Nike 10K Race

This is the first time I watch the start of this popular race, although I've often waited for friends and relatives at the end. I wanted to see how you start a race with 8,000 runners.

They change the starting point from year to year; in 2009 it was the awesome Palacio Legislativo. The crowd of runners in yellow shirts was kept in position by means of heavy metal fences.

The race attracts runners from every age and physical condition. After the first few hundred meters everybody still looks quite in shape!










I find most inspiring the huge effort made by wheelchair and blind runners. They got the strongest applause, well deserved. Hope they managed to finish the race!

Made in Here

Hecho Acá (Made in Here) is a large annual fair of artisans and designers of every type of object. It takes place in the LATU tents. It is a good opportunity to watch people and to learn about new trends.

Had you ever seen this size of mate straw (bombilla)? It was more than 2 meter tall.

A small team of young and graceful dancers was doing its best to dance inside the crowded tents. They danced better than I could photograph them!










Neopan 400 film, pushed to 800. Camera was the compact Olympus XA.

Election day

Last Sunday we had presidential and parliamentary elections. Lots of movement in the city, a real popular Fiesta with capital F. We liked it so much that there is already a second round scheduled, late next month.

Little tables sprout everywhere with the ballot papers, often two tables of rival parties together -- with the operators helping each other. We must be more civilized than I thought. People were mostly looking for their circuits. Mate is always nearby.



Much movement and many flags in the afternoon. Some flags were larger than the carrier, others small and discreet but no less telling. Flags in cars, motorbikes, enveloping people.

Quite a bit of suspense in the definition. Let us hope that the friendly atmosphere is still here next month!

The following pictures were taken a few weeks before the election. I got stuck into a motorcade of one of the candidates, fortunately with a camera at hand.

Aeronautical Museum

The little Aeronautical Museum is located next to the Cilindro, the largest indoors sport arena in the city. It is maintained by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters and kept by a skeleton Air Force staff and cadets. A good place for a walk if you like planes of every age and state of repair.

An old Chevrolet car was displayed on Heritage Sunday along with the planes.

Heritage - Elias Regules Society

Heritage Day (Dia del Patrimonio) - dedicated to the Gaucho and rural traditions. A throng of people in the largest traditional society, Elias Regules in the north Carrasco area.

There was a lively dance by a Cerrillos amateur group.



The little city boys enjoy meeting their first horse!



Within the Elias Regules field, there is a replica of an old rail station.

Forlorn corner

This is a lost corner in peripheral Montevideo (Coronel Raiz St. and Batlle & Ordoñez Boulevard). The weeds have grown high. The current election campaign has helped aesthetics, by painting white a section of the old brick wall.

I doubt this corner was any different 50 years ago.

Boats and bows

I've been walking again along the marinas of the Yacht Club, this time with a 50 mm lens and nothing else in the Pentax ME. There was a tremendously low tide on Saturday and a lot of boats were touching the mud bottom.