With our new-to-us car still acting rather bung and being finicky with it’s electrics, we’ve have to put off a beach weekend to stay local.  So, with Bethany in tow, we headed south to find the source of the Rio Mundo and follow it for a bit of scenery.  We were shocked to find a gorgeous area of Castilla-La Mancha just 45 minutes away!!  Not only does the river start from a cave, but it drops in a series of gigantic waterfalls before continuing to cut it’s way through the plains of La Mancha.  It is so surprising to see such dramatic scenery so nearby, as a glance out the window of the car just outside of Albacete yeilds a mostly flat, kind of parched grassland that looks a bit like the Oklahoma panhandle.  A bit “uck” as it were.  But then, the subsoil is so different that the rivers cut huge canyons down into it and create these oases of greenery and scenery.  It’s a bit like mini grand canyons everywhere in the way that it’s so unexpected.

Anyway,  we had quite an enjoyable day out to the Los Calares Del Mundo Natural Park and then driving along the river’s course back toward home via the shocking canyon town of Ayna.