spinning: Thievery Corporation - InterludeLet's talk about cars. You can tell a lot about a city by the cars you see in it. A few examples:Matamoros, MX: When the newest car is a 10-year-old Chevrolet Chevy, you know your town is in bad shape. Probably the poorest town I've ever seen. If your car has alloy wheels, you're more stupid than fortunate - they'll be gone in 20 minutes.Austin, TX: A substantial population of Volvos, which corresponds to the demographic I like to call 'the PBS group,' and the only town I've ever heard of, much less seen, where there are running, daily-driven art cars. Enough said.Santander: This is a rich town, as far as permanent (non-tourist) residents go. Cars older than 10 years are rare. Small city runners are the most common, but I see plenty of Mercs and BMWs every day. But over all, everyone and their dog drives an Audi. Young guys drive A3s, professionals drive A4 diesels, and status-driven people have A6s and A8s. They're everywhere. But the biggest sign you can get about a town is from the people outside the cars. On a calm Saturday morning, there was no one to notice the gorgeous red Ferrari 575M at the light next to my bus. But still it didn't look or feel out of place. It looked like it had just finished an early round of golf, nothing out of the ordinary. But on a Sundary afternoon, in the town's main plaza, an area about as close to Times Square as north Spain can produce, a new, black F430 Spyder turned no heads. None. Not even kids, who in the USA would have a poster of that very car. In a certain sense, that may be the biggest culture shock I've suffered yet. Then again, haute couture shock could happen anywhere in the world.