There were too many interesting houses to fit in one blog entry, so here are some more:
A fairly modest house for rent, but with a nice lake view. Notice the tinaco on the roof. It collects rainwater for use during the dry season. Most houses in the area have these tinacos.
Some houses are not part of any development and are located wherever a lot was available.
There are many planned neighborhoods that are gated with security guards. This neighborhood is Vista Alegro.
The Raquet Club neighborhood is very vertical and climbs up a mountain. Like similar developments, the houses are set close together.
This Raquet Club house style is typical for a planned neighborhood. When buying a house, the square footage includes outside patio areas. This makes sense because so much time is spent outside.
La Floresta has smaller hills. It is a very pretty area with lots of landscaping and plants. The housing lots seem a little larger than other developments.
We saw the most amazing stone walls as we drove around communities, along roads winding up and down the mountains. This poorly shot photo shows one of the higher walls. The purple on the ground is from the jacaranda trees that were in bloom. The white marks in the photo are not on the stone, that’s just glare from the camera through the car window.
There were many creative ways to build multi-level houses along steep roads.
You’ll notice that most side streets have cobblestones because the town council likes the authentic look of them. They do look attractive but in reality driving over them feels like your teeth will rattle out of your head. I got to the point where I would cringe when I saw them.
And who takes care of all of these open areas? The ever-present landscape workers and occasional donkeys. The man wasn’t keen on having his photo taken but the donkey was kind of interested.
Picasa World 