in the back of a 1950s truck. ‘Twas a notably hot day; fortunately rain came later to break the heat.
Category: Wheels
The flete
Anticipating holiday guests, a friend asked me to arrange transport (a flete) for her stuff, filling the guest space, to another friend’s shipping container in the country. With a local reference, I produced a hard-working driver with an ancient truck that did not inspire confidence.
But it worked just fine. The second of two trips. Truck: 1954 Commer.
Consumer goods in Uruguay tend to be shoddy, so bringing decent things when you move here makes sense. Linens and towels. Clothing. Hand tools, even comfortable chairs and a couch. Still, I marvel (sometimes poetically) at the quantity of stuff people feel the need to import.
Or perhaps I should say, feel the need to possess.
The 40′ container is now perhaps 60% full. Of unused stuff.
AAH, indeed
Why pedal?
I saw two guys on a motorbike, an arm extended and a bicycle rolling alongside.
Didn’t get a picture ’til the end of the road. The passenger had already dismounted.
I figured they were parting ways.
Silly me.
Guy on a pink bike. Big deal.
It’s so common to see a man riding a woman’s bike, or a teenage boy riding his little sister’s pink bike, that I forget how threatening that would seem to a young male’s ‘manliness’ in the USA.
As with the need for punctuality, unlimited consumer choices, and total convenience, much of the message for stressed northerners living in Uruguay comes down to three words.
Get over it.
Put on your best foreign accent and repeat after me: Life is to be livid!
Tosca
Tosca:
- an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini
- the same magically transposed to film in a stirring and wonderfully performed production featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna asthe star-crossed lovers
- a downtempo-chillout-electronic-trip-hop lounge duo
- a fine Italian dining experience in the heart of Washington, D.C.
- an awesome old school café in San Francisco’s Chinatown
- a manufacturer of travel goods in Australia
- a street in Singapore, and …
… dirt. Actually a type of crumbly rock (my scant knowledge of geology fails me), a mountain of which appeared last week on the rambla, probably for the repair of the collapsing stretch nearby, and destined to devolve into clouds of dust, tooth-rattling washboards, and suspension-testing potholes (pozos).
I found this spot a little more inspiring a couple years ago, with a funky car and graceful pines.
They’ve gone, victim of a storm, as have the railings to the then-new boardwalk. And I haven’t seen that car in a long time either, come to think of it.
Local gardener’s work rig
I see it almost every day. Close as I can ID, it’s a 1954 203.
Fusca
Why they call VW Beetles ‘fuscas’ in Uruguay remains a mystery to me.
You’ll see plenty of them around. The president of the country drives one.
Leñero
Leña means firewood, and the guy who sells it is a leñero. This guy appears on weekends and holidays near the zoo (yes, we have a zoo). He always waves to everybody. I’ve waved to him for a couple of years when I walk the dogs, thinking one of these days I want to ask him about that truck.
Finally did: 1954 Commer (English). He’s got a better one, he says, and plans to put the engine from this into that. I didn’t ask when, or how long he’s been planning that; meaningless questions in the land where ‘next week’ can mean ‘next month.’
Couchsurfing redux, redux
We got involved in Couchsurfing when we lived in Mexico, and hosted a number of interesting, and fun, people.
One time it was Sara and Sébastien from Paris, en route by bicycle from Anchorage Alaska to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina and the southernmost city on the planet. When we hosted them, we had no thought of moving from Mexico. When they learned we were in Uruguay, the became our first return couchsurfers before heading back to Paris.
Similarly, Marjorie and Jörg, retired five years and traveling extensively in the Americas from their home in Lörrach, Germany, stayed with us in Mexico, and when they learned of our move promised to include us in their South America trip. We shared their delightful company for a few days as they got ready to head home, while this rather impressive refitted Toyota Land Cruiser parked in our driveway.
As an added bonus, they taught me some new German words: Grünschnabel, Quatschkopf, Quasselstrippe, and Frostmemme. You’re on your own for the first three; the last means someone who’s always cold. I’m not sure I’ll be using them any time soon, but you never know.
They are, after all, kind of catchy.