(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)
Holy smokes, that’s great! I did not expect to win with a guess almost a thousand miles from the actual spot. I couldn’t miss that Harmattan sky, though. Here’s a picture taken one (cloudless) morning in Monrovia, when the air above me was full of sand:
I once got an honorable mention for guessing Kitgum, Uganda rather than Gulu (a distance of about 65 miles), so African travels seem to be very beneficial for the most obscure VFYW competitions.
I’ll take the book, since I’m very happy to continue paying for the Dish. You’ll see from my address that I’m in Andrew’s neighborhood, or at least used to be — I haven’t seen him recently. I used to run into him out walking the dog(s). Sometimes I’d just have been reading the Dish and would want to go up and say, as if in mid-conversation, “OK yes, but the thing is ...” But that would make me a crazy person disturbing someone out for a walk.
As long as you’re not blasting a Bluetooth speaker, he’d love a quick hello from a Dishhead. Our super-champ in Rome, Giuseppe, follows up on the brutal view from last week:
Below is a much clearer picture of the main building visible in last week’s impossible view (it’s the Centre d’Hébergement et de Séminaire de l’Office de Développement des Eglises Evangéliques, Ouagadougou):
Had this been last week’s photo, we would have got an easier contest — but perhaps not much easier.
Last week marked the end of my longest streak of correct guesses: I guessed the right building (though not always the right window) 97 times in a row, from #315 (Cadiz, more than two years ago) to #411 (Elko). Only three views to 100! I was a bit disappointed at first — but then I thought that our fixation with rounded numbers is a bit silly. Ninety-seven is a perfectly respectable number and, as far as I know, it’s the current record for the VFYW (if anyone has a longer streak, please stand up!). It’s also a beatable record, with much patience and a little luck. We are now all at the starting line again.
I still think all of the streak-sleuths should get a mulligan for last week. From the super-chef:
I’m just gonna say, I totally nailed the latitude last week. I’m proud of that. (I’m not very proud of the epic brain fart that allowed me to repeat that howler about the Basque language I found on a website. I’ll take a mulligan for that one.)
The mulligan is a great concept I learned from last week’s post and I’m going to be using it a lot in the future. (Take notice, children.) The interesting thing about last week’s view is that I made the exact same mistake as in contest #323 in Kenya, where I noticed right away that there was an African-looking guy standing guard at a parking lot, and then ignored that clue and guessed Bengaluru, India. This time I noticed the guy below and yet again ignored the clue and guessed Madurai, India. Whatever.
A super-sleuth sends “one of probably many postscripts to last week’s absolutely and totally impossible contest”:
Here in Ann Arbor, we had recently talked about how in the early days we used to read through a whole drama of wild guesses, starting from the most remote ones to the closer ones, until we finally got to the correct place. But these days, there’s a small number of super-sleuths who get it right pretty much every time, and the fun is their detailed and specialized columns. So with last week’s view, we felt you were trying to return us to the previous era.
I should have sent at least a stab, because at the point when I threw in the towel I was looking around Yaounde, Cameroon. That would have probably landed me in second place. Next time you post an impossible photo, I’ll at least submit a guess.
From the super-sleuth in Chattanooga:
Last week I did not submit the stab of Bata, Equatorial Guinea, which would have least been the right continent. This week I feel farther off than last and never found a place even worth guessing.
Here’s a followup from the cinema sleuth in Berkeley:
Last week’s impossible view missed getting any sort of proper treatment from anyone, since none of us knew where the fuck we were. So here’s a worthwhile movie that was at least partly filmed in Ouagadougou (and it’s also sort of a call-back to contest #301 in Mali): They Will Have to Kill Us First (2015), a documentary about musicians in northern Mali who had to flee the country when Islamists affiliated with al-Qaeda joined with the Tuaregs in their 2012 rebellion, then took control and instituted one of the harshest regimes of Sharia law in the Muslim world. Musicians and performing artists of Timbuktu had to leave or be tortured or killed. Many fled to Bamako in southern Mali. But others left the country, settling in Ouagadougou.
Here’s a trailer:
A Malian band I particularly liked in the movie, Songhoy Blues, had the good fortune while in exile to be invited to Britain for a recording session, and while there got the chance to perform as an opening act at the Royal Albert Hall. I checked just now and was pleased to learn that, at least as recently as 2020 anyway, they were still cutting albums and, to judge by this track, they ain’t bad!
The super-sleuth in Chevy Chase writes:
I am glad to be in such esteemed company in not having a bloody clue where the picture was taken. The fact that Chini didn’t get it mitigates my regret over all that time I spent examining images of telecom towers on the wrong continent.
Eagle Rock’s super-sleuth:
I’m still feeling the sting from my failure to identify the window last week. (Unless it actually was Chini’s house.) Even a lovely destination like this one doesn’t do much to alleviate that.
Here’s the aerial view from Chini for this week’s window:
From a previous winner:
First, a quick note about last week’s contest. After the results were announced I asked my half-brother, who has traveled much more than I, to guess the location after looking at the picture for no more than a minute or two. His reply: “That looks like the view from (redacted)’s father’s house in Lagos, to be honest. Same veranda. Same lush but grimy view.” I should have teamed up with him!
As for this week’s VFYW, first let me say: no effing idea. And that’s despite many tantalizing clues. The large distant land mass to the left and center could by the arm of a large bay, or an island (or more than one island, overlapping). And from the shadows cast by the sun, I’m guessing that the picture is a morning shot, centered on the southeast, with the rightmost island(?) being roughly due south — all assuming we are above the equator. If below the equator, then the picture becomes a late afternoon shot and all directions are reversed by 180 degrees.
I’ve spent hours scrolling through Google Map coastlines trying to find similar features and I’ve got bupkis to show for the effort. Here’s wishing better luck to the other sleuths!
The super one in Augusta had much better luck:
Thanks for throwing us an easy one this week, to allow us to recover our dignity. Well, easy in terms of location, as I find myself flummoxed yet again by the exact window. I’m experiencing a bit of a time crunch this week, so I can’t go digging for any fun facts this week. I certainly hope the super-chef and cocktail sleuth aren’t as busy, since I don’t think the View has stopped in this country since they started doing their thing, and I’d love to see their creations!
Here’s the latest creation from San Mateo:
Glad that you’ve been using the VFYW Reinterpreteds. Here’s my impression of #413:
From a previous winner:
I think this could be just about anywhere in South America, but something about the Portuguese-looking dilapidated balconies on the broad tree-filled streets with some some land masses in the distance said, “Look at Ipanema.” No time to search for the right spot; I’m too distracted by belly-laughing from binge-watching all 11 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Another guess for South America:
Well, for the second week in a row, I have had no time to devote to the contest. Like everyone else, I thought last week’s window was in India. I took one look at this week’s view and the picture just screamed Rio to me. I spent about 10 days there for New Year’s 2007 — it was fantastic, but the poverty was eye-opening. To me, the view looks as if we are in some neighborhood between the favelas and Copacabana beach. Otherwise, I did not have time to take a deeper dive. Things will die down for me in about five weeks, but hopefully I won’t be absent that long.
Ohh yeah, I got my VFYW book a few days ago — it is most excellent. Worth waiting for all those years!
From the super-sleuth on the UWS:
I’m feeling so sad about this week because I know you wouldn’t give us two impossible views in a row. Which means that this one has to be easier than last week’s, and that many sleuths are likely to get it. I just don’t think I’ll be among them.
Searches on different pieces of this view yield many hits for Thailand, but that just doesn’t seem right. This place is in good enough shape to have those solar panels, what looks like a couple of somewhat modern hotels, and big cars. Yet is also has a seriously dilapidated set of buildings that appear to be in danger of imminent collapse. And why aren’t those many blue water rooftop water tanks helping me? Lots of them in Brazil, but generally dark blue and squattier …
Well it’s late and I need to land this plane. I’m going with the same country I guessed last week, just a different city: Chennai, India. I know I’m going to be embarrassed about missing this, but I’m still looking forward to finding out where I went wrong, and reading all the commentary.
From our super-sleuth in Alexandria, who eventually got to the right place:
I fixated on the blue rooftop barrels and the beach-front lighting to try and find the town. At first, I thought it was Antalya, Turkey, since the rooftops there had tons of barrels … but they weren’t blue plastic and they had solar panels (though they had similar tall promenade lights along the beach).
Puerto del Rosario, Fuertoventura in the Canary Islands also had tall promenade lights, but no rooftop barrels. Nha Trang, Vietnam has the right type of upturned-flower promenade lights (but again, no blue barrels; they were all steel):
I guessed Mexico last week (very wrong!) and I’m sticking with it this week. I feel like more of a super-sloth than a super-sleuth. Tinacos (water tanks) on the roofs, the climate, and islands off the coast all suggest the Yucatan to me. So, Cancún, Mexico it is.
Combining my Mexico theme with your recent rescue-dog theme, here in Bend, Oregon, we have adopted, rescued Mexican dogs enjoying themselves all over the city (including my dog) thanks to the local, wonderful Street Dog Hero organization. SDH also rescues dogs from the Warm Springs Reservation north of Bend, and from elsewhere. Look at these amazing dogs that are up for adoption now.
From a first-timer to the contest who eventually got to the right place:
My initial belief was that this was Mexico. In Mexico, water pressure is notoriously unreliable, leading many homeowners to invest in rooftop water tanks (tinacos in Spanish) to maintain adequate pressure. I spent some time looking for Mexican cities with south-looking views of the ocean that might match. No luck.
A sleuth in NYC gets to the right region:
Here’s another contest where I feel like I could find it with a little more time! We’re looking for a city in Southeast Asia that’s relatively poor, on a beach, but potentially experiencing some new economic growth. That’s the gist of the decrepit row of shophouses (tong lau?) and one renovated building in the same style off to the side — plus the solar hot water heaters and rooftop water tanks. (Longtime players will have learned to associate blue rooftop water tanks with Mexico, but I don’t think they have a monopoly on this accessory.)
Nha Trang, Vietnam seems to fit the bill. It’s also got swimming beaches, mountains in the distance, and those semi-distinctive floodlights. Plus it passes the “airport test” one sleuth recently proposed. But I can’t find anything on the skyline to orient myself. Alas.
From the Ann Arbor sleuth again:
Thank you for providing a solvable one this week. It took a while, though, despite so many clues: a coastline facing more or less west, a beach close to a big city, South Asian architecture, and probably many resorts, etc. I was about to move on when I found this:
It matches the islands in the distance of the contest photo, so the rest was easy.
The Berkeley champ again:
We’ve sure spun on a dime with the view this week, haven’t we? Talk about whiplash! In one week we go from impossible to easy. We’re still in the tropics (in fact, this window is only about 30 minutes of latitude, which translates to 30 miles — more northerly than last week’s balcony). But now we’re in a coastal city and we’re seeing it from on high, so the view has lots of rooftops with a nice variety of water tanks on them, and what looks like a distinctively shaped island in the background. The island is what provided my Eureka moment.
Okay, so the “island” turned out not to be an island at all, only high bluffs attached to the mainland at the southern end of a bay. And if there hadn’t been additional islands of comparable size in the vicinity to draw my attention in Google Earth, I would have been on a wild goose chase after a red herring. So, that was fortunate.
A previous winner focuses on the AC units — and names the right country:
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