Old cars in Colonia del Sacramento

 In a recent visit to Colonia, there were several old cars parked in the historic district of Colonia del Sacramento.  Sometimes these oldies are more or less restored. This old Ford was painted pink; it is more charitable to render it in black and white.

Sometimes the dear old cars are just left to decay in a friendly old cobbled street, windshield covered by stickers. This Citroen has been in this same place for at least 20 years. Those reeds grow from inside the car, through what used to be a removable roof. Nature takes back its own.

This Vauxhall is used as a prop for the menu board of a popular restaurant. The front still looks proudly toward the customers.

Sometimes the classics are just used by their owners, while waiting for their turn to become an urban ornament.

Taken with a Minolta Autocord TLR.  Film was Tri-X developed in D-76 1:1.

Carnival is near...

 The local Candombe group, "La Gozadera", has started rehearsing. They do it at dusk, when the worst heat is gone. 

Sometimes, when I hear the drums, I zoom to their street with one of my old cameras and try to capture the action. Too often I botch something; this time it was lack of attention while developing film. 

GIMP to the rescue. 

 

 

Now it looks like a watercolor, one which I would never be able to paint.  

 

 Thanks for viewing and a most Happy New Year!

Bouza winery

 Our children gifted us a visit to a winery, and finally we could arrange a date and time. We chose the Bouza site in Melilla, and got there a bit before noon.

There was a nice collection of old cars, mostly Fords, very well kept. This was in the waiting area, while the rest of the scheduled group arrived. 

There was a small patch of grapes, still very small and green this time of the year.

The grapes are kept quite thinned to make sure that they get enough sun. This winery goes for relatively small volumes of high quality product. 

We got a thorough presentation of wine making. For me, the visually interesting feature was the large store of oak barrels where wine waits for the right moment.

I took my trusty Super-Isolette to the winery, loaded with HP5+. The venerable camera became a nice talking point with the young tour guide; film is cool now for the new generation, reared on phones and selfies.

Thanks for looking!