Overhead Highways with Trees in Slabtown

The merging and splitting overhead highways that border Portland's Slabtown neighborhood provide a surprising range of photographic themes, when seen within the broader environment. Here, and for the next several days, are images that emphasize trees and their branches, growing on the streets below.

Glimpses of the Fremont Bridge

The Fremont Bridge, which takes US 405 across the Willamette River in Portland, is glimpsed as an often shadowy presence from under the elevated highways that border Slabtown. The supports of the approach to the bridge are also prominent.

Slabtown's Overhead Highways

Photos from our Argentina/Uruguay trip are finally completed, and we have no international travel scheduled until April (Australia). So I'm back to taking pictures in Portland, Oregon, and have been concentrating on the Slabtown neighborhood. The peculiar name comes from the early days when the scraps (slabs) from turning logs into lumber were stacked in front of the houses of workers, to be used for heating and cooking fuel.

The boundaries of Slabtown are somewhat indistinct (it's not an official Portland neighborhood, but exists within the Northwest District), but the eastern edge is NW 16th Avenue, which runs underneath the elevated highways US 405 and US 30. There's a rather dramatic junction overhead where the two split, with US 30 heading west to the coast, and US 405 heading east over the Fremont Bridge and then north toward Washington State. I'll begin this series of photos with images of the sweeping shadowed overhead and massive supporting pillars.

Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires

We took the ferry from Montevideo back to Buenos Aires. In the few hours we had until leaving for the airport for our flight back to the USA, we took a tour of the Teatro Colón, one of the great opera houses of the world. Many Italians settled in Buenos Aires, so an affinity for opera was only natural. A nice finale to our trip.

Adjusting the scenery

Montevideo Street Scenes

A miscellany of things, old and new, seen while walking the streets of Montevideo. The first picture is of people waiting in line to purchase marijuana at a pharmacy. The last seems to bless and protect the plant. 

Overall, the colors, mix of old and new, and relaxed feeling made Montevideo a surprisingly attractive city. We were there only two days, and would have liked it to be longer.

Montevideo Museum of Decorative Arts

The Decorative Arts Museum, or Palacio Taranco, is an attractive museum in the heart of the Old City, in a building built in the French style for the Taranco Ortiz family at the beginning of the 20th C. A very pleasant place to spend an hour or two.

Montevideo: Museo Andes 1972

Here are some photos from a fascinating, moving, and important museum in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Museo Andes 1972 commemorates the 1972 crash of a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team over the Andes to Chile. 29 died and 16 survived after 72 days in freezing temperatures and with no food.

Jörg P.A. Thomsen, Curator and co-Director, who knew many of the survivors and their families, and who spearheaded the development of the museum. He gave us an enlightening and moving tour.

Impressionistic painting of the interior of the plane after the crash.

 A window of the plane, suspended against an image of the Andes near the crash site.

Sculpture bust of the sheep herder who encountered a couple of survivors after many days, and brought rescuers to the site.