Berny's photos

After saving the wreck from the shed in January 1985 - scanned slide, Minolta X700 The bike was mostly original and complete, except the front fork and handlebar for instance. - scanned slides, Minolta X700

In January 1985, after searching for years and negotiations for one year with the owner, I could buy over 20 old motorcycles, hidden in an old shed in my hometown Graz. After clearing away all kind of scrap above the bikes, this is the first view of the treasure I was hunting, a very rare Puch 800 4-cylinder, built in 1936 by Puch in Graz. Not very promising. In 1971 I bought my first motorcycle when I was seventeen, at a small dealer in Graz, a 1938 BMW R51. In his backyard I could see several wrecks, also this one. I didn't pay attention much, years later I remembered and identified the bike as a Puch 800. The shop had closed at that time, the owner had ceased to be and nobody knew anything about the wrecks. After years I found the son of the former owner in Vienna and after one year of negotiation and uncounted phone calls he told me, that the bikes still exist. But he was not willing to sell only the Puch 800, only all bikes together, back then for a price, which was rather high for me. Anyway, I made the deal. I never documented most of the bikes I found, which I will do now. - scanned slide, Minolta X700 - see PiP

La Habana - Cuba, 2007. The PiP shows the view from the yellow building (Edificio Gómez Vila, 1933) in 2017. - scanned slide, Minolta X700 (main image) HFF and a wonderful weekend, everyone! Stay safe! The Carrara showpiece fountain is a replica of the original 18th-century one by Italian sculptor Giorgio Massari that was destroyed for the construction of a car park in 1952 under dictator Batista. In the 1980s, when Old Havana was listed by UNESCO as a Cultural Heritage site, architects and restorers began to work to save the Plaza Vieja. The underground parking garage was torn down and a replica of the original fountain was placed in the center of the square.

This is the last image of the "Argentina-2000" stream and album. It was a quite long row of photos for a long trip. Many thanks for joining and travelling with me, it was a pleasure ;-)) The impressive big building is not a church, but a thermal power plant, the "Central Térmica Puerto Nuevo", also called "La Catedral de la Electricidad". - scanned slide, Minolta X700

Buenos Aires - Puerto Nuevo scanned slide, Minolta X700

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs". Buenos Aires is a multicultural city that is home to multiple ethnic and religious groups, contributing to its culture as well as to the dialect spoken in the city and in some other parts of the country. This is because since the 19th century, the city, and the country in general, has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together. Thus, Buenos Aires is considered one of the most diverse cities of the Americas. The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of around 15.6 million. - scanned slides, Minolta X700

scanned slide, Minolta X700

Good bye, Ushuaia - Good bye Patagonia! The boat which you see here, is beached now and painted with nice graffities (see PiP's taken in 2015) - scanned slides, Minolta X700

Finally after 7500 km from Salta we arrived in our final destination, in Ushuaia, the most southern town of the world - as Ushuaia calls itself. The paintings on the famous post office remind of the time, when Ushuaia was a penal settlement (1880). See PiP's for same graffities in 2015. - scanned slide, Minolta X700

Trees surrounding the lonesome lake are full of lichens. - scanned slides, Minolta X700

Ruta Complementario F is a very remote road from Rio Grande through the inner Tierra del Fuego south to Lago Yuhein. - scanned slide, Minolta X700

In the beginning, Don Jose Menendez founded two big ranches, one on each side of Rio Grande. He called them The First and The Second Argentina, respectively. Currently, they are named after Jose Menendez (see images, founded 1896, 42560 ha) and his wife, Maria Behety. - In the 21st century, the Historical Truth Commission of 2008 and related scholarship uncovered the involvement of the Menéndez and Braun families in the genocide of the Selk'nam people. In total Menendez owned 430000 ha in Tierra del Fuego. scanned slides, Minolta X700

"The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina" - seen in Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego. - scanned slides, Minolta X700

After crossing the Strait of Magellan, we are finally on Tierra del Fuego. - scanned slides, Minolta X700, see PiP's