You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
This is my first attempt at a VFYW, but this one just jumped out to me from my last trip to Israel almost ten years ago. The palm trees, seemingly large harbor to the left, the fact that this view is from above and much of Haifa is built along the slopes Mount Carmel, all of it point to Haifa to me. I just wish I could tell you which churce that is in the foreground, since based on past contests, I’m sure someone will.
Another writes:
I’ve been on the lookout for this one for a while and wish I could be more confident. Looks to me like downtown Dar es Salaam. Not sure I recall the harbor wrapping around like that, but I was at ground level. I will say specifically from the Kilimajaro hotel.
Another:
Tangier, Morocco, that’s my guess. I’m too lazy to figure out exactly where and have too few moments of mommy time left to waste time searching Google Earth, but I spent a blissful hour on a treadmill there once looking at a very similar landscape.
Another:
I motorcycled through southern Chile last November and Puerto Montt marked the end of smooth tarmac and the beginning of the many ferries and kilometers of gravel connecting Chilean Patagonia. The bay in the pic looks very similar to the crescent-shaped bay Puerto Montt sits on and the sunrise from the left matches Puerto Montt’s southern face. Lastly, the church and steeple look very much like the traditional wooden churches built throughout southern Chile and the island of Chiloe.
Close. Another:
That has to be Long Beach, CA, looking from the Signal Hill neighborhood. That’s the Palos Verdes Peninsula reaching out to the North, just south of Santa Monica Bay. Or it’s Valparaiso, Chile.
Sometimes it’s better to go with your second guess. Another:
My first thought was Chile, but the only cities I’ve been to in Chile recently were Santiago, which is not on the coast, and Punta Arenas, which among other things does not have more than a sew tall buildings, and it’s a much smaller port. But there was something about that blue house that continued to scream Chile, and Valparaiso popped into my head. I was an exchange student in neighboring Vina Del Mar in 1969 so “vaguely familiar” is about right (add some skyscrapers in the ensuing 40-plus years and…). So I did a 60-second Google image check of Valpo, and yup, that’s it all right. What fun!
Another:
Multi-colored houses, cobble-stoned walk ways, horseshoe bay, Viña del Mar in the distance – this has to be Valpo. I was there for an amazing New Year’s Eve two years ago. The size of the city doubles for NYE and it’s a free-for-all street party topped off by a great fireworks display over the bay at the strike of midnight. But sadly, the New Year’s kiss is not practiced by the Chileans.
Another sends an aerial shot:
Since my soon-to-be husband and I are looking for a Caribbean or South American getaway this winter for our delayed honeymoon, I’ve now added Valparaiso – apparently the San Francisco of South America – to our list, especially after reading about the positive changes on the LGBT rights front after this year’s horrible death of Daniel Zamudio.
Another:
My wife is from Chile and her parents have a house overlooking the beach in the suburb of Renaca which is the point of land in the distance in the top right of the photo. We try to take the kids to visit every year and frequently take day trips into Valparaiso. I’m guessing that this photo is taken somewhere near La Sebastiana, the famous house of Pablo Neruda that is now a museum. This stock photo looks to be the same as the one in your competition.
Another:
The real giveaway though are the four battle-ships docked at the harbor. I’ve seen
those myself, and are the treasures of the Chilean navy fleet. The city is known for its “miradores” or look-outs, and clearly this was taken from on high. The proximity to the fleet suggests the picture might have been taken near one of Pablo Neruda’s three houses, La Sebastiana, however the church in the middle of picture is south of Neruda’s house. The church is Iglesia Matriz, and judging from its position relative to the photographer I’d hazard the picture was taken on calle Palazuelos near parque Bilbao.
Another sends the above photo of the warships. Another writes:
I was fortunate enough to take a trip with my family to Valparaiso, Chile in 2007 where we were able to retrace my great-grandfather’s steps as a 16 year-old merchant seaman who sailed around the world in 1885, including a brief stop in Valparaiso. The stars aligned for this trip, as my mother was invited to an academic conference and my father wanted to take his sons (my brother and me) and his grandchildren to see part of our family history. During our visit, I spent one day wandering around Valparaiso, taking in the brightly painted corrugated tin roofs that dot the city and seeing the part of the Chilean navy stationed in the harbor.
My father died five months after we returned from this trip. This picture brings back many happy memories of the trip and of him. Thank you.
Another:
This is my first entry! I’ve been reading the Dish for years, and follow the VFYW contest every week, but have never come close to recognizing the “view” until today … I hope. I think this is a picture of Valparaíso, Chile taken from one of the cerros (hills) above the plano (flat part) of the city. The church in the center of the photo looks like Iglesia de la Matriz in Victoria Plaza.
I studied abroad in Viña del Mar – the city around the curve in the corner of the picture to the right – about a year ago. Valparaíso is a beautiful and colorful city (literally – most of the houses are brightly painted, and the city is famous for its murals). Last
night I actually just got together with some friends from my Chile trip – we drank piscolas (the Chilean and Peruvian national liquor pisco mixed with coca cola), ate completos (Chile’s famous hot dogs covered in avocado, tomatoes, and mayonnaise), and had a really nice time reminiscing about that wonderful city – full of poets, musicians, and student revolutionaries – and of course, kiltros, the (beloved) stray dogs that litter Chilean streets.
This is the view from Pablo Neruda’s house La Sebastiana? Is it?? Every Chilean knows the Neruda line, “Amo el amor de los marineros que besan y se van.” (“I love the the love of sailors, who kiss and leave” – that’s a shitty translation but you get the point). I’ve visited all three of Neruda’s houses – they are all quirky and amazing. And they all have at least one bar. Neruda often wrote about Valparaíso.
Another sends the above photo of the church. Another nails the right floor of Neruda’s house:
I was thrilled to look and know immediately, I was there just a couple months ago
when I was interning in Chile this summer! This is Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda’s unbelievable house in Valparaíso, known as La Sebastiana after the original architect, Sebastian Callao. Interestingly, the house sat unfinished for ten years before Neruda, looking for a second residence outside Santiago, transformed it into what it is today–a pseudo-surrealist, towering, artistic house (reminiscent of the Weasley house in Harry Potter) filled with a bizarre and artistic collection of antiques and artifacts.
The window itself is in his fifth floor study (where, according to the foundation, Neruda would write in between long and alcohol-filled lunches and dinners in the city below), the white window framing and height of the photo gives it away. As for which window, it appears to be the only one that opens. Photos, both inside and out, attached.
To me though, this house is more than just an interesting literary and artistic site. There’s also a tremendous amount of irony, in that as the least opulent of Neruda’s three grand houses across Chile, it’s a huge contrast to his socialist beliefs and political actions. I guess maybe great artists are exempt from charges of hypocrisy …
Five readers answered the correct floor, but only one of them has guessed a difficult view in the past without winning (and in fact has a few dozen entries total). So this week’s winner is:
Wow! Easy city to get, but the location was difficult until … it became clear that this was taken from the top floor of Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso, “La Sebastiana.” I’ve included numerous photos showing the “View from His Window” if you will. Very, very cool – a VFYW submission from beyond the grave?
In “picture 4” you can see a window ajar on the top floor of the house (it’s directly next to the vertical white pipe). I submit that the person who took this week’s VFYW was standing next to that window while it was ajar and stuck his camera slightly out of the window. You can see the window with latch in the right hand side of the submission – I say that’s the open window which shuts by swinging in, to the left. So, top floor, Pablo Neruda’s house, window all the way on the left side as you are looking out of the house towards the port. And, the address of the place is “Ferrari 692, Valparaiso, Chile.” Here’s another view from the window:
Whoo! Lovin’ the VFYW contest.
From the submitter:
You all probably get this one a lot. But here is the view from Pablo Neruda’s writing room on the 5th floor of the house he built in Valparaiso, Chile. It was taken around 5pm. Apparently he spent a lot of time looking out the window with a telescope.
By the way, for last week’s contest from Waterton, Alberta, a reader wrote:
I’m taking this weeks’ contest photo as good sign! My wife and I are leaving Tuesday for a long scheduled trip to Glacier (and Waterton) National Park. Although I have not been there yet, I’ve been looking at a lot of pictures, and the photo was immediately recognizable as being from the Glacier National Park area, and I quickly confirmed my guess that it was taken from the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton. I look forward to looking out this same window in a week or so!
He follows up:
Attached is an admittedly cheesy photo of me pointing to the correct window at the Prince of Wales hotel:
We’re having a great trip.
(Archive)
You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
The shape of the mountains screams the Alps. Though I have some confirmation bias at work, I think it looks Swiss. It looks like a late afternoon sun is casting shadows across the view, which mean it has to be north face. So a quick scan of the Swiss lakes shows only a few that are generally north-south in length, and the only good candidate to have a view like this, Lac de Gruyére, doesn’t have any mountains close enough. So we go west into the French alps, and there we find a winner in Lac d’Annecy. We find Duingt situated on a small peninsula affording us the view in question. Duingt, France. Final Answer (do we still say that in the States?)
Another writes:
Since the only Alpine lake I’ve ever visited outside of Lake Tahoe is Lake Como in Italy, this of course must be one of the little towns along that lake. I’m going to go with Varenna, with the photo taken from a ground floor room in the Hotel Olivedo. Boom … give me my damn book!
Another:
This has to be Norway, but harsher than the mainland. Those peaks, with the dramatic timberline, say Leknes, in the Lofoten Islands.
Another:
Andalsnes, Norway? This looks like the view from the youth hostel just at the south edge of town.
Another:
Cisnes, Chile? I see fjords that aren’t Alaskan, but also don’t appear to be Scandinavian. So it’s in the the Southern Hemisphere. Thus Cisnes.
Another:
This has the distinct feel of the Inward Passage, a trip I was lucky enough to make twenty some years ago. Take the ferry from Seattle, relax for 3 days gazing at amazing scenery and wildlife, then get off at Skagway and head into the Great White North. A trip you will never regret. I can’t place this with any certitude, so I will go with Fanny Bay, BC, simply because I like the name.
On the right track. Another:
I don’t know where the hell this is (yet), but I’m leaving for there on Tuesday at about 1:00 EDT.
Another has your answer:
This is the first time I’ve recognized a VFYW pic immediately, and the first time that I’ve attempted an answer. The photo is of a view of Waterton Park Village, Waterton, Alberta, Canada, in the Waterton Lakes National Park, in the Canadian part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. The last time I visited there was with my friend Jamie, about 10 years ago, although I’ve been back to Glacier National Park just a couple of years ago. The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park reportedly has the distinction of being the only park in the world to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an International Peace Park, and a Biosphere Reserve. Here’s a Google Maps overhead view of the area:
Another:
Interesting, just to the left of the photographer’s view is a narrow inlet connecting one side of the lake to the other that Google Maps calls “Bosporus.” Ha!
Another:
Given that we were camping in Waterton a year ago today, the timing of your contest picture is uncanny. I have a similar picture taken from just outside the hotel hanging on my office wall (though of the townsite of Waterton at dusk):
Another:
The park is the Canadian counterpart of the Glacier National Park in northern Montana. Do I get bonus points for pointing out that the mountains in the background, specifically the last two peaks in the back (Campbell Mountain and Goat Haunt Mountain) are actually in the USA? The lake is a very long, glacially carved lake, and the international border runs right across it about half way down. If you take a boat to the other end and hike the trails you actually have to go through immigration …
Another:
That’s a view from the Prince of Wales Hotel. I went there on a trip with my family last summer. Here’s me and one of my kids looking at that view:
Another:
I knew it the moment Google Reader revealed the tops of the mountains. This is one of my favorite
views. My husband and I stayed there as part of our month-long honeymoon road trip through the National Parks. Glacier National Park was half on fire (this was August of 2003), our camping plans were dashed, so we headed up to Waterton, since there’s nothing a stay at the Prince of Wales hotel can’t cure. I’d been there as a kid on family camping trips and loved taking my husband back. Nine years, three kids later, and we’re taking our kids on a National Park excursion this month.
Another:
This is the Waterton marina as viewed from the Prince of Whales Hotel. Cheating a bit since I currently live in Calgary, Alberta and was camping in Waterton a few weeks ago with my family. Citadel peak at the far end of Waterton lake is quite easily identifiable from the brochures for Glacier/Waterton international peace park. Waterton is probably my favourite place on Earth and often overlooked by visitors to Glacier.
Another adds:
I’d like the global warming denialists among us to explain why Glacier National Park will soon have no glaciers left if the earth isn’t warming due to CO2 emissions …
Another sends a screenshot:
Are they all this easy? I’ve never entered this contest before, but I found myself with some free time on a Saturday morning so I thought I’d give it a try. Feeding the picture into Google image search placed it at Waterton Lake National Park in seconds.
Playing around with the available snapshots on the web and the Google Maps terrain feature quickly puts it at the Price of Wales hotel, the only building on that particular chunk of land. We’re off the ground a bit and that black window frame must be a clue. The height off the ground and the window frame in this picture look like a good match:
Another:
I once hiked 63 miles through Glacier National Park to get to the Prince of Wales Hotel. For the last 20 miles, only the thought of having a cold beer at the Prince of Wales hotel kept me going. By the time I got to Waterton and saw that the hotel was atop a hill, I had no climb left in my legs and opted for a beer at the Grizzly Bear tavern. It had no view, but the beer was cold.
Another:
Here’s a picture taken during a trip with my parents from roughly the same spot on July 13th, 1952 (date recorded in my sister’s diary).
Notice the greater amount of glacier in that old photo. Another:
If you take the International cruise boat (the larger boat at the right end of the dock in the photo) to the south end of the lake, you’ll arrive at Goat’s Haunt, in Glacier National Park in Montana. The two parks together comprise the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. I spent many summer vacations with my family hiking around Waterton. It’s an oft-overlooked jewel of the Canadian Rockies. Here is a vintage postcard from a similar perspective as the VFYW photo:
Another:
Wow, the memories. My parents took my sisters and me on yearly hiking vacations to Waterton/Glacier during our grade school / high school years. I remember standing on the bluff outside the hotel, with winds coming down the lake strong enough to knock us over. During our grad school years, my younger sister and I returned for a backpacking trip that began in the Waterton townsite with a boat ride to the Goat Haunt trailhead down on the US end of the lake, then backpacking (take a right at the “Cathedral Spires” you see in the distance in your photograph) as far as “Hole In the Wall,” which has to be about the most delightful place on the planet. We camped, surrounded by small streams melting under and through the receding snowcover, revealing fields of glacier lilies, with dramatic mountain views all around. This was in contrast to the previous night, when we camped at Brown Pass, where the mosquitoes were so dense that our dinner consisted of crackers and instant hummus, consumed in haste while we were wearing full raingear for protection.
That was a year with an unusual amount of snow and very slow melting – hikes were opening late and we didn’t make it to our planned destination (Boulder Pass), in spite of hiking in mid-July. Seems to be very different this year.
Another sends a video tour:
I went there in 1981 as a 12-year-old and was fascinated by the Mule Deer walking through the streets of the town. 31 years later and I recognized the location immediately. Funny how memory works.
Another:
A bit of trivia off the top of my head: there’s only one church in the little town of Waterton there and it’s an LDS chapel. Mormons colonists settled in southern Alberta in the 1880s. Like the Mexican colonies that Romney comes from, this was a destination for many polygamist saints trying to stay clear of the feds (though polygamy was also illegal in Canada). My own great-grandfather grew up there, in Cardston, about an hour away from Waterton.
Another goes for the gold:
I can’t be the only one to get this location, so here’s my best guess at the location. It wasn’t taken from a lower story since we are way above the outside features, so that rules out someone snapping a shot from the tea room. Further examination shows that it was likely taken from a paned window, and since the panes on the second and third floors are on the upper half, unless someone was standing on a bed they wouldn’t likely get this perspective. The fifth floor seems too high, so I’m guessing the fourth floor.
Now, which fourth floor window? Well, there are two features of note here: the stone wall and the fire hydrant. (Some of the other hydrants are painted as bears, this one is red.) The best photo I found comes from this blog and shows the front elevation of the property. The wall is about 15 feet (or, in Canada, 5 metres) out from the tea room, but more like 15m out from the wings. It must have been taken from a wing to be visible from this high. And the location of the wall gives us the left/south side of the building. Also, the wall ends by about the wing, this would rule out the north-most set of windows; additionally the hydrant at the far left of the photo rules out the southernmost windows. So if I am correct, the photo was taken from the middle set.
Now, it appears that the photographer was standing to the left of the scene, so it’s probably not the left-most window. I’d guess it wasn’t the right-most window, either based on nothing but human nature. So it’s one of the middle two, I’d guess the photographer’s-left one. It’s marked on the photo attached.
Close but not quite. Details from the photo’s submitter:
I know you must get hundreds of these, but as a fanatic Dish reader and (very) occasional identifier of a window, I thought this might make a good window for you, either as just one to post or as a contest view. It was taken on July 19 at 6:24 AM from the famous Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton, Alberta, at the northern end of Upper Waterton Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park, just across the border from Glacier National Park in Montana. My wife and I were staying there while on a biking trip through Glacier and Waterton Parks, and as soon as we looked out our room window (number 201 by the way), we said “this is for VFYW!”
The view is fairly well known and might be a tad easy for the crazed fanatics who identify windows in Uganda, but it might make a late summer gift to the rest of us who like to get one right every once in a while!
The hotel is situated high on a bluff overlooking the end of Waterton Lake, and it’s reputedly one of the windiest places in Canada. The hotel is held down by cables so it won’t shift in the high winds, and we could hear the wind whistling through the room even with the windows closed. Certainly the most scenic view ever out of a hotel room for my wife and me.
Three readers sent images of the hotel with circles over the correct window, but the following entry was by far the most detailed, so it’s the winner this week:
I was instantly able to recognize the unique glacier formed terrain growing up in Kalispell, Montana and being lucky enough to visit Glacier National Park so many times. The landscape there is so beautiful it’s hard to forget them. The first thing that came to mind was the view from Apgar Lodge at the southern end of Lake MacDonald but I knew that wasn’t right because of the little bay and developed town on the right in the picture. There is no bay like that on Lake MacDonald. I had a hunch it might be in Waterton National Park, which is just to the north of Glacier National Park on the Canadian side of the border. There along Upper Waterton Lake is the town of Waterton, which I visited when I was a kid.
Sure enough the orientation of the bay and in particular the turquoise/blue roof confirmed that Waterton was the correct location. The direction of the photo and little stone wall is a dead giveaway that the photo was taken looking south from the Prince of Wales Hotel which sites up on a bluff across the bay from town. I remember the hotel fondly. We had tea in the restaurant and walked around the grounds enjoying the stunning view.
As for locating the exact window, the red pipe off to the left and the stone wall were the biggest clues. The ride pipe is actually a fire hydrant. Given the stunning landscape surrounding the hydrants (I think there are two of them on the property) they were photographed quite frequently because they are (or were) painted to look like little bears. Based on the elevation above the ground and the absence of a deck in the image I feel pretty confidant the photo was taken from the second floor. As for the exact window I spent many many hours going through flickr trying to triangulate everything. That was pretty hard. I’m going to guess that the picture was taken from the 1st window from the right. The yellow circle in the attached powerpoint shows which window I’m talking about:
(Archive)
You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
A reader writes:
I am pretty sure that's an American flag, and the mountains look New Mexicoish (to me, who has never been there). And there's palm trees, and the friendly gardeners on Google tell me Las Cruces has palm trees. So, Las Cruces it is, looking East, I think, and probably in the downtown redevelopment somewhere. Are there extra credits for doing the whole thing on a little iPhone screen?
Not enough this time. Another:
I have played a handful times and never even been close. Anything with desert-esque looking mountains and palm trees gets a standard guess of Las Vegas, my hometown. So, Vegas it is. The institutional window treatment, parking garage, and construction makes me think it could be UNLV. Whatever. It's probably Minsk.
Another:
Mitt Romney's new parking garage at his home in La Jolla, California?
Another:
Aurora, Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, looking west. This looks like a picture taken while parts of the campus were under construction. It may be from Building 500, the old Fitzimmons Army Hospital, given the height of the window from which the picture is taken.
Many readers guessed Aurora. Another:
It has all the color schemes of Tucson, and even the mountains in the background look like those seen in Tucson.
Close. Another:
I was recently at Pheonix's Sky Harbor, claimed to be the most friendly airport in the USA. In the security line I was told I had an insulin pump, which I didn't. I had to do the Full Monty. I was there for five hours, since I did not make my connection. So I had a lot of time to look around. This seems to be it!
Too close for comfort. Another:
Oh I know this one:
This is the view from the US Federal Courthouse in downtown Phoenix looking south at the future site of the new headquarters for the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office. Very clever, as Joe Arpaio faces racial profiling charges here this week. The building on the right is the Justice Court in Phoenix. (See map here)
A bird's eye view from a reader:
Another:
This photo is some kind of fake out following last week’s photo. Many of the correct answers were from the Phoenix area, because they were frequent visitors to the resort community of Puerto Penasco, Mexico.
Another:
We are looking south towards South Mountain (the low mountain on the horizon) and the Estrella Mountains over to the right. The picture was taken from the US District Court building at 401 W. Washington. Yeah, I'm a local.
Another:
That photo had to have been taken from the Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse at 401 West Washington Street. The red building in the right of the photo is the Maricopa County Justice of the Peace building. The gray parking garage is part of the Maricopa County Superior Court records office and is a US Passport Office. The building immediately north of them is the Federal Courthouse and only building that would have an elevated view looking south on them. I am sure that some one might be able to get all fancy with angles and guess the window it's from, but the address is as close as I could get.
Some fancy angles:
An eagle-eyed reader writes:
I’ve only been to Phoenix a couple times, but the mountains seemed familiar, so I started my search there. I zoomed in on the picture and could make out part of the name "J (something) Garage" on the parking garage. I searched Google Maps for garage and after a couple minutes of investigating the results, I stumbled upon the Jackson Street Garage. From that landmark, I oriented myself and everything began to line up.
Another goes ground-level:
Another:
Looks like VFYW finally got around to my neck of the woods. I went to see Jerry Seinfeld when he performed here several years ago, and the first words out his mouth were something to the effect of "the one thing you don't have enough of here are brown buildings". The drab architecture, the scattered palm and mesquite trees and the virtually cloudless sky can only be Phoenix.
Another:
One I recognize! My workplace is less than a quarter mile away. The courthouse is a recent addition to the downtown Phoenix landscape,
having been dedicated in 2000, and features a very futuristic style, with an atrium six stories high and a glass wall on the north side. Stunning inside, but from what I read, plagued by interior climate control problems.
Another bit of trivia: this is the place where Jared Loughner was first arraigned after the shooting of Rep. Giffords and 18 others.
Another:
Easy because I work in the building on the right. This is a view south from the Phoenix crime lab across Washington and Jefferson Streets to the Maricopa County Downtown Justice Center, which houses justice courts, probation and pretrial offices, and Maricopa County Public Defenders. I am a public defender lawyer and I work in that building.
Another:
The area from which the photo was taken is a security area that’s closed to the public, so I can’t verify the exact location, but, from the angle, it looks like it was taken from the Chambers of Judge David Campbell, office #623. However, it may be from the office next door, the Chambers of Judge Murray Snow, office #622, who at this moment is hearing the trial of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling.
Another:
And two or three blocks to the east is the office of the Birther In Chief of the Southwest District, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He's located on the 19th floor of the Wells Fargo building. FYI, here is the link [pdf] to the Sheriff's investigation into a grave national security concern.
Appropriately, a reader shows his papers:
It's my birthday today (proof attached), and as a most unexpected and pleasant surprise, I actually know where the place is for once! As the self-proclaimed "America's
toughest Sheriff" was on trial at District Court for racial profiling this past week (and made to look like a complete wimp), I first thought the picture was taken from the County jail area (which includes Sheriff Joe's notorious Tent City) – but a quick search proved otherwise. Then I thought, "what about the courthouse itself where the trial is taking place?" and found the exact view with some ease.
Given the height and location of the picture relative to the other buildings, I guess that it was taken on the top floor (sixth) of the building's south face, most likely from an office that has a window on the third major panel from the SW corner of the courthouse. I would also guess that many people will accurately figure out this week's VFYW, so the chances of winning the book will be remote, but many thanks for the nice birthday "gift" as I've been struggling with many previous VFYWs on the Dish!
A total of seven readers correctly answered the sixth floor. But the following reader is the only one to have guessed a difficult view in the past without winning, as well as sending this spot-on image:
This one is nearly in my backyard. One look at the photo and I knew it was downtown Phoenix.
In the center of the photo is the construction of the new Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office administration headquarters, which uncovered graves from a former cemetery from the 1800s. The graves had supposedly been moved in 1884 because city leaders didn’t like that the first thing people saw when arriving to Phoenix by train was the cemetery. But, apparently, not all graves had been moved.
The mountain in the background is the appropriately-named South Mountain (on the south side of Phoenix) and the mountains in the distance on the right are the Sierra Estrellas. There’s even a dust devil in the background on the right, a common sight during a long-dry summer in Phoenix.
The other six readers are now on our "Correct Guesser" list, giving them a big edge in future contests. Details from the submitter:
The photograph was taken from the sixth floor of the Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse at 401 W Washington Street in Phoenix. The photo faces south. I have annotated a screen shot from street view with what I calculate to be my window by counting rooms from the elevator. It was taken from the sixth (top) floor:
Update from a reader who takes issue with our judging process:
Come on, give the prize to that guy who guessed the pic was of Mitt Romney's garage. That was the best guess ever.
Update from another:
You may remember I won last week's contest about Rocky Point, Mexico. In the smallest of small worlds, this week's VFYW contest featured the exact view from my office window. I work on a different floor of the federal courthouse in Phoenix. And I didn't even see the original post for this week, only today's recap.
Our readership never ceases to amaze. Go here for more crazy coincidences from our window contest.
(Archive)
You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
A reader writes:
Lake Winnipesauki, New Hampshire?
Another:
Madison, Wisconsin? The palm tree looks a bit like those shown during Fox News's coverage of the capital protests in Wisconsin last year. I'm guessing it's a view looking southwest across Lake Mendota towards the Isthmus.
Another:
OK, I know that if my ridiculous guess gets posted at all, it will be near the top (but God forbid not the very top) for your readers to chuckle at condescendingly, like I have done so many times. But I'm going with Eilat, Israel. At least it has a beach and some dry, desolate mountains. And a date palm tree.
Another:
I NEVER play this game, because omg, I don't have time to dig around in Google Images, but this photo pings my Galveston radar SO HARD. I have to at least be on the record with it. I love Galveston. *sigh*
Another:
Another:
Can't say for sure, but this looks like the beach at Cancun – looking north along the beach – perhaps near the Hilton. I'll leave it to the techno-wizards to figure out the exact location.
Right country. Another:
Not much to go on … tropical to sub tropical, dry coastal area. Western shore of Mexico?
Right coast. Another nails the town:
Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. The gringoes call it "Rocky Point."
A gringo writes:
I was just in Puerto Penasco for a bachelor party in late May. Interestingly enough, I'm now in Bozeman, Montana for that very wedding, which starts in an hour. What a strange coincidence that the VFYW contest would include that photo today. Oh, and it appears that the photo is taken from La Choya, or the half-built condo strip that wasn't finished after the housing crash.
Another:
I never understood how "Rocky Port" got translated into "Rocky Point. I almost think the photo was taken from a window at the Las Palomas resort.
Right resort. Another:
This is taken from development phase 1 of the third or fourth floor of the Las Palomas condo-hotel, looking East/Southeast toward the "Malecon" (the main drag downtown). Rocky Point is a favorite vacation destination for Arizonans and is about a 3.5 hour drive South/Southwest from Phoenix metro. It sits on the north shore of the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). I spent about three years there doing real estate development, so I know these shores well.
Rocky Point has recently fallen on some hard economic times due to the Arizona real estate crash. The development boom in Arizona funded the echo boom development in this resort town. Tourism has also fallen off due to Americans scared to travel to Mexico because of the drug wars there. But because of Rocky Point's location, it has largely avoided the violence and is still a great place to get a drink a Sol cerveza, eat some great mariscos (seafood), go swimming and fishing and to hang out and practice your Spanish with the friendly locals. I encourage readers to check it out.
Another also sings its praises:
This appears to be a view from Sandy Beach overlooking Playa Bonita (perhaps from Las Palomas, Bella Sirena, one of the Sonorans or the Reef?). The unfinished structure on the right is the movie theater that was to be finished back in August of last year and the towers on the right edge lead up to the lighthouse on the hill. I would assume this was taken early in the morning, before the vendors walk up and down the beach selling their trinkets, henna tattoos, rope chairs and sunglasses to any and all tourists and handful of locals still left there. Jet skis and "banana boats" would be rented to weekenders especially now during the Mexican national's summer vacation season.
I was part of a pizza place there in what Americans call "Rocky Point" for five years and one thing you could count on was the amazing beauty of the beach and skies, which could wash away any troubles of the day. Some cheap but good tequila, some Indios, and homemade brownies would accent this and your favorite taxi driver (Hugo!) could help make your night complete. I miss the feeling of a slower paced life, riding around the streets on ATVs, not fearing the wrath of police after a few too many drinks, every day of sunshine, and all the times sitting back and taking in all the blessings life gives us which may be realized with a few cold beers while watching the dolphins jump in the ocean in front of you. Life is good there.
Another memory:
I spent my 30th birthday camped on the beach nearby, and the unrelenting June sun at midday made me stare longingly at the resorts with their cool pools, swim-up bars, and, more importantly, shade. This photo is probably from the 'Cristal' Building at Las Palomas, looking toward the east and the town of Puerto Penasco itself. From the low angle and the yellow awnings, which I believe are shade for grills for cooking, I would guess all the way on the beach-end of the Cristal building, second floor (perhaps Cristal unit 201 or 202).
The most accurate and detailed entry from a reader:
Long time, first time.
I live in Phoenix, a few hours away from Rocky Point/Puerto Penasco. I've never been. It's a popular beach destination for Americans in Arizona, however, and I've seen friends' pictures. That gave away the location easily. A little snooping around on Google Maps and the angle revealed the photo would have to be from one of the resorts along the beach that stretches northwest away from town.
The aerial view of the Las Palomas resort showed something that could be the grey-and-yellow feature at the bottom left of the photo. More snooping on the resort website confirmed that the grey-and-yellow feature was at the resort, and appeared to be something like a sun shade:
The exact location from which the photo was taken is tougher. The window would have to face southeast, toward resorts on the other end of the curved beach. But southeast facing rooms generally overlook the pool area, and a room low enough to see the grey-and-yellow sun shades would probably see other pool area features. So it has to be one of the rooms closest to the beach to avoid seeing anything of the pool area besides the sun shades, and to catch all of the beach without obstruction. The western wing of the western of the two buildings seems to have the right angle:
So here's my guess: if the resort is oriented with four groups of buildings oriented like / /, it's in the / building that is farthest west and closest to the beach. I'm guessing second or third floor, in the tier of rooms one in from closest to the beach.
How close is that?
Close enough for the prize. Details from the submitter:
Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, on the Gulf of California, aka Sea of Cortez. From room E-306 at Las Palomas, 4:37 pm, with the Malecon of the old town center in the background.
The submitter writes back:
Well, this is not my contest to judge, but I thought the person you designated as winner – whose effort was all the more impresive having never been to Puerto Peñasco – had only the second-best guess. The closest guess was actually from the person above the winner, who said he'd camped out nearby on his 30th birthday. He nailed the proper building and approximate location in the Las Palomas complex – "the beach-end of the Cristal" – , and he was only one floor and a few units off from the exact point. The winner guessed a building on the far western end, which is at the opposite side of the property. The judge(s) of course wouldn't have known that E-306 is in the Cristal buiding without going deep into the Las Palomas website.
Like another poster, I had often wondered how the town name got translated into English as Rocky Point, instead of the more literal Rocky Port. There is a interesting history of Puerto Peñasco on Wikipedia. If that history is correct, the English name – given by a long-ago British explorer – may even pre-date the Spanish name, which in turn is kind of a compromise between Rocky Point and the name given the town by Mexcan president Lázaro Cárdenas in the 1930s.
Whatever you call it, it's a great destination for folks from both countries.
He writes back again:
OMG, this gets complicated. I missed that the second person who guessed Las Palomas did get the right complex of buildings by guessing "Phase 1". E-306 in the Cristal building is in Phase 1. So that makes the winner's guess actually the third-best guess, since he mapped out a location in Phase 2, farther to the west.
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You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. City and/or state first, then country. Please put the location in the subject heading, along with any description within the email. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts. Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@gmail.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.
A reader writes:
Hmm … Cornfield signifies "Kansas", but there's something odd about this particular Kansas cornfield … oh, got it! This corn is green, as in "has been rained upon within the past 2 1/2 months," which doesn't describe the vast majority of Kansas cornfields this summer. Well: "Kansas" is still my best guess; but in looking again more closely, there's something else vaguely un-Kansas-like about this picture that I can't quite put my finger on but don't have further time to figure out just now.
Another smartass writes:
Finally one taken nearby, in Bethesda, Maryland. The circular objects may be mistaken for thatch-roofed dwellings, but they are in fact giant mushrooms. This is the rough of the thirteenth hole at Burning Tree Country Club – the aptly-named Mushroom Hole. The photograph would have been taken from the second floor balcony of the Clubhouse. The evidence of habitation (especially clotheslines) among the mushrooms allows us to isolate the date of the image: the autumn of 2011, during the Occupy Burning Tree movement. Please, make these contests a little harder in the future.
Heh. Another gets us on track:
It's Africa: red tropical soils, small farms, woodsmoke, typical tropical highland trees but no topographical hints in the hazy background. I am going with Kakamega because when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya '82-84 that province was (in)famous as the most densely populated "rural" area in the world. Obama's dad is from near there, but it's also Luhya country, though with the recent ethic strife that might have changed.
Another:
Gee, those huts are rather ubiquitous in Sub-Saharan Africa. My daughter-in-law says those could be dorms for a mission school. Uganda maybe? No, how about Kenya? Malava had some grey walls on some of their huts. But I'm going with Eldoret, Kenya simply because my son did a summer internship at a primary school there.
Another:
It has to be Africa, but where? Started the search using terms, Africa and maize. Using Google Images, I first found a picture with similar thatched roof huts taken in Mozambique, but the more I looked Zimbabwe was also a candidate. Hmmmm, which to choose. I'll go with somewhere in or around Harare, Zimbabwe as it seems to be the epicenter of this country's maize agriculture. I'm probably wrong. I never get these and refuse to spend no more than a few minutes of time, as it could easily eat up an entire day, weekend, week, month, etc. But, if I'm right, no need to send me a book. I'll be happy with the Dish acknowledgment in a post.
Another:
The vegetation, the "humpty-back" hill in the background, the traditional huts, and most of all the maize planted on every square foot of the yard makes this look like Zambia to me, and I am just guessing the outskirts of Lusaka. Maize is used in the national dish Nshima, a nutritious polenta-like staple. For what it’s worth, Zambians are terrific cooks. Because of underdeveloped transportation infrastructure, all food is essentially local, organic, and fresh. I am certain that concealed somewhere in this photo beyond the maize is a beautiful vegetable garden, with kale and potatoes and peppers and all manner of goodness.
Another:
I lived in Africa for a number of years and this photo could really be anywhere, though probably somewhere not far from the equator, given the lushness of the vegetation. It could be Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania or a number of other countries. So then I thought about the timing of the photo and why someone might have sent it to you last week. Given that South Sudan just celebrated its first anniversary on the 9th of July, I'm going to hope that one of your readers was there to celebrate the anniversary and sent in a photo as a souvenir. I'll go with Juba.
Another:
Googling "Africa, corn, round thatched huts" yielded many similar photos. The window, road and utility wires suggests the photo comes from the fringes of an urban area, and (sadly) Kampala is the only city I can readily name in Uganda. So that's my guess …
Good guess – it's Uganda. Another gets closer:
First time entering the contest! I figured if I kept reading, someone would send a picture from somewhere I've been. The huts shown in the picture look like those I have seen in Acholiland in northern Uganda:
They grow maize there too. Judging from the fact that there is electricity and a paved road, I'm thinking this was taken near one of the larger towns in Acholiland, so my vote is Gulu. (If it's Kitgum or Pader, I'll be really annoyed because I've actually been there, while I've only stopped in Gulu on a stop of the local plane service. But I don't remember any paved roads in those towns, or not in 2007 anyway, when I was last there.)
Gulu it is. Another:
I KNEW the picture in last week's contest was taken near Dewey Beach, Delaware, as I'd been there once before, but I couldn't figure out exactly where and frustratingly gave up. So this week, my first thought, after ruling out Delaware, was an African village. So, after a couple searches for thatched roofs and Africa, it led me to the Advocacy Project website with a post from 2010 and an image that was very similar to the one you posted today!
It referenced Gulu Uganda, so an image search for Gulu Uganda lead to another picture which was almost the same as the one above, but this one referred to the Acholi Ber Hotel. (Strangely enough, my mother is Uganda right now for the first time in her life … must be good Karma.) A search for that hotel led to the attached picture. We figured the 2nd floor was a bit too low from the angle of the shot, the 4th too high. So we are going with the 3rd floor, furthest window on the right looking at the picture.
Another sends the same hotel photo but with an added arrow:
For the VFYW contest posted 14 July, my guess is the window at the east (right) end of the third floor of the Acholi Ber Country Hotel, Plot 25 Market rd (according to the Google map, although other websites call it market street), in Gulu, Uganda.
I found this by doing a Google image search for "huts across from hotel." This search happened to turn up this travel blog that includes a photograph so similar that I think your contest photo must have been taken from the same hotel: the Acholi Ber Country Hotel. Many of the same structures are identifiable in the background, and the telephone/power lines are also a match. Your submitter's photo is from a lower vantage point, I'd guess on the 3rd floor, near the east end of the building, overlooking Market road and looking southeast. I've attached a picture of the front of the hotel I guess, with an arrow marking the location of my guess.
Another sends the same photo but with a red arrow marking the room right below. Another:
A bit of luck helped me out this week. The VFYW photograph reminded me of one I saw a year or so ago in an article about the "internally displaced persons" camps in northern Uganda. Google Maps showed that Kitgum and Gulu have among the largest of the IDP camps, and I thought that Gulu was the more likely location. So I searched images of Gulu, Uganda and found a photograph of a 5-story hotel with wrought iron railings on the front balconies, the Acholi Ber Country Hotel on Market Road. Then I saw another one that was very similar to the VFYW photograph. Going back to Google Maps, I was able to confirm the location, though Google Maps has the wrong building labelled as the hotel:
I'm guessing the VFYW photographer was on the third floor (second floor for someone from the UK) on the right-hand side of the building as you face it. I've circled the spot in the attached image ("pic3"). Here's a short video that was shot from the top floor of the hotel:
Details from the submitter:
From Room 211, the Acholi Ber Country Hotel, Gulu, Uganda, taken in the afternoon, on June 27th. I was there on a trip to help write a modernization plan for the Uganda Department of Meteorology. The town is lousy with NGOs, and there are a lot of Internet cafes, so it might be easier than I think.
We followed up with the submitter to determine exactly which room on the hotel photo is Room 211, but we haven't heard back yet. When we do, we'll update the contest results with the winner. Update thus far:
This extremely exciting for me, but I'm afraid I can't help you – I'm on vacation in NH, and unlike Uganda, cellular data services are not even sufficient to let me download your photo!
Update:
Finally got the picture – the room on the right, second floor above the ground (in the European sense; third down from the top).
Three readers correctly answered that window. The tie-breaker goes to the reader whose entry included the above YouTube video, the same reader who just barely lost last week's contest. The key image from his entry:
(Archive)
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