where we go next has dialup and it's sold by the hour, so i'll check in, but will probably wait to upload pt 2 until after jan 3rd. i shot 206 pix yesterday, so will have at least some decent ones.

we walked around and chatted to some very interesting folks today, the people are really growing on me. there's a certain mildness, lack of guile, and values that seem to have resisted the anglo germs.

for example, the taxi driver wouldn't take a tip, and not only, but when i inadvertently left the camera in his cab, called up the hotel before i even noticed it was missing, and was terribly reluctant to let me give him the equivalent of €7 by way of thanks.

the coins are really big and remind me of pirates!

we are grateful to be leaving the city tonight, the diesel fumes are making my chest ache and my nose run, but we have run into some really nice people here, and are getting more and more insight to the national character, the people are very talkative, and proud to tell us about their beautiful country.

there's a softness to their hearts that pulls the love out of me.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty