Excursión al río Ebro

Last Saturday we had our first day-long excursion to somewhere outside of Barcelona.  We went to the river Ebro (a delta) about a 2 1/2 hour drive south of Barcelona.  We left at 8:30am and came back around 7pm.  Here's a map to give you a better idea of where we were:

For the entire day, we had a tour guide and went around to three different places (somewhat close together) on the river.  The day was perfect: sunny and in the 60's!  The first stop on the trip was to an ecomuseo (ecomuseum) focused entirely on all aspects of the river. Or, according to a sign post at the museum, "The Ecomuseum of the Ebro Delta Natural Park is a building conceived to introduce the visitors to the peculiar world of the delta, especially to both natural and human aspects of its ecosystem.  In this way, the different elements of the Ecomuseum are idealistic representations of the landscape, the traditional activities and the architecture of the Ebro delta."
Here we are listening to the tour guide:

The museum was made up of many parts.  First, a garden showing the various different flora and fauna that grow in the area.  Rice is their main product and here's a sign depicting the crop of the rice.  (Notice that they use Catalan first, Spanish second, and English third).

Then of course there was a history section (kinda boring) although here's a picture of old fishing techniques:

There was a bird observatory for all of the wildlife lovers.  You look through a bunch of holes in a building out into a small pond (that perhaps connects to a larger body of water-- I'm not sure).  We were able to see some ducks.  This reminded me a lot of Cornell's Ornithology Lab.

The best part of this museum was the building with the aquarium.  Here are some of the typical fish that can be found in the river.  The second photo is of a very scary-looking sheat-fish.

After the Ecomuseum, we went to a different location close by (I suppose it was part of the Ecomuseum as well) to try to perchar.  This is a technique used in boats for fishing where someone stands at the back of a small wooden boat and uses a long stick to push the boat forward and backward.  To turn, you can use the stick to row forward or backward (turning the boat right and left respectively).  Even though the water was only one meter deep, the guide made us all wear life vests.  Although I didn't get my chance to be a perchadora (person who is steering the boat) it was a nice, relaxing time in the sun despite the 10 times we bumped into reeds.

And probably my favorite part of the day was seeing all the typical animals of the region.  Right after we got off the boats, there were a bunch of cages with birds, goats, pigs, and a donkey.  I took a picture of just about every caged (and uncaged) animal they had.  SO much fun!

And finally, for the last stop of the day, an extended late lunch at a restaurant 20 steps from the beach that serves traditional Spanish food.  All of their seafood products come from the delta!  After such a busy morning, I was QUITE hungry.

First course: salad.

Second: mussels. YUM. (With lemon).

After the mussels there was some fried calamari, but a forgot to take a picture.  Then for the main course: Seafood paella, almost exactly like the one we made at the cook-and-taste event.  I did NOT venture to try the ugly/scary looking prawns.

Then crema catalana, the same dessert we made at the cook-and-taste.  Oh-so-yummy!  I wished the portion sizes were larger.

After lunch and before we went back for the day some people sat and drank some coffee while others meandered over to the beach.  Since I don't like coffee (too bitter) I wandered to the beach, collected 4 seashells, got sand in my shoes, and took some photos.

And that's all!  A nap in the bus on the way back, and before I knew it I was back in Barcelona right after sunset.