climbing into an abandoned apartment to see where the cartoneros stash their cardboard hoards.

So we scaled the wall of a four story building from its roof and in the pitch dark. Had to hold onto the old iron window fixtures and jump with a little bit of faith, courage, and most of all curiosity. Vasco explained to me that the cartoneros spend the night going through the garbages in the neighborhood searching for cardboard and paper and then they hide what they collect in abandoned buildings until they can come back later with a car to take things away to the recycling centers. Tania told me that children do it too, they collect the metal tabs from soda cans. She also told me that this is more or less a recent occupation in the city, although a long time ago there was a position called el ropaviajero. They were old men who wandered around the streets calling to people for their old worn clothes.