Gone native

[jim king]

This is what happens when a person has been in the house for a few weeks and cannot leave.  "Amazon cabin fever".  The fellow just got done painting the front of the house.

The neighbor lady said it must be Easter and even my wife in her condition laughed and shook her head and said I don´t think so.

I tried to make a cement row house look like a victorian to go with the inside.  The scary part is I think I like it.  Here is before and after.

[Chuck White]

Really livened the place up!

Looks nice.

[D Hagens]

That change really looks nice Sad that you have to put bars on your windows and door though.
In the first pic to the right is that a chalkboard with a to do list? :D

[jim king]

The storey behind this is that the town really came into its own about 1900 to 1920 when the European rubber barons lived like kings here.  In the center of town where they lived at the time all the buildings are faced with beautifully painted and glazed Portugese tile.  

Every building of that era has about 4 or 5 colors and as Iquitos has been named by CNN and others as the number three must see site in the world for 2011 the city has asked everyone to do what is possible in all areas to make the town look like the rubber boom days.  So I did my part.  I have four colors.  Now I need a bit of tile and ready.

We have bars on the front door and kitchen window on the front but on the back of the house the living room and patio have no outside wall and lead out to the back yard and the flowers.  Much fresher that way in this heat. I am going to replace the grill work on the front as it can be done elegantly here, this was a gift from the police so I could not say no.

The chalk board on the right is the next door restaurant menu.

[D Hagens]

That's very interesting Jim, I like the different touches of colour. Guess it must be nice walking down the streets without the same monotony of seeing everyone doing the same colours  and trying to out do one another. Each persons personality showing is a good thing!
As for the bars and the gates, crime problem I would assume. Do you have to live in fear or is it just a way of life that you become accustomed to?

[jim king]

We have very little real crime here.  The big thing is drug smokers at night smoking cocaine base and petty theft to support the habit.  Other than that we had a murder a couple of years ago.

The hippi type tourists that pass thru sleep in the parks and no one bothers them, they literally lay down and sleep on the street drunk but I am sure it will not always stay that way.  Almost half a million people in town now and coming from every where every day.

The people of the region are normally very calm but the outsiders maybe will be a problem.  Violence is limited to the rural areas where cocaine is the source of income now.

[jim king]

As for the bars and the gates, crime problem I would assume. Do you have to live in fear or is it just a way of life that you become accustomed to?

I just took this photo of the back of the house where the living room and patio are open to the back open patio.  No wall at all.

I am planting the raised bed gardens today and the other photo is of making the soil of soil, sand, rotten saw dust, chicken manure and ground egg shells.  The soil will be two feet deep.   Now all I have left is to tile the outside patio and the raised gardens.

[clww]

AWESOME, JIM!