INAH

If you buy a house in the centro histórico, you have to someone from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia or INAH come to your  place and do an assessment, and then they must authorize any changes you want to make to the original structure.  This is because of the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

On the map below, the shaded area represents several different levels of protection that INAH enforces in the historic area.  The house we want to buy is located in the northern (upper) section of A (máxima protección).  It is on the "wrong" side of the river/fetid stream (farther from the tourist attractions), but the "right" side of the train tracks.  The nearby train station is also being developed as a tourist attraction and cultural center, so we can look forward to eventual tourist traffic, too, in addition to occasional train noise (which we are used to).

The house:  after you go through the big entrance room (last post), you enter the first of two sections of a hallway which eventually opens to the patio and back garden.  The entire hallway is roofed in and has ceramic tile on the floor.  There are two rooms to the left.  The first room we intend to turn into the master bedroom.  See that little window in the foreground?  What the heck is that for?  Room service?

The room is 7.5 x 17.  Narrow!  But just big enough for our queen-size bed.

Farther down the hall tomorrow.