A trip to the Iberian peninsula and Barcelona

Just returned from a trip to Spain to see one of the rarest cats The Iberian Lynx. This cat had nearly disappeared from the face of earth. These cats are seen mainly in southern Spain. They have thrived and clawed back from the brink of extinction mainly on the privately owned lands in Sierra de Andujar . Their numbers had gone down to less than a 100 in 2002 and are now at around 1500. These cats are difficult to track as they are small and stay inside bushes another big difficulty is the area to look for them is vast. Also most of their habitat are privately owned land with no direct access. So one needs to look for them from the public roads. We spent 6 days looking from them and had 4 sightings of 7 individuals with most of the sightings were far but on the final day we got super lucky and saw them up close.

First sighting of the Lynx

The Wonderful sighting up close

Some other wildlife seen

Barcelona Visit

Was there for 2 days in Barcelona and walked around the city photographing. Visited some monuments, markets and of course camp Nou .The 7 days in the wild went off in a flash and the 2 days in the city seemed like years.

La Sagrada Familia

The largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí

Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Mercat de la Boqueria

Camp Nou

Streets of Barcelona

Finally a view from our hotel room