rsync creates empty files

[Alfredo Aldundi]

hi

I'm trying to rsync a directory on my local host to a linux host using 
the command:
rsync -a -v -e ssh "/Users/sir/downloads/CarApp" 
"sir at 192.168.20.1:/home/sir/backup" --progress

At first glance, it seems that rsync works perfect, but when I read the 
files on my linux destination host, all the files are empty! (0 bytes) 
It is quite confusing.

local host: rsync version 2.5.5 protocol version 26 (Mac OS X 10.2.4)
linux host: rsync version 2.5.5 protocol version 26 (SuSE Linux 7.3)

If I leave the -a away, things get even worse

 > rsync -ve ssh downloads/CarApp sir at obelix:~/backup/ca
sir at obelix's password:
skipping directory downloads/CarApp
wrote 17 bytes  read 20 bytes  8.22 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

Is there an (obvious) solution for this problem (I'm new to rsync...)? 
Has anybody else experienced this?

alfredo aldundi