The trip to Spain, and wandering around Baja with my brother

 So after extensively looking at the Pogo 40 in Barcelona, I did a bit of a trip around the countryside of Spain with my mother.  The first thing we did was drive down to the Ebro River and go out to the delta and find some Flamingos.  Unfortunately I didn't bring my long lens, but only my wide angle, so I don't have any shots of them.  Then we followed the river up as it became a dark and stormy night...
We found a tiny little town called Benifallet just as the darkness was descending, and the rain started to patter down.  I was driving, and managed to find a little street that I thought would go through, but it became even narrower, and I couldn't make it.  Nor could I turn around, it was a hectic moment and finally we managed to scrape out of it, but not before touching a flower pot, and hearing a crack.  Mom thought we destroyed the pot so after getting to a safe spot to park she went looking for the owner to make recompense, but it turned out to be just fine.  Then we found a hotel.  The thing in Spain is that everyone is on siesta until about 7 or so in the evening, so you can't just roll up to a place and hope someone will be there, but after finding a number and calling we managed to get it to work, and we got a room. 
The next day we went to the local tourist attraction (that we hadn't ever heard of) which was a cave. It wasn't far away, so we drove on up and looked around.  Just outside the caves there were a lot of trees, and this is one of them:

 To my eyes it was a form of Yew, and it looks just like the Taxus Brevifolia that we have in the pacific northwest, but I don't rightly know what it is.  Maybe this is what William Tell used to make a bow? 
Inside the caves it was quite warm and humid, so taking pictures was hard, because the lens would fog up.  But I managed.

 After the caves we drove on west, looking to go to a place where Don Quixote found some "monsters" and fought them (but they were actually windmills).  We didn't get that far, but did find some windmills.  In this picture, the wind is coming from the top of the frame, so the blades are upwind of the pole that holds it all up.  Why are they bent forward, into the wind? 

It doesn't make it more efficient, I don't think.  The only thing I can think of is that it keeps them from hitting the pole and breaking, but then, why not just make them be on the downwind side?  I can't figure it out, but since the whole thing is powered, and not passive (there is no tail to turn it) they must figure that the wind could shift quickly and they want to be sure the blades will never hit, the only way to do that is to design them to be on the side that would make them try to hit and then make them strong enough to resist it. 
I have heard tales of big windmills breaking, and how does it happen?  Do the poles break off from the high winds?  Do the blades hit?  I wonder.  At any rate, the tip speeds are impressive on these, and standing under it you can hear them zap through the air, a hissing kind of noise.  Its very fast.
From there we went to Alcaniz, an old midevil town, with a river that flows nearly all the way around the town.  It is a big bend in the river and there is a big hill in the middle of the bend and the town sits on the hill.  Keeps the riff-raff out, since they have to swim and climb (mostly).  We managed to find a way in, and climbed up to the church...

 and then on to the castle on the top of the hill.  It was a pretty sunset from there.

 Then we went to Balaguer, and I didn't take any pictures, but it was also a midevil town with some nice looking structures.  But after that, we drove up into the Pyreneese and found this little church on a hill all by itself.  It was just in front of the first wave of mountians, those that have been uplifted sharply, and the local stone is Limestone, so the cliffs are fantastic, as well as having caves.

 We came back into Catalonia and the flags were waving proudly.  This whole area is striving for independence, and has been for many years.  I've been reading the "Master and Commander" series, which is fiction, but set in 1800-1820 and one of the main characters is from Catalonia, has a castle in the hills (could have been the one on the above picture, hidden on the mountain opposite, you can just barely see it if you zoom in), and is striving for Catalan freedom.  Striving they continue to do. 

 It was a trip, but I was glad to be back at my truck and surfboard, and I spent the next month surfing at a break near Todos Santos.  Just before Christmas, my brother, Abe, and his wife, Katrina, showed up and we drove around the southern peninsula.  We had a nice fire on the beach to start...

 And drove up to Bahia Frailes, where there is a great place to walk around and snorkel.

 Then we set off and climbed up to the top of the hill at the end of the beach.  I had only climbed this hill once before, in 2010 (early november, I recall) just after I had dropped Danny off in Cabo san Lucas and continued my adventures with Altair.  During that climb, I found this cactus in the morning light and took a picture of the same one in this picture:

 You can see how much it has grown in 9 years.  Continuing to the top we had a great view over into the bay.  I think I'd like to come back with a sailboat again to this bay.

 On the way down we found a stick insect.  A walking stick.  What's brown and sticky?

 Then, I stopped taking pictures.   It's unforgivable, I know, but there it is.  So we drove on up to La Paz, then back down the west side and surfed and I dropped them off and went back to surfing some more.  In mid January, I picked up Lindsey in Puerto Vallarta and we drove down the coast towards Michuacan, and found a Roseate Spoonbill!

  Now we are at a nice little town with a surf break and we'll be here for a little more.  So the water is warm, the surf is inviting, and time passes on.