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Relive the day's action and insights with daily journal entries, digital photos, audio reports and more. Select one of the teams below to visit their latest entry.

Field Team
Follow Pat O'Hara's search for the perfect moment in the national parks of the Eastern Caucasus. Eleanor O'Hanlon reports, with photos by Russell Sparkman.

RESEARCH TEAM
Georgia veteran Peter Nasmyth returns to guide us into the history and heritage of the region. Denise Rocco captures it all in digital images.

April 29:
In Ancient Groves

April 28:
Batumi and Beyond

April 26:
Fly Tusheti Air

April 25:
An Image of Eden

April 24:
The Road of Friendship

April 22:
Patriarch of the Forest

April 21:
Monastery in the Desert

April 20:
Vashlovani Reserve

April 19:
The Living Pillar

April 18:
Preparing for the Journey

April 17:
Georgian Table

April 12:
Tbilisi Overview

Email Teams in Georgia  
Epson
 

 



Now in a new century I return to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to hunt down the developing story. Also to ask one crucial question: Can a small, hidden nation retain its character in the modern age without becoming a pastiche of itself?

So far Georgia has had some success – although the cost has been high. For it has to be said that like their mountains, Georgians also have a taste for extremes. When independence from the Soviet Union arrived in 1991, it brought with it a post-Soviet disaster. Between 1992-94 civil war transformed Georgia from the richest Soviet Republic to one of the poorest. Infrastructure collapsed, tourists and investors fled, electricity died, factories and resorts were abandoned. The material paradise ended dramatically, like most things in the Caucasus. It was a heartbreaking experience for me and many of my friends who watched the cycle of history for this nation of 5,000,000 turn 180 degrees.

But not for the first time. Like the looming, snow-capped Caucasus, the lessons of history are never far away down here.

Since then rebuilding has been slow but steady.
 
 

Next Dispatch
 

The Orbeliani Bathhouse
 
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Georgian Boy
 
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