Behís

We were still spinning from our whirlwind vacation and we were off again. Isabel and Rafa invited us to come stay with them at their vacation home in Behís. Behís is a small mountain-top village about 80 km northwest of Valencia.

Behís is a farming village though now many of the people just come for vacation. Everyone knows everyone and there are a lot of children running and playing everywhere. Rafa and Isabel have three children - Basa, Maria, and Carmen. Rafa's brother's family has a home across the street and they have 4 children. Rafa's sister's family has a home a few blocks away and they have 5 children.

Isabel and Rafa's home is near the top of the village just below the castle ruins. Their home is beautiful ... completely refurbished and completely decorated country-style with things that Isabel made.

In and around Behís, there are a lot of things to do. We walked up to the castle to explore and to pick lavender. Yana and I climbed up the wall from below to breach the (crumbling) castle.

We went swimming and climbing and jumping.

We hiked up the river gorge to see where the river begins.

Matthew and Rafa went for a (vertical) bike ride.

We all had a great time though Bronson had the greatest time of all. Finally, Bronson had lots of boys to play with. In Valencia, Bronson lives with 6 girls and is always surrounded by their girlfriends. Bronson often has to play by himself or play with dolls and Barbies. Once in a while, the girls let Bronson include his transformers, little soldiers, cars, or plastic dinosaurs in their games ... though they usually make Bronson give them proper names (Red Eye Razor Claw doesn't count) and he has to follow certain rules of etiquette. For example, Transformers cannot transform when they are in the stroller with a baby doll; soldiers can only defend Barbie, they cannot attack; dinosaurs cannot play in the doll house.

In Behís, Bronson was free to be 100% boy. One day, we noticed a huge bloody scrape on his knee and leg. He said he had fallen a few times from the bike. No running to Mommy. No tears. No dramatic production. Apparently, he just got back up on the bike. What a difference! When it was time for us to go home, Bronson was happy to stay for another week with Basa.