A reader writes:
Are you freakin’ kidding us? Since there isn't a single distinctive feature in this View, my only guess is St. Somewhere.
Another writes:
I'd recognize this view anywhere. Based on the concrete gutter, the style of the railing, and the chamfered corners on the column I would say we are looking at the Atlantic Ocean. But technically speaking we're not looking through a window; we seem to be on a balcony. Therefore, I think we need a do over.
Nice try. Another:
This could be any tropical place with white sand, a quonset hut and a left-hand break. So I'm just going to randomly say New Zealand.
Another:
Tropical, coastal plain quickly giving way to elevated terrain, and dirt roads in an area that obviously has some money. Could be any number of places, but I'm going to go with Bain Boeuf, Mauritius. (It sounds somewhat connected to the presidential election, at the very least.)
Another:
Given this week's news about the unrest in Myanmar and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's European travels, Myanmar seems to be a likely candidate for a VFYW. It's been many years since I've been there, but this looks somewhat like Ngapali, Thandwe in Rakkhine State on the west coast of Myanmar on the Andaman Sea.
Another:
Coming up with a reason for this one (beyond intuition) is hard.
It feels like a temperate climate looking due south with vegetation and buildings that seem South African. Cape Town itself is a bit built up and a bit to the west. Knysna looks south toward the ocean and has a some hillsides that could pose this view.
Another gets on the right track:
The color of the sea, the vegetation, and vacation villas set among more modest red-roofed homes all suggest the Caribbean. But I'm not seeing any features distinctive enough to narrow this down! I'll take a wild guess that it's on the island of St. Martin, and leave this one to someone who spent their honeymoon in that exact spot!
Another:
Plymouth, Montserrat? Inside the exclusion zone looking toward the pier. Here's a similar one from the abandoned Air Studios:
Another:
Looks to me like Guanabo, or maybe Tarará, neighboring districts on the eastern outskirts of Havana, about 15 miles east of the city center. Am I close?
Yep. Another:
Not much to go on here. The vegetation and soil look Carribbean. The colored rooftops suggest recent construction and tourism – and it looks like a fair-sized town. The elevated vantage point facing the sea suggests hilly terrain. So my wild guess is somewhere on the eastern outskirts of Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Correct! But another reader gets more specific:
I happened to have been there in March, so I was lucky and "Montego Bay" came to mind quickly. The photo was taken from this porch, looking north. I would guess that it's the 2nd or 3rd bay of the porch. The house, as you can see, was owned by the Barretts, one of whom, Edward, was father to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Here is some of her verse (the first sonnet of Sonnets from the Portuguese) that you might appreciate:
I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:
And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung
A shadow across me. Straightway I was ’ware,
So weeping, how a mystic Shape did move
Behind me, and drew me backward by the hair;
And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,—
“Guess now who holds thee!”—“Death,” I said, But, there,
The silver answer rang, “Not Death, but Love.”
We'll get a VFYW book to you shortly. From the submitter:
While on our vacation last week to Montego Bay, Jamaica, we toured the Greenwood Great House near Falmouth. The estate was built in 1800 by the Barrett family (family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning), who owned a vast 15-square-mile sugar plantation extending from Falmouth to Montego Bay. The photo is taken from the upper veranda on the north side of the house looking to the north. The attached aerial photo shows the location of Greenwood Great House between Falmouth and Montego Bay, Jamaica. The other attached photo shows the exact location of the view:
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