it´s raining in kingston

just listening to tuan´s radio show at the moment and apparently the weather in kingston is not as agreeable as ecuador. ana maria took the computer speakers with her when she went to quito (along with the cable to her television) so i´m without much sound but have hooked up my headphones and if i crane my head enough i can stretch the cord out long enough to listen. she has previously offered her tv to me when she´s gone out and when i found the door to her room open i thought i was in luck. i was wrong. i guess i´ll be watching the election results from the computer screen, my head tilted to the side. i hope i don´t rip the headphones out of the cpu when they declare kerry the winner.

went for a walk today. went by parque bolivar...

woohoo! tuan played my song! i even got a little shout out across the miles. i´m quite pleased that the connection here is so good - my request - white paint morning by buffalo tom - is perfect. i´m a little sad that i missed the new sarah slean song, but them´s the breaks.

ok... back to the park. so parque bolivar is the iguana park. don´t know what an iguana looks like? here´s a peek...

isn´t he cute?

that´s actually the park as well - a very nice park with throngs of people oohing and aahing over the iguanas and being careful not to walk in the random piles of iguana crap all over the place. i´ve also been warned, numerous times, to not look up as they live in the trees and can aim.

anyway, i made my way over the malecon and walked about through the various gardens and areas they have, taking pics as i went. it was a cloudy day here, i thought the clouds would burn off but they didn´t, so it looks like i´ll have to return to take more pics. anyway, i did find the maac gallery open today after two unsuccessful visits, and let me tell you, i was not prepared for it. it´s gorgeous. it´s a little like the agnes etherington addition at queen´s, all new and shiny with vaulted ceilings and barren walls except for an added quotation or two. there is a gallery devoted to the artist tábara, an interesting guy - not one of my favourites - but it´s interesting that señora flor has a few of his works on display in her house.

the rest of the museum/gallery was devoted to more modern selections, some of which were very weird while a great number were quite bold and refreshing. i´ll have to go back with a paper and pen to record the names of the artists as repeating their names ten times just didn´t cut it.