Where is Mystery City #18? (Luis Gomez Photos)

Welcome to Week #18 of Luis’ collection of cities from South America, Europe, Australia and North America.

Last Week: Chichiriviche

Last week’s Mystery City #17 was Chichiriviche in the Venezuelan state of Falcon–the top choice of readers with 42%. The beach town is about three hours northwest of Caracas on the Caribbean. Venezuelans from Caracas and Valencia have weekend homes or condos there and it is a popular beach get-away. Of course, this being Venezuela, everyone goes to the beach and there are a number of other places like Chichiriviche.

It is a fairly small place and, like most of Venezuela’s beaches, the infrastructure is underdeveloped by U.S. standards. (When you have oil, you don’t worry so much about building Hilton hotels on your beaches.) I spent several days there three years ago with Luis and after the initial surprise regarding some of the town’s amenities, came to like it very much. A big bonus is the Morrocoy National Park.

Small islands or cayos, are just off the coast and local boatsmen will ferry you out to them for the day. The food is wonderful and there is one lagoon near Chichiriviche where people get out of their boats and drink and party in the water. Vendors come by and sell you food and drink–from their boat to your boat. In short, I highly recommend it, but Chichiriviche is not for those with a Club Med mindset.

This Week’s Photo

We will reveal the identity of #18 next Wednesday. It is an English-speaking city with right-hand drive.

Previous mystery cities have been Caracas, Valaparaiso (Chile), Sydney, Bratislava, La Paz and Santiago, Long Beach, Toronto, St. Louis, Valencia (Venezuela), Genoa, Colonia Tovar (Venezuela), Prague, Viña del Mar (Chile), Asbury Park (New Jersey), Mexico City and Chichiriviche, Falcon (Venezuela).

For Week #18, vote for your choice below.

<br /> <a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3575001/”>Mystery City #18: What city is this?</a></p> <p><span style=”font:9px;”>(<a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com”>polls</a>)</span><br />

What Caribbean beach town is Mystery City #17? (Luis Gomez Photos)

Welcome to Week #17 of Luis’ collection of cities from South America, Europe, Australia and North America.

Last Week: Mexico City

Last week’s Mystery City was Mexico City and the street scene is near the city’s Torre Latinoamericana. The 45-story “Latin-American Tower” was built in 1956 and is one of Mexico City’s most famous landmarks.

How did readers do guessing the identity of #16? In addition to Mexico City (24% of voters), the choices were Santiago (top choice with 29%), Lima (24%), São Paulo (18%) and Caracas (6%).

This Week’s Photo

We will reveal the identity of #17 next Wednesday. As you can tell from the choices, it is a Caribbean beach town and not a large one at that. It is in one of five countries located in the southern and western ends of the sea. Be prepared to do some online research to figure out the identity of this week’s city.

Previous mystery cities have been Caracas, Valaparaiso (Chile), Sydney, Bratislava, La Paz and Santiago, Long Beach, Toronto, St. Louis, Valencia (Venezuela), Genoa, Colonia Tovar (Venezuela), Prague, Viña del Mar (Chile), Asbury Park (New Jersey) and Mexico City.

For Week #17, vote for your choice below.

<br /> <a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3535739/”>Mystery City #17: What city is this?</a></p> <p><span style=”font:9px;”>(<a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com”>polls</a>)</span><br />

Mystery City #15: Is it on an ocean or a lake? (Luis Gomez Photos)

Welcome to Week #15 of Luis’ collection of cities from South America, Europe, Australia and North America.

Last week’s Mystery City was Viña del Mar in Chile’s Valparaíso Province (the top choice of readers was Bunbury, Western Australia). The hint was that it was a coastal city with a Mediterranean climate. For the record, the world’s five official Mediterranean climate zones are Chile, California, western Australia, the Cape region of South African and, of course, the Mediterranean.

This week we have another city on a large body of water and it is in North America. But, is it on one of the Great Lakes or the Atlantic Ocean? We will have the answer next Wednesday. Vote for your choice below.

<br /> <a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/3468984/”>Mystery City #15: What city is this?</a></p> <p><span style=”font:9px;”>(<a href=”http://www.polldaddy.com”>polls</a>)</span><br />

La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia. (Luis Gomez Photos)

This week’s mystery city is La Paz, which was the top choice of readers with 44% of votes cast. La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia. The second choice was Maracaibo in the northwestern Venezuelan state of Zulia with 21% while Boa Vista, Roraima, in Brazil was in third place with voters with 15%.

We will have next Mystery City #6 on Tuesday from Luis’ collection of cities in 45 countries. Previous Mystery Cities were Caracas, Valaparaiso,  Sydney and Bratislava.

Mystery City #5: What Latin American city is this? (Luis Gomez Photos)

We bring you Mystery City #5 from Luis’ collection of travel photos. Make your best guess–or educated selection–on the city’s identify and vote in the reader poll below; we will give you the answer on Friday. The first four mystery cities were Caracas, Valparaiso, Sydney and Bratislava.

Vote below the fold. (more…)

Mystery City # 4: What city is this? (Luis Gomez Photos)

We bring you Mystery City #4 from Luis’ collection of travel photos. A few hints for this series about Luis’ travels: He has traveled in Australia, all of North America, almost all of South America, numerous locations in the Caribbean and Central America, plus much of western, southern and central Europe and a couple of unnamed locations elsewhere. (My best count is 45 countries.)

Make your best guess on the city and vote in the reader poll below; we will give you the answer on Friday. The first three mystery cities were Caracas, Valparaiso and Sydney.

Vote below the fold. (more…)