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 can tell it's a tropical climate with palm trees and other tropical plants. Since you mentioned it was a small country, I will go with Guam, since that's the smallest one I've ever been to. And since Hagatna is the capital, and the largest city, that's my guess.
Another writes:
The only real clue we could find in the photo was there was a license plate on the black car on the bottom of the picture. It is a long and narrow plate with green on the bottom. After looking up different plates online, we ruled out Central and South America since most of the plates are more US style rectangles. Looking then at Asian and Pacific Island plates, we came across the Philippines plate that could be this plate. Since we know very little about places in the Philippines, I looked up where any US military personnel are stationed in the Philippines and came up with Zamboanga City. Thus my guess is Zamboanga City.
Another:
No idea where it is, but my girlfriend said Philippines, so I am guessing a small country near there, Brunei. My second guess would be Palau. I did enjoy looking up small countries and small islands on Wikipedia though. Can't wait for a VFYW from Mauritius. Hmmm, maybe it's from Mauritius …
Another:
Dense, urban, tropical; typical cast-iron windowframes with single panes; plenty of mold on the buildings with older walls, cars with shaded parking spots. I've seen this a million times in Mauritius during a decade of working there off and on. Mauritius is a fascinating blend of cultures and people – but also hideously over-crowded: around 1.3 million people live on an island about 50×40 km in size. And, of course, around one million tourists make it here every year. I vastly prefer the solitude and peace of the Balck River Gorges National Park.
Ok, back to the view: Most likely somewhere central on the island; the low hills in the background without a view to the rugged mountains on the island suggest the region around Curepipe, looking southeast. Probably from an office window; area doesn't look residential, and is way too far away from the beach to be a hotel. But given the typical low clouds and rain in the air, it could just as well be from around Quatre Bornes or Vacoas/Phoenix (mmm, Phoenix beer, mmm).
Another:
Excellent! The nondescript landscape and architecture means that your world traveler readers will have to earn it like us hacks!
The foliage points to a tropical or warm temperate climate, of course. The car in the foreground appears to be an Opel Astra, which is sold primarily in Europe, perhaps also the Caribbean and Latin America. The pickup next to it appears to be a ubiquitous Toyota, but the view through the front left side window apparently does not show a steering wheel, so that means it's a country where they drive on the left. The Opel's license plate is white, which at least eliminates several Caribbean islands and brings us down to Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Malta, and Cyprus. The urban density does not look like the Caribbean, so I'll go with the Mediterranean. With the deadline nearing, I'll guess St Julians, since it has trees which are otherwise scarce in Malta.
Another throws a curve ball:
Everything about the picture has the look of the Twin Cities. But which one, Minneapolis or St. Paul? The twin cab pickup was the giveaway – it has to be St. Paul. Googling "tin roof" and "St. Paul" led me to this image of the Anchor Bank, which has to be the green building shown in the image. Simple trigonometry led me to the Town House Bar & Piano Lounge at 1415 University Avenue West, where I note that Esme Rodriguez performed on Sequin Sunday, February 19, no doubt the date the photograph was taken. So that’s it. I’ll be watching for my book.
Another reader:
I am guessing Yaren, Nauru. I lived on islands in the Equatorial Pacific (Kosrae and Palau) for a while during the 1990s. The topography of the location in this photograph looks a lot like the topography of Kosrae, which is only a few hundred miles from Nauru.
I never visited Nauru, but am aware that it is a "high" island (i.e., not an atoll) with predominantly overcast weather. There's no view of the ocean in this photo, but everything about this picture is evidence to me of a hot and humid tropical island. The car ports suggest a very hot place. The plants and clouds suggest a very humid place. Many of the automobiles in this part of the Pacific are imported second-hand after they have been used for a while in Japan. I can't tell from the photograph, but I would guess that the steering wheels are on the right side of the automobiles, just like in Japan.
There are very few five-story buildings in the Pacific. From my travels in the region, I've never seen these particular buildings. It would have to be a country that is, or was at one time, quite wealthy. Because Nauru went through its boom/bust phosphate mining history, I suspect these buildings were built during the boom in the 1970s and 1980s. The window from which this photograph was taken looks a lot like the windows in low-end hotels and government buildings on islands all over the Pacific. (I would guess that the wall surrounding the window is constructed of cinderblock.)
Finally, you said this photo depicts a view in a small country. Other than the Vatican, Nauru has the smallest population of any country on earth. And the land mass is among the smallest, too.
Another gets warm:
Kigali, Rwanda is tropical and hilly, which is as much as I can gather from the photo. The low cloud cover also reminds me of the dry season (the Kasimbo) in and around Luanda, Angola – approximately the same latitude. It looks like it should rain, but it doesn't for about four months.
Another nails it:
I think this week's photo is in Mbabane, Swaziland. This was a tough picture, since there are not really any distinguishing landmarks. However, the vegetation is semi-tropical and the license plate on the black car in the foreground looks like a Swaziland plate (with pale green hills across the bottom), and Swaziland certainly qualifies as a small country.
Another Mbabane entry:
This is my first entry in the contest, but I’ve been looking at the VFYW and trying to figure them out (with some successes) for some time. For this view, I started by identifying that the license plate on the car is from Swaziland (based on the shape and the green color along the bottom), then began looking through aerials of the larger cities the country. I came across a photo that showed the tall building off to the left in the background, which helped me zero into the area and direction that VFYW photo was taken. I believe the picture is looking south-southeast and was taken from the hotel/apartment complex (couldn’t determine the name) located off of Smuts Street, near the corner of Somhlolo Road, Western Distributor, and Gwamile Street in Mbabane, Swaziland (see attached aerial).
The winner this week is the reader who answered Mbabane with the most precision:
Prior to this morning, I was pretty sure I was the only one reading the Dish from Swaziland every day. That picture's taken from the second floor of the (now former) AON Insurance building in the MTN Office park overlooking downtown Mbabane. The pink building in the upper right corner is the Mbabane Government Hospital, and the gray building just to the left of it partially obscured by the trees is the National Referral Laboratory, both of which are central to the country's response to the HIV crisis. You'd never know it by looking around here – the road and electricity infrastructure is astonishingly good and suggests a relatively prosperous country – but the country's 25%+ rate of HIV infection is the worst in the world per capita and poor health has devastated much of the economy over the last decade. More than 40% of pregnant women are HIV-positive. Fortunately, despite challenges like these, the government continues to commit resources to increasing the number of patients receiving life-saving HIV treatment, and the legions of people working to improve conditions seem to be having an impact.
For what it's worth, the picture of downtown Mbabane hardly captures the feel of this country. The attached picture is much more aligned with what I think of when I tell people about what Swaziland is like:
Details from the submitter:
The view is from my company's (Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation) new office location – it's located right next to Price Waterhouse Coopers in Mbabane and about two blocks from our old office location, which is at MTN Office Park, Karl Grant Street. The new location (and the view) basically overlooks the old location and is off to the left side of the old location (in that view).
(Archive)
Clue: It's a small country.
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:
My guess is based on the foliage (deciduous trees, which seem to have their leaves year-round, as well as a few sprinkled palm trees), and the Mediterranean-style architecture. I singled out Gibraltar because of the giant rock in the background. As for the specific location, it looks like it could have been taken on the Eastern coast based on the color of sunlight and angle of shadows. Here is a picture looking down from the rock that shows similar buildings. My guess is that this picture was taken on Europa Road, looking East by North-East. I'm stumped beyond that, and I look forward to some of the astute analysis by more experienced readers.
Another writes:
My guess is Locarno, or another similar city like Muralto, in Italian-speaking Switzerland. I spent Easter there a few years ago and it was amazing – incredibly beautiful and relaxing. I don't speak any Italian but I don't remember it ever being an issue.
Another:
Positano, Italy FTW. If not, more generally, this vista is surely within the Amalfi Coast region of the same country. On second thought, this might be somewhere in the Aegean, like the island of Syros. Ugh. No, we're going with Positano. If I am wrong about this, I will turn over my first born to the Dish as an indentured blogging servant.
We always need more help. Another:
Amalfi, Italy? I remember a 1951 movie I saw when I was a kid with Lloyd Bridges, Lea Padovani and Aldo Fabrizzi called Three Steps North. A guy returns to Italy after the war to retrieve some treasure he buried three steps north of a certain tree. He comes back and it isn't there. A local guy had dug it up and built a church with it! It features a great and famous song called, "Scalinatella." (If it isn't Amalfi, the hell with all of this.)
Another:
Monte Carlo? First time entering, but I stopped by there on our honeymoon and this is the first place that pops to my mind.
Another:
Monaco? Looks like a Mediterranean area, an the south of France has cliffs like that and it looks familiar. First time entry, I'm probably dead wrong.
Quite close actually. Another:
This is the first time that a light bulb has flicked on when I looked at a VFYW entry. It's because I've actually been to Monaco and that mountain (along with the white and pastel coloured buildings) are characteristic of Monaco. This must be taken from Fontvieille, as Monte Carlo has many more highrises. Plus, I took a photo of Fontvieille (attached) from the Prince's Palace of Monaco and the mountain backdrop looks the same.
Another:
That was tricky, because it definitely was the rock overlooking Monaco. The picture seems to be taken from around the Marriott, which is at the border between Cap d'Ail and Monaco. The round, tan building is in Cap d'Ail, in Impasse du Stade. Which is why I'm going to suggest Cap d'Ail.
It's actually just inside Cap D'Ail, France. Another:
Here's a near identical photo from TripAdvisor. Both your reader and the TripAdvisor reviewer saved money by choosing the "Soccer Field View" rather than the considerably more expensive "Ocean View."
A view showing the two:
I earlier complained about the quality of this particular contest image, but I got over my annoyance and played anyway. The picture was taken from the Marriott Riviera La Porte De Monaco, which is actually located right over the border in Cap D'Ail, France. The phota was taken from a mid-level mountain view room over looking the soccer field. See the attached pictures which were taken from the Tête de Chien (the rock formation seen in the contest picture), wherein I have attempted to pinpoint the particular hotel room.
Another:
I admit I have no idea where this is, as usual, but this jumped out at me:
Does anyone else see a resemblance? Is Nixon still trying to "stonewall" things, just on a very large scale? By the way, it's interesting that there are almost no photos of him on the web. This one was on Wikipedia, from his meeting with LBJ after the '68 election.
Another:
The view reminded me of Monaco, and a bit of image searching revealed the distinctive hilltop to be the Tête de Chien ("Dog's Head") promontory that overlooks the nation. French-language Wikipedia tells us that the ability to mount modern artillery on this 550 meter high point marked the end of the strategic relevance of Monaco's fortress in the 18th Century. The County of Nice, in which it stands, went back and forth between the Duchy of Savoy and France over the course of that century and into the next. It is now in France.
Another:
I know that rock! I have several clients in Monaco and the rock that hangs above the city, La Tête de Chien (The Dog's Head), is recognizable from everywhere. I've also climbed up there with my girlfriend (now wife) only to discover there is road access and tourists snapping pics at the top when we got there, which she conveniently forgot to tell me about when she first suggested the climb.
Another sends a link to a rock climbing review with some spectacular photos. Another reader:
I confess that this one was done with the help of Google image search, which somehow recognised the mountain, despite not having an exact match for the picture; from there, it was a matter of time. I'm sure another of your regulars will have identified not only the window the photo is taken from, but also the house of the maid who most regularly cleans that room, but I'll console myself with the thought that enough of these close calls will eventually cycle me to the top of the list. One day, one day!
Another:
I've never even tried one of these contests before, and I've only been to Monaco once, and then only as a day trip. It must have been something about the gorgeous Mediterranean buildings stacked up against a steep cliff, but Monaco was my first intuition and this is definitely it. I played around with Google Earth for awhile until I found that tan, circular building on the left side. Since the angle of this shot is slightly above and to the right of that building, I'm guessing it's the Marriott Riviera, and I'll say the 9th floor window closest to the left. The blank space below the picture is a practice soccer field, and to the right of that (unseen in the shot) is the Stade Louis II, where Monaco's soccer team plays. I've attached a few photos from various angles, and I've circled my guess in each.
Another oh-so-close entry:
My original reaction was to say the photo was taken from the window I highlighted in yellow, but then I figured it was too far to the right (plus, wouldn't you take that pic from the balcony if you had one of those rooms??). So I moved my answer over to one of the square windows in the main section of the hotel. Part of me wants to move it down a floor, but I'm taking a chance that it's the single window on top (in red). Still have that sinking feeling I'm going to lose by a window … damn.
The winner this week was the only previous correct guesser to get the correct floor:
This week's contest is likely to draw a bazillion correct guesses, but here's my entry. Details in the attached PDF file.
From the submitter:
The photo was taken from room 818 at the Riviera Marriott Hotel La Porte de Monaco, Port de Cap d'Ail, Cap d'Ail, France. The hotel is literally just across the border (which here means across the Avenue du Port) from Monaco.
I have attached a photo to give you better sense of the exact location. It was taken from the soccer field (Cap d'Ail Stade Municipal) looking toward the back of the hotel. Room 818 is circled in red with the arrow pointing at it. The sort of interesting thing about the vantage point of the picture is that there are relatively few rooms in the hotel that overlook the stadium and face the mountain. Obviously the hotel's main selling point is the view of the Mediterranean from most of the rooms.
Which goes to your question about what I was doing in Cap d'Ail in the first place. I've just relocated to Monaco (from Singapore) for work and my company put me up at the Marriott in Cap d'Ail for my first month in Southern France, as my office is two blocks away from the hotel – in Monaco. The picture was taken my first weekend on the Rivieria.
Update: Another winning entry, which slipped through the cracks among the hundreds of entries we received:
(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.
An update from the reader who sent the longest and most impressive entry:
As an addendum to this week's VFYW, Madagascar and Antananarivo were hit by a CAT 4 cyclone last night. Early reports from friends say there was extensive wind damage and torrential rains with possible flooding in the low-lying areas. Very bad conditions from the east coast all the way to the capital and beyond. I'm going back as soon as possible because there are people there who need me.
By the way, as far as the contest results are concerned, French buildings count the second floor as the Première étage, so when I said the 3rd floor of the Colbert Hotel, it's really the Deuxième étage. So I think I nailed the window. However, playing is far more fun than winning and seeing my entry published is very cool.
Update from the reader who sent the contest photo:
There were indeed high winds and heavy rain resulting in low-level flooding yesterday, though driving around the city today, I saw no residual flooding, but there are still widespread power outages. All in all, the city has bounced back remarkably and it seemed the city was largely back in business. (That said, I do hope the reader's friends/family are safe. The coast was in much worse shape reportedly and I did not get out into the surrounding towns and can't comment on the situation outside the city.)
As for the contest, the umbrellas at the bottom of the photo are in the Hotel Colbert's restaurant, which is on Floor 0 (street level in the front of the hotel). The photo was taken in room 205, which is the room on the SE corner of the building, two floors above the restaurant.
From the winner of this week's contest, who has participated in 55 of the 89 contests and came close to winning several times:
I feel I've earned it now, although the guy who lived there and explained the different floor discrepancies about the hotel, etc. seemed just as deserving. If it's easy, pass on my regards to him for clarifying how that hotel was set up and having a great guess (I think we both chose the same window in our photos of the hotel, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't the one the photographer actually shot from – even though we couldn't figure out which floor to call it). I'm sure the other guesser will get other chances to win if he sticks with the contest.
By the way, my wife's response on hearing I had finally been deemed the winner was, "It doesn't really count unless you've been there." I detected just a little jealousy in the response and humbly disagree. But she is glad for me and says she'll recognize the win if we can take a trip to Madagascar within the next few years. That will be a tall order with kids in school and the usual constrained budget, but a challenge I'm happy to try. We've seen very little of Africa, and as several guessers said, Tana looks almost model-like and unreal, and the island's eco-tourism options are renowned.
The heat from my family to win is off now, but I will keep playing for the intrinsic rewards.
(Photo of the flooding in Antananarivo by Flickr user avylavitra)
A reader writes:
Legoland? Wherever it is, it’s so damn cute I have to go there!
Another:
Got it! It’s that enormous miniature railroad in Hamburg!
Another:
Am I the only one who thinks this looks like an intricate model of a town? That would be fantastically diabolical.
Another:
There is something almost sinister about this place in its doll-like perfection which makes me think of a J.G. Ballard novel – all tickety boo on the surface and a heaving maelstrom beneath. Please tell me that I am quite wrong and that it is a lovely place where happy people live their lives in peace and harmony.
Another:
It looks like Launceston, Tasmania. I remember walking a building like that red brick one a few years ago when I visited Tasmania. If I’m right, there should be a sculpture of some Tasmanian Tigers nearby.
Another:
I don’t have time to research, but that looks a lot like Qingdao, the old German concession in China. A lovely seaside city with beautiful but rather polluted beaches, home of a vigorous wedding industry, and source of the second-best beer in the country (I’m a Yanjing man myself). Someone will undoubtedly calculate the precise building, etc. … probably in the Azores or something, but there you go.
Another:
I have been away from my computer for a while but that was the easiest View From Your Window I have seen yet.
I have wondered when a Madagascar picture will come up. To be more exact it is from the window of the Colbert Hotel looking down at the Supreme Court building in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Both old relics of colonialism.
Another sends a lovely view of the city:
I visited Madagascar in 2004 with a team of scientists on a fossil expedition and have a photo from a very similar angle. I believe this week’s photo was taken from the Hotel Colbert in downtown Tana looking SE towards the royal palace (the square building in the top center right of the photo).
Another:
This is the first time I take part in the VFYW contest and as soon as I saw the entry it brought me right back to my trip to Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, in 2006. The palatial structure high on a hilltop in the background is the former royal palace. A few clicks to Google Maps led me to this picture taken in the same angle as the VFYW entry. The entry looks like it’s been shot from the same location, a building on rue Samuel Salomon. Hope this is precise enough!
Another:
What we’re seeing here is the view from what I believe is the 4th floor (in the event of a tie, I’ll say room 412) of the Hotel Colbert at 29 Rue Prince Ratsimamanga in Antananarivo, Analamanga, Madagascar. The red and white building at the bottom left of the picture appears to be home to the country’s High Constitutional Court, while the turreted structure on top of the nearby hill is the Manjakamiadana, or Queen’s Palace, which is housed within a larger royal complex called the Rova. I was fortunate this week; hours spent browsing Flickr or Wikipedia while procrastinating have left me with a decent eye for Madagascar’s distinctive take on European architecture, so I was able to pin this one down after a couple of detours to Black Sea cities. Attached is a picture from Tripadvisor that was taken from a room almost directly above your reader’s.
Another:
I was taken aback when I saw this week’s VFYW photo. I’ve lived in Madagascar for years (although I’ve been in the U.S. for several months) and recognized this view of Antananarivo immediately. The ornate, peaked, colonial era building in the foreground is in the Fitsarana Avo Momba Ny Lalampanorenana (Ministry of Justice) compound, and across the street the long yellowish building is the administrative offices of the Antananarivo Farintany (province). I live in the smaller city, Moramanga, to the east and when I visit Tana I frequently stay with a friend who lives in the Amparibe fokontany (neighborhood) just out of the picture to the right. I’ve walked the street seen below countless times over the years on my way up to Antaninarenina, centre ville of the colonial era, which is where the Hotel Colbert is located.
At the top of the hill and to the right is the imposing Tana Rova, or Queen’s Palace, home to the 19th century monarchs. It was nearly destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1995 and is in the slow process of being restored. To the left of the Rova is the Lycee d’ Andohalo, and left of that, the white building is the 19th century Norwegian Lutheran Church. All the way to the left is the minaret of the mosque on the avenue Lalana Ranavalona III, named after the last Queen of Madagascar who was deposed and exiled by the French in 1896.
The Hotel Colbert is several buildings that are joined and are situated on a steep incline, so guessing a particular floor or room number from this photo is nearly impossible – the first floor on the north entry side could be the 5th, 6th or 7th floor on the south side. This window is facing towards the southeast. My best guess would be 3rd floor corner window above the dining room. I put an X next to the window that seems the most likely candidate.
Fa, izaho miheriheritra ianoa tokony manome ny boky aminaho satria ny olona hafa anoano fotsiny ny varavarana kely, angambe izareo omeo vinavina-kevitra, fa izaho efa malala ny toerana akaiky ny Hotel Colbert, ary izaho efa anoano ny varavarana kely taloha matetika. Misaotra Tompoko.
No one guessed the correct floor, so the tie-breaker goes to our most dogged VFYW follower, who has competed in pretty much every contest but hasn’t won until now:
Great view. I spent my self-allotted 15 minutes trying to make this VFYW come from Hobart, Tasmania before deciding on a whim that it had to be some other Victorian era capitol, and the palm tree had me thinking Africa. It took me just a few minutes more to decide we were in Madagascar – found by luck on a scan of Victorian architecture images where I recognized the Queen’s Palace (on the distant ridge top).
Once I figured out the city, I
completely threw out my rules and became determined to win one of these out right. I was off by only two stories with that hotel in Ulaan Bator and have had several other close calls where better stories or trigonometry deservedly beat me out. I’m sure we are in the Hotel Colbert and just a floor or two above La Fougere restaurant’s patio. But I’m unsure of the exact building or floor (I can’t find any intel about which floor the restaurant is on). Maybe from a room in the newer building of the hotel, two floors above the patio restaurant, which would make it about the 7th floor? So it’s another guess … with no great story to bolster it. Hope my collage of photos and history of other correct guesses will carry the day.
This city looks tremendous – another place on the long list to go see.
A long-awaited congrats! The guy behind the lens writes:
Here is my submission taken from the Hotel Colbert in Antananarivo, Madagascar. This is from the second floor looking southeast. I’m an American, here for two weeks working on a public health project. Tana, as the locals call it, is a fascinating city and I hope I’ve captured it’s uniqueness adequately in this photo. It’s a blend of many different cultures. The French influence on the architecture and layout of the city is clear. There are many places where it’s hard to believe you’re in Africa and not France. Off to the very far left is a minaret, and in the hill in the background is Tana’s version of the Hollywood sign (ANTANANARIVO in large letters along the hillside beneath the large building with three visible towers at the top of the hill). The red building in the foreground is part of the Malagasy High Court complex
I’ve been to many capital cities around the world and Tana is one of the most intriguing. It’s too bad that the political situation in the country is so messed up. If published, I think it would be the first image picture of Madagascar on The Dish.
He thinks right.
(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:
This week's VFYW reminds me very strongly of where I lived and worked in the early 1990s – Muscat, Oman. I lived in an apartment complex called Hatat House and the view to the east was of jagged hills arising out of the surrounding plain and the area, a neighborhood called Ruwi, was developed right up to the foot of those hills. Sadly, this was before digital cameras and I have few pictures from that time, and Google Earth doesn't offer a lot of confirming evidence since Street View hasn't arrived there yet.
Another writes:
The sparse mountains look like Kurdistan, and the cement constructed houses are typical of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq. The photographer could be in one of the new, Turkish-built apartment buildings. The sliding door and small balcony are characteristic. I'm gonna guess Sulaimania, though in truth this could probably be anywhere in the region.
Another:
Roxborough State Park, Colorado – or really close to that. Never participated before and I don't have the cartographic acumen like so many of your readers, but I've biked enough around those great rocks to know them.
Another:
So I am watching the golf tournament and I see a shot of a mountain with some kind of odd observatory on the top of it. (Watching golf, in Carlin's words, is "like watching flies fuck", so I decided to check out your site and this may be the only time I will ever get one of these right.) I don't google, I don't get earth shots like the rest of the VFYW-philes, but I believe it's in Arizona. When I hit info on my TV they say this tournament is called the Phoenix Open, in Scottsdale. So there's my answer. I never do these contests, but if I'm a winner, I'd much rather have your book on the cannabis closet than the VFYW book.
Another:
Finally! One I can answer.
The mountain is definitely this one. And that makes it Monterrey, Mexico – not to be confused with Monterrey, California or Montreal (means the same thing – King's Mountain), Canada.
Another sends a photo of Monterrey, Mexico:
The contest photo is taken somewhere in south Monterrey. The angle of that photo the same as this one and must be from a building down the hill from where this was taken. But Tebow knows where.
Another:
My guess is that we're looking at the "Cerro de la Silla" (Mt. Saddle, roughly), just outside of the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo Leon. I visited as a kid, haven't been back since, but I remember the locals being particularly proud of their landmark, and the sight and name of it stuck on me. A quick look its Wikipedia page and a Google Image search confirms it.
Another:
This must be a picture of the iconic Cerro de la Silla (translated as Saddleback Mountain). My mother spent the first 15 years of her life in Monterrey – the third largest and arguably the most prosperous city in all of México – before moving to the U.S. Unfortunately, I don't see myself visiting this place anytime soon, given the recent wave of drug violence that has overcome Northern Mexico.
A reporter writes:
I’ve been spending a lot of time in Monterrey because it’s become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds between the Zetas and what remains of the Gulf drug cartel.
Another reader:
I worked at the U.S. Consulate there from 2000-2002. In those days you could walk the streets safely at any hour of the day or night. I left not too long after the first drug-related killing. It's a real shame how bad things are now.
Another:
I've been a long-time (silent) contestant, never wanting to respond lest I be
embarrassed by my horrible guesses. This time, in the midst of dissertation writing, I took my regular Dish break and much to my surprise found an iconic picture of El cerro de la silla, or the Hill of the Saddle in Monterrey. The city is known by many names to us Mexicans, and the most common is the "Sultan of the North," given the city's importance as a great manufacturing center and until the rise of Ciudad Juárez, the largest city in northern Mexico. I've only been there once (2003 for a conference on Mexican, American and Canadian historians of Mexico), but I remember it well.
Unfortunately, it has become a hotbed of the drug war. It used to be that the drug war was fought in the remote, rural regions of the country – that's why my parents and I left Michoacán over 20 years ago – but recently, as the violence has spread, the main target became the urban areas.
I think the view is from the hospitals in the Loma Alta area of Monterrey. I am attaching a Google Earth image that gives a similar view of the hill. I'd love to return to Monterrey soon, the cabrito (baby goat) is delicious.
Another:
I am a New Yorker who lived in Monterrey for a number of wonderful years not too long ago and I was so happy to see the photo in the Dish. Actually, I will be making a trip back there in less than two weeks to see my husband, who must live there because we are a bi-national gay married couple living with the injustices of DOMA. In Mexico, at least their federal government recognizes their own state-level gay marriages.
Another:
This one's too easy. (I'm from Mexico City.) I'm not good enough with Google maps to provide an exact location from where the shot was taken, but it's a clear view of the mountain's distinctive saddle-shaped peak. The mountain itself is located in Guadalupe, but everyone considers it the symbol of Monterrey. There's a universally recognized Mexican corrido (a Mexican folk-song) that alludes directly to the famous mountain. I translated the lyrics:
I'm proud to be from the north of Mexico,
From the neighborhood of San LuisitoBecause that's the site of Monterrey.Of all towns, the most belovedBecause it's the most northern, oh yes,The town where I was born.And that's why I'm from the northFrom that land of fantasyCalled Nuevo LeónBeautiful land, always in my dreamsAnd that I carry deep within, o yes,Deep within my heart.
From the Cerro de la SillaYou can see the viewWhen dusk begins to fallOf my beautiful and regal homelandMy homeland, which is called, oh yes,The city of Monterrey.
Another:
It's the home of Primera division champions UANL Tigres and Monterrey. Tigres is also home to US national team defenser/midfielder Jonathan Bornstein, who some US fans blame for the 4-2 loss to Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup.
Another:
I lived in Monterrey for six months in the late 1990s and saw this view every day. You can see the outline of the mountain on countless shirts, hats and posters. It's the
third-largest city in Mexico and in many ways its most modern and American-looking city. Only four hours from San Antonio, I was shocked by how un-Mexican the city feels. At times, it feels like you were walking through the suburbs of Dallas or San Diego. With its ranch houses, its punk rockers, it's elite technology universities and a very bilingual, educated population, I dubbed it the Seattle of Mexico. I know the drug violence has likely reshaped the city I fell in love with a decade ago but it's a great visit that in better times, you can literally drive to from the US. I actually went there, taking a bus line direct from the Chicago Mexican neighborhood I lived in at the time. When it was time to return to Chicago, the bus line dropped me five blocks from my house. It took 24 hours and cost about $100 if I remember right.
Another sent the above photo. Another writes:
This one took no time at all to get the city, but quite a lot to guess the window. The mountain is the iconic Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Mountain), backdrop and symbol for the city of Monterrey, where I lived for five fascinating years in the '70s and '80s – and met my wife! But this is a heavily built-up area now, so there are many potential windows. The picture is taken from a fairly high viewpoint looking across the valley to the Cerro, suggesting somewhere in the Colonia las Brisas, which sits almost at the end of the long ridge or Loma larga that runs along the south end of the City.
I think the actual picture was taken from this house at Huatulco 200, right next door to the radio towers. I’m guessing there’s a door on the right side of the house that looks out onto a balcony, surrounded by a beige wall similar to the ones that can be seen in the picture.
Another:
Foliage and geology look like the US southwest, but the built environment is wrong. After a couple of false starts (Turkey, Greece), I hit on Mexico and soon identified the mountain in the background as Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Hill), named for its saddle-
shaped profile when viewed from parts of Monterrey, to the west. The fact that the profile of the mountain changes as you move around it made it fairly easy to identify a general corridor within which the photo had to have been taken: due west from the mountain, roughly following the street "Sendero Sur."
Picking the specific building, let alone window, proved to be much more difficult, and I'm not at al confident in my guess. The photo appears to have been taken from a considerable height, and there's a collection of high-rise apartments near the intersection of Lázaro Cárdenas and Alfonso Reyes that would be likely candidates; however, none of them appear to have balconies like the one in the contest photo. There's also an eight-story building at Lázaro Cárdenas and Sendero Sur that does have balconies, but the balconies have railings not seen in the contest photo and the building doesn't seem to be high enough to be able to see over the ridge line to the white facility on the hillside at the lower-left of the photo.
So, with much trepidation, I'm going to guess that the photo was taken from one of the upper floors of the new Connexity Tower just off Lázaro Cárdenas, and I'm just hoping there are balconies on the building that I haven't seen.
Another reader who guessed the Connexity Tower sent the above photo marked with the red circle. But only one reader this week nailed the exact location:
I immediately recognized the mountain as Cerro de La Silla which led me to Monterrey, Mexico. From there it got pretty difficult. It could be any number of houses below Privada San Pedro. The yellowish house at 5520 Verano shown to the right in this picture seems to have similar doors, from the back at least. A high-rise apartment also seemed like a good bet such as the Valle de Fundadores below this same location, but I couldn't see any doors. At some point I realized I was spending a ridiculous amount of time and decided I was close enough with the Verano house.
Details from the submitter:
The address is Plaza Verano 5520, Colonia Jardines del Paseo, Monterrey, NL. The main avenue below (out of frame) is Lazaro Cardenas (aka Las Torres) but is substantially lower in elevation. The next main avenue running parallel to Las Torres is Fundadores (higher in elevation but still much lower than the location).
(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.
The Dish 