tbaroundtheworld

For years, we’ve been counting birds down here and trying to draw conclusions from what we observe. Back in the late 1990’s, I read about a Grebe die-off in California and sure enough, months later we had hundreds of little emaciated bodies washing up on the shore. And since that time, we’ve never gone back to the amounts seen before the event. In other years, we’ve observed crashes of the Brown Pelican and Double-crested Cormorant populations that I wrote gloomily about as evidence of the destruction of the Gulf fishery and the doom of both species. But as time went on, the birds came back and today they appear to be about the same as ever. This year though we seemed to be down on both those two and the local Blue-footed and Brown Booby populations. In the case of the former two, decent numbers seen from shore but far less than the thousands I normally count. The observed numbers of the latter two though has been downright depressing. Instead of hundreds, I’d only managed 4 birds i...

One of the last things we did before we left for this trip was to purchase and deliver a couple of gifts for two boys on our village “wishing tree.” A nice pair of Sony over-the-ear headphones for Aiden and a cool Lego village building kit for Deaghan. We went back to see if there were any wishes left, but happily our fellow Corraleños had come through – the tree was bare. A couple of days into our birding, we took a drive out to the far end of town to briefly have a look at a landlocked pond that used to be part of the now defunct Club Med. There is rarely anything there, and that streak was continued with a single Loon and a handful of Gulls. While there we stopped into one of the local expat hangouts – The Soggy Peso – to have a look at their “wishing tree.” It was covered with tiny photographs of the children of La Manga, a pop-up fishing village that has grown from nothing to 5 pangas , drying nets and a handful of fisherman crashed out for the day on the dunes, to a full-fle...

How exactly does memory work when it comes to planning? Do you have a mental checklist that’s refined over time? Or do items jog your memory, demanding to be included? When it comes to travel, I’ve always found it to be both ways – there are things I know I need to do and things I see when I am doing the former that are included in the preparations. This time around, my system failed me. We’ve been coming down here in December for more than 20 years. In that time our preparations have ebbed and flowed and been refined to the point that it’s pretty much a rote process with the only variation of how I put things in the car. What we need always makes it, and what we need to do beforehand always gets done. So, imagine my surprise when back from the immigration hut, 21 km into this foreign country, I recall that we don’t have Mexican car insurance. For years, I bought an annual policy, renewed by mail, purchased, shoved in the glove box and forgot about it. That approach was the most e...

One thing I will say about Spain is that it has the best taxi fleet in the world. Not only are they hanging around taxi stands when you need them, but there are so many cruising that you rarely have to wait more than a few seconds, in every single city we’ve visited. After loading up our gear and walking down Carretas one last time towards Puerta del Sol, we were in a cab in less than a minute. So different than Paris where you either have to brave the subway with your bags or hire a driver in advance because cabs are rare as hen’s teeth. At least in the neighborhoods we’ve stayed in. And what a driver we had, deftly maneuvering through the (what seemed to be unusually dense) traffic, getting us to the airport in about 40 minutes. American was taking tickets and since we were traveling on miles, we were able to use the priority check-in. The couple in front of us had at least 8 suitcases, and eventually she bashfully told us that she now has 5 grandchildren and that she loves to bri...

Sometimes the best things happen when you don’t expect them. After relaxing for the later part of the afternoon and packing our bags we decided to avail ourselves of what had become a really beautiful evening, and go out for a paseo, in the true Spanish tradition. We figured one last walk down Arenal to the palace before going and finding something interesting to eat for the last meal of this vacation. It was that time of day when the low angle sun blinds you unless you make your way to the shady side of the street, which we did for the long stroll down the mall. When we reached the area in front of the Iglesia de San Ginés de Arlés, we knew something was going on. The police had set up barriers, behind which were hundreds of devoted senior citizens. And in the courtyard of the church, the parochial float was out and parked for all to see. San Ginés surrounded by spring flowers sitting atop a big silver urn. Having done a Semana Santa or two, we were familiar with such a sight. So I...

And of course, what's a vacation without a lot of photos of yourself standing in front of something you hardly remember? Most of these are regular, but the first two gain Selfie Special Merit Awards. First Place goes to Both Photographing the Same Thing But From Opposite Directions. Second Place goes to What Isn't Special About the Inside of a Starbucks? Honorable Mention goes to You're Doing It Wrong

We didn't do a "What We See" in Sevilla, because we were too busy taking photos of horses and Flamenca dresses. With no such distractions in Madrid, we returned to our old form.