Old House

There are many old, abandoned houses here.  In the early 1980's, a large earthquake struck the Azores, and many of the old, broken-down homes you see today were ruined in that earthquake.  There are certain laws here, I've heard, that say one can't tear down a building unless it's past a certain age.  That would explain why there are so many of these abandoned houses still standing.  Well, sort of standing.  This is one of the "earthquake houses", as we call them, that is actually still in pretty good condition.  You can see it's right next to newer houses.  Many times, an old, crumbling house will share a common wall with a newer one.  There are at least a few I see every day.... I'll have to take pictures of some of those ones sometime.  Many times, the roofs are completely gone and there are trees, etc, growing out of the roof and pigeons nesting in them.  (Another interesting thing- the cars in this picture all have the old Portuguese black-and-white license plates- usually you only see the newer, European Union License plates these days. 

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