Spot the 20 Million

The view from Casa Milverton. When we set out from Washington DC in the fall of 2005 to scout out a new home in Mexico City, we had little idea what to expect but vague notions about a secure, modern apartment in Polanco, Condesa or Roma. In two days of frenzied footwork with our former model cum rental agent, Racquel, we had narrowed our options down from 18 to three, all in Polanco.

The place we chose wasn't an obvious selection at first. The place hadn't been lived in for quite some time, meaning a solid layer of dust on the beautiful wood floors, dead house plants scattered around, scuffed walls, and carpet in the bedrooms that looked like something out of "Animal House." But we were taken by the view, and I suspected that with a good overhaul, the place could become the cool pad we had in mind. In fact, the vista reminded me of a stay at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, where I seemed to stare for hours out my window at the lush park that fringed the hotel and gave lie to the fact that a teeming metropolis sprawled outside.

This place in Mexico City feels the same. The expanse of Chapultepec Park that greets you when you walk into the apartment instantly wipes away the stresses of traffic or street hordes and you become lulled by the stretch of green, and absorbed in the change of color in the trees and the sky as the day progresses. It's hard to capture all that but I thought I'd try with a cheap and cheerful pano shot that I want to improve upon in the days ahead.

I stitched together seven or eight photos in Photoshop and used some curves adjustments to touch up the contrast but really, that's it in terms of manipulation. Those hills in the far background are the volcanos Iztaccihuatl and (the still quite active) Popocatepetl. The funny little house in the central foreground with the curved roofs is the giraffe house in the zoo. When I called Sylvie at work during our first day here in Mexico City to tell her I was watching giraffes and ostriches prance around 16 floors below me, she assumed the altitude had already enfeebled my tiny mind. Thankfully, I was able to prove this wasn't case - in this instance - later that day.