City Scapes My Neighborhood

I was asked in a recent interview what was my neighborhood like, since I had just moved from Tiqti Sud to the city, I really had nothing in my blog nor even in my camera to depict the radical change that was happening in my living situation. I tried my best to give a verbal picture, but as you go out in any direction from my apartment you could encounter very different scenarios. The views in this post only capture a slice of southwest from my apartment, and mostly looking northward from points 3-5 blocks away.



The national police were out in force one day as a protest march arrived a the Plaza Principal. They are kept busy in a country where protest marches and blockades are weekly experiences somewhere within the country, sometimes lasting for days and weeks.




These views are from the Archbishops Office where I work 4 mornings a week in the Health Ministries Office. As I climb the stairs to the 3rd floor (think 4th floor in US) I rise above the street level and get a little seen view.





This photo shows old adobe buildings with red tile roofs (lower part of picture) in the heart of the city. Near by are new modern structures. Both show the impressive mountains that edge the city, north, east, and west of the city. It is even more incredibly beautiful in person.




This photo as well as the first one of this post depict one of the main streets in the city. Four lanes, two in either direction, can be jammed with traffic during rush hours or can be totally empty when blockades cut off any vehicular traffic. These are the older buildings, but the modern ones are literally around the corner.




I like this last one best because it is the type of view you can see from many different streets, that of old buildings with small balconies on the second floor. One way traffic to allow parking on one side of the street and then in the distance the mountains rise up over the roof lines 14,000 - 16,000 ft in altitude just a few kilometers outside the city center. The view down most north running streets gives this view without having to climb up a few stories. The outskirts of the city climb up the bottoms of the mountains, every year they climb a little higher.