Sunday, January 25, 2015

Piriapolis in January

Vacations have come and gone. This year I went to Piriapolis area for a few days. Not really my best year there.

Weather did not cooperate much. This storm alone was worth about 45mm of rain.

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In the harbor, my favorite place, the authorities had decided to remodel the fishing dock in the harbor - my dearest subject had a forced break this year.

Downtown, there was a remodeled Rambla, from Piria avenue up to the Argentino. Why, oh why some urbanists won't keep still? Here you can see first the beautiful and simple old style design, similar to Nice or Salerno, and then the remodeled section in the downtown area.

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I don't usually criticize local authorities, but, to say it diplomatically, the new design stinks. Traffic has available only two lanes instead of the previous four, and it shows - the Rambla was a 24-hour traffic jam. The very needed and always full parking spaces along the Rambla were wiped out, with the pretext of setting up a few blocks of bycicle trail which nobody uses - who would cross several blocks of traffic jams to do 600 m of a trail crossed by pedestrians every few seconds?. Worst of all, the area looks like a concrete wasteland.

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I hope that those in power will change their minds about this "improvement". Many people would have preferred that the investment had been made somewhere else in the area. For instance, recovering or at least conditioning for visitors the old Piria church, long abandoned, now collecting graffiti and apparently occupied by a wood logs distribution business.

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To get out of the depression mood, let's see the harbor and San Antonio hill in a panoramic parting shot. Water always gives me hope.

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Thanks for looking and all the best for 2015!

Technical information: Horizont camera, FP4+ in Beutler.