Beautiful ruins

All over Mazatlan there are building that have fallen into disrepair.  Part of it I'm sure is the tropical air that flakes paint off. Also there appear to be many properties that have long ago been abandoned. Some building that appear to be vacant though are actually someone's home. I think this one is occupied, but it's hard to know.

What I do know is that in the historic centre there are regulations that prevent people from building anew.  You must restore the building to its original appearance--both outside and inside. This prevents most people from making anything but the most cursory repairs.

There are so many beautiful Colonial gems that are empty and eventually they succumb to the elements. Once the roof goes it's pretty much game over.  This one is clearly destined to become a pile of rubble.

In some cases, the windows and doors are bricked up and cemented over, and then they become a vehicle for graffiti (which I think is much more creative than what we see at home).

Note the beautiful lamp attached to the side of this building. There are hundreds of these beauties all over the downtown area. I like to imaging that there was a special factory somewhere nearby that turned these lamps out at least a hundred years ago.

 This is a row of houses just up from where we're staying. They look small but each one has an interior courtyard hidden behind the narrow facades.  Each family does their own paint job.

This one is clearly more recent with its art deco styling, but it has suffered the same fate. Peeking inside you can see layers and layers of paint. For some reason I'm obsessed by these ruins, and I keep imagining what they would be like restored.

Since I can't do that however, I'm going to try some water colour paintings of a few of them.