whether it actually stayed open longer, or they had to stay there overnight. We have found that saying ‘no habla Espagnol’ – I don’t speak Spanish – at the start of any potential conversation, makes it easier for everyone, and usually makes for a quicker transaction as there’s no chit-chat.

We stayed at a campground by a glacial lake north of Bariloche last night. Argentinians are keen campers and love lighting fires! A bit like South Africans. We’re in Bariloche at the moment, it’s Sunday and we’re not sure what’s open, but we’ll find out soon.

My Airbnb account was hacked a day or so ago, and the hacker had made a booking at a (probably non-existent) LA apartment for 2 days at the princely sum of AUD$4k! The host’s account was also hacked. Airbnb were quick to refund me and cancel the booking, so it all worked out okay. Anyone reading this with an Airbnb account, make sure your password is good, or change it.

For Ron: sorry there are no songs, the internet is far too slow, but I’d probably add ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina’ to this post if I could!

fuschia growing by the side of the road near the Argentina border, they are native to Argentina

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The basins for washing vegetables and other things (dishwashing in camp)

Using the Google translate app to translate the instructions on the box from Spanish to English

At the Argentina border - "welcome to Argentine" — At the Argentina border – “welcome to Argentine”

Parked next to the Restaurant in Bariloche sucking down their WiFi, with snow capped mountains in the background

The Power and the Passion

January 28, 2016Chilecamping, chile, power and passion, wicked campersJudy

Yesterday we picked up our home for the next 5 weeks – a Wicked campervan which has ‘Fuerza’ written on one door, and ‘Pasion’ on the other …. Power and Passion. So of course our trip’s theme song is Midnight Oil’s ‘Power and the Passion’. Hope the link works, it’s not available in Chile. If you can’t play it, please let us know in the comments and I’ll find another version.

Power and the Passion – Midnight Oil

The van is all good – the company provided some basics in terms of kitchenware, gas stove, an esky seats and a table. We brought cooking utensils, a better icebox, bedding, lighting and a few other things we regard as ‘essential’, including a large piece of shadecloth that we use as flooring instead of sitting on bare ground. Lots of storage under the bed, a little kitchen area at the back, and we’re working out where to put things and how to get set up and packed up in less than 90 minutes. It’s always the same – takes us ages to get it all worked out at the beginning of a trip, but within a few days we get really good at unpacking and packing up … and where things should go.

Last night we camped in the Rio de Los Cipreses Nature Reserve south of Santiago. Chileans are keen campers and there were lots of people at the camp, including a couple of kids who befriended us when they were looking for el zorro (the fox) which was roaming around the camp. The kids came back a couple of times to chat, even though our Spanish is still almost non-existent. The little boy told us that it’s his cumpleano birthday in 3 days, but I wasn’t able to find out how old he is. Around 7 or 8, I think. Seems like it’s still school holidays here until the beginning of next month, so we’re going to head south , then take our time and look at things on the way back. Also, as Greg just pointed out, the weather in Patagonia is probably going to be better now rather than later.

My impression of Chilean people is that they are polite, friendly and law-abiding. When we collected the van, the woman told us that we shouldn’t have any problems with corrupt officials or police in Chile …. but it could be different in Argentina. Okay, we’ve been warned.

As promised slightly rude spanish words on the back

Stopped for lunch at a servo heading sout from Santiago — Stopped for lunch at a servo heading south from Santiago

Looking into the regional reserve in the Andrean foothills where we camped for the night — Looking into the regional reserve in the Andean foothills where we camped for the night

The other Santiago

January 26, 2016Chilechile, santiagoJudy

It seemed to be an ominous sign that there was a stack of ‘Your rights with LAN Airlines’ brochures at the check-in counter, but in the end our plane didn’t take off too long after it was meant to, and we made up the time during the flight and landed on time. For a while there though, we did wonder if the plane was ever going to board and take off.

Flying over the Andes was interesting, we had to do full-on landing procedures with seat backs and tables upright, seat belts on, crew all seated. I tried not to think too much about that movie ‘Alive’ or ‘Survive’ or whatever it was called, the one about the team of young sportsmen whose plane crashes in the Andes.

We felt a bit special going through Immigration at Santiago Airport. And not in a good way. Chile charges a reciprocity fee for Australian and Mexican travellers. Only Australians and Mexicans. There are special counters set up and thankfully they accept credit card payments. Mexicans pay USD$23, Australians pay a whopping USD$117 per person, valid for 90 days. As Greg said, we must have seriously pissed the Chileans off, with whatever hoops they have to jump through to travel in Australia. The young woman who attended to us told us that there were 4 Australians on the flight. We chatted with one of them a few times at Rio Airport, and again in Santiago and he thought the same as we did – no way will Rio be ready for the Olympics in early August.

The rest of the Immigration and Customs process was straightforward and quick … not many foreign tourists on our flight, it was mostly Chileans coming back home. All our luggage was x-rayed as we went through Customs. They have Australian levels of scrutiny, which may be a nuisance for us when we’re driving to and from Patagonia and reentering Chile via Argentina – no plant or animal products allowed, so we’ll have to plan our food purchases carefully.

Taxi to the apartment all went smoothly, but the key to the apartment wasn’t at the reception desk as our hostess had promised. We waited a while and I was just about to send an SMS when someone arrived, so it all worked out okay. Nice apartment on the 9th floor of a 25-storey block. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, pool and gym in building AND a laundromat on the ground floor. Yay! You can see more photos here

We’re staying a few blocks away from San Sebastian university, and there are museums, parks, the zoo and lots of restaurants and bars nearby. Greg has spent some time this morning trying to get a prepaid SIM card and has just come home with one that he’s happy with. Our mental arithmetic skills are being tested – one Argentinian peso is worth about 2/10ths of a cent … ie, there are around 500 pesos to the AUD. I’m sure it will become second nature to just divide everything by 500.

We pick up the campervan tomorrow and the road trip will begin!

A belated Happy Australia Day, everyone. I hope however and whoever you spent it with was enjoyable.

View from the 9th floor Apartment in central Santiago Chile. Don't think about earthquakes... — View from the 9th floor Apartment in central Santiago Chile. Don’t think about earthquakes…

Sunday in Rio

January 25, 2016Brazilcaipirinha, rio, rio de janeiro, sightseeingJudy

A quick one before we head to the airport and get caught up in the next stage of our trip – Santiago. Another lovely day yesterday, so we headed across the harbour to Niteroi. We caught a ferry over, then a bus back. Really pleased we did both trips as they gave us great views of the enormous harbour and all the ships both in dock and just waiting in the water. There were also 3 huge cruise ships docked, so the queues at the popular sights would have been enormous!

Most shops are closed on Sundays, apart from a few supermarkets and souvenir shops near the ferry, but the bus trip back to Rio took us through some interesting side streets and then across the very long, very impressive Rio-Niteroi Bridge with great views over Rio. We saw some Carnaval preparations – workers erecting stadium seating along one of the main roads in Rio. Canaval starts on Feb 5th, ends on Feb 10th.

We caught a second bus back to Copacabana, rather than the train, so we could see more of the city, then a stroll down to the beach in the evening for another cocktail. We found a band playing in the street with a big crowd around them, dancing or just tapping their feet to the music. Hordes of people on the Promenade, great atmosphere.

Thanks Rio, it’s been a heap of fun and we’ll be back someday, I’m sure.

Sunny Saturday

January 24, 2016Brazilcaipirinha, copacabana, ipanema, rio, rio de janeiro, Sugarloaf MountainJudy

Gorgeous day yesterday, so we decided to take a short train trip to Ipanema, the next beach around from Copacabana, to have a look. There’s a Farmers’ Market in a little park a couple of blocks from the apartment, so we went there to see what was available – lots of bananas, vegetables and a couple of stalls selling packets of organic ingredients – dried beans, flours, other staples. Very small packets, most looked like they weighed 500g or less, which makes sense when everyone lives in apartments with little kitchens and limited storage. If I lived here, there would be no going to Costco for 12kg bags of bakers’ flour! In supermarkets here the shopping trolleys are tiny, really just the size of a basket, but on wheels.

We caught the train 2 stops to the end of the line, then walked a few blocks to the beach at Ipanema. Lots of people enjoying the sun, a few swimming, a few guys wandering around with surfboards that we thought were just props as there wasn’t anywhere to surf … but then we found the surfers just around the corner where the waves were pretty good. We walked back to Copacabana – totally different beach to the one we’d seen in rainy weather. People in swimsuits everywhere, stalls renting out beach chairs and umbrellas, cafes full of customers, little stalls selling drinks and ice creams. We stopped at a cafe for a drink – coconut water in a coconut! – and to watch the world go by. We decided to have a crack at going up Sugarloaf Mtn, but thought the queues might be shorter if we left it until later in the afternoon.

Er, that would be a resounding no! We got a taxi from the apartment to the Cable Car station near SugarLoaf, noticing all the parked tour buses along the way, most of them with their drivers sleeping on mats in the luggage compartment. The queue of people waiting looked enormous, so we went and sat by the little beach nearby for a while. We had a great view of the 2 cable cars that take tourists up and back from SugarLoaf – one to Morro da Urca, then the next one to SugarLoaf. We waited half an hour or so then went back to find that the queue was as long as ever, and the tour buses just kept on coming, so we decided that we didn’t really need to get to the top and caught a cab back to the apartment.

In the evening just before sunset we strolled back down to the beach for a drink. So many people work hard to keep Copacabana clean. There are garbage bins everywhere, guys sweeping the sand, emptying the bins, doing a great job. The stalls on the beach were packing up their umbrellas, chairs, drinks, food, so we found a spare table in a cafe on the promenade and ordered caipirinhas, which is Brazil’s national cocktail made with lime, sugar, cachaca & ice. It’s made by muddling lime quarters and sugar together, adding crushed ice and pouring over the cachaca. Even in our minimally-equipped kitchen, there’s a muddling stick! Cachaça is a distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice and it is Brazil’s most popular booze. We sipped our drinks and watched the full moon rise. A nice way to end a nice day.

A bottle of beer produced in Spain exported to Brazil, but it still has the 10c container deposit fee for South Australia

Ice being delivered to the sellers on Copacabana beach via Cargo bike

Copacabana Beach on a sunny Saturday morning

The chaos of Tour Buses, Taxis and cars at the base of the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain

As close as we got to Sugarloaf Mountaina

At sunset Copacabana Beach drinking Caipirinha the Brazilian national cocktail

Corcovado Hill and Christ the Redeemer

January 23, 2016Brazilchrist the redeemer, corcovado, rio, rio de janeiro, sightseeing, uberJudy

Greg spent yesterday morning trying to organise a prepaid mobile SIM card. A couple of train trips, 5 different mobile phone shops and several conversations later, he discovered that it is absolutely not possible for a foreigner to obtain a prepaid SIM in Brazil. Unless something changes between now and the Olympics, there are going to be a lot of unhappy tourists here, unable to share their experiences on social media. Which may seem like a ‘first world problem’, or possibly unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but it’s how life is now for many people – instant, online, over-shared, over-exposed. Anyway, we’ll be interested to see what happens here during the Olympics.

Not a great day, weather-wise, but we decided to go to Corcovado and see the Christ the Redeemer statue. There’s no train station close by, although when we got there, we realised there are plenty of buses, but it’s always a bit trickier than trains, trying to find out where buses go to and from. There are loads of taxis around, but we decided to take a Uber car, partly as research for getting to the airport on Monday. While it worked out well for us getting to Corcovado Hill, we’ll probably just get an ordinary taxi on Monday. With Uber, it’s not possible to specify how many passengers, or how much luggage! Everything is done via a mobile phone app, and not having internet access outside the apartment – due to not being able to obtain a prepaid SIM – means that any changes to the Uber booking can’t be communicated to us. Anyway, it all worked out okay, although we realised that in addition to the Cosme Velho train station that we wanted to go to, there is a suburb by the same name further up the hill, which is where our Uber driver took us. He very bravely drove his lovely clean Fiat Siena up slippery steep cobbled streets, and dropped us off where we thought we wanted to be.

We walked back down the hill in the rain and found the station, then took the train (I think we would call it either a tram or a funicular) up to Christ the Redeemer at the top of Corcovado Hill. It was misty and the hill was covered in cloud, it felt like we were floating above the cloud, and in a way it might even have been better that way. We were there to see that statue, and that’s what we saw … not the view from the top, or the beaches, or the rest of the city, just the incredible, imposing, magnificent statue. At one point on the way back down in the train, the rainforest cleared and so had the cloud, so we could see what was down the hill and to the coast at Ipanema. Stunning view over Lake Rodrigo de Freitas and the nearby racecourse to all the high-rise apartment buildings around Ipanema and Leblon beaches.

We got an ordinary taxi back to the apartment and that all went smoothly too.

This morning – Saturday – was fine, our first fine day since we got here. We took a train to Ipanema, then walked back via Copacabana. More on that later

Out and about in Rio de Janeiro

January 22, 2016Brazilpoints of interest, rio, rio de janeiroJudy

Another rainy morning, so not a great time for us to go to see Christ the Redeemer or Sugarloaf Mountain. Greg dragged out his raincoat and went to check out a few local shops, then went for a wet trudge along Copacabana Beach with his new toy – a not-GoPro camera and a ‘selfie stick’.

We decided to have a go at navigating the public transport system to go into central Rio and see what we could find. There’s a metro station just a block away from the apartment and we managed to buy rechargable cards without any hassles. The trains are frequent, most are airconditioned, they are clean and give good information on where they are going … even down to a green light above whichever door will be opening at the next platform. We wandered along a mall with an open-air market and reached the magnificent Municipal Theatre, with shiny gold trim and lovely stonework. We found lunch at a Brazilian/Kuwaiti restaurant nearby … huge serves, friendly waiter, out of the rain. It’s funny how many things here remind us of our time in Portugal. Cultural similarities, I guess … and bloody cobblestones everywhere here, just like in Portugal!

The National Library is currently shrouded in scaffolding and most of it is fenced off for renovations and an extension, but we found the main entrance and popped inside for a quick look. Magnificent! A tramline is being built just outside, for moving hordes of people around during the Olympics. It looks like it has a long way to go to completion, but I guess they know what they’re doing and it will all be good to go by August.

We found the Metropolican Cathedral of San Sebastian, which looks a lot like a modern-day Mayan Pyramid, with 4 stunning full-length stained glass panels around the interior. Built in the 1960s and ’70s, I noticed a few commemorative plaques near the main entrance mentioning Pope John Paul II, and one which also mentioned Mother Theresa.

No idea what they said, my Brazilian really only extends to telling shop assistants that I don’t have their supermarket’s reward card and saying ‘Thank you’, and even then I get it wrong half the time because it’s gender-based. A smile always helps. We’ve noticed that everyone here is friendly, helpful and seems happy.

The weather had cleared by mid-afternoon, but we are still not quite in the local time zone … okay, we’re extremely jet-lagged, so we opted for a short nap over trying to get to either Sugarloaf Mtn or Christ the Redeemer …and woke up 5 hours later! I’m sure we’ll be in the right time zone within a few days, probably around the time we head to Chile and have to adjust to being another hour behind.

It’s raining again this morning, but hopefully it will clear again this afternoon.

Outside Metropolican Cathedral of San Sebastian — Outside Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian

Coke truck unloading to a little Coke delivery bike. There is not much room in the streets for large trucks

Lots of deliveries in Rio are done by Cargo bike. This is a large cargo bike outside a Bedding Store

At Christ the Redeemer in the mist and rain above Rio

A Favela (slum) at Cosme Velho near the tram to Christ the Redeemer

Rio to Rio Grande

Judy and Greg in South America