Colorful Hillside Housing in a Dense Urban Area of Venezuela on a Cloudy Day

Houses stack like terra-cotta tiles against the verdant hills of Caracas, where generations of Venezuelans have built their homes on the city's steep terrain. In these barrios, a complex network of informal architecture tells the story of urban migration and resourceful adaptation. Scattered patches of white, yellow, and blue paint brighten the red-brick landscape, while hanging laundry serves as colorful flags of daily life. Storm clouds gather above, a common sight in Venezuela's capital, where the surrounding mountains trap both rain clouds and the dreams of nearly two million residents who call these self-built neighborhoods home.